Sibboquarian

lahistory:

February 23-26, 1948: Over 75,000 Angelenos lined up to tour the Freedom Train parked alongside Exposition Blvd. The train exhibited 120 historical documents from a Christopher Columbus letter to the Iwo Jima flag, and including the manuscript of the “Star Spangled Banner” and the pension application from the first woman to serve in the U.S. armed forces (Deborah Sampson, Continental Army, 1781). The traveling museum visited 300 American cities during its year-long run.

Conceptualized after the Depression and after World War II, the train and its rare contents hoped to ignite the enthusiasm of the American people (and advertisers, which lead to the creation of lots of ephemera including this cutout on the Kellogg’s Pep cereal box).

For more about the train: http://www.freedomtrain.org/main.htm.  Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library photo archive.

(via faboomama)