Phoebe Snow was a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 created by Earnest Elmo Calkins

Earnest Elmo Calkins

Earnest Elmo Calkins was an American advertising executive who co-founded the Calkins and Holden advertising agency. He pioneered the use of art in advertising, of fictional characters, the soft sell, and the idea of "consumer engineering"...

 to promote the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company was a railroad connecting Pennsylvania's Lackawanna Valley, rich in anthracite coal, to Hoboken, New Jersey, , Buffalo and Oswego, New York...

. The advertising campaign, based on a live model, using impressionistic techniques and a fictional character, was one of the first of its kind.

The advertising campaign

Rail travel around the year 1900 was tough on passengers' clothes. After a long trip on a coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

-powered train, travellers would frequently emerge covered in black soot

Soot

Soot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres,...

. The exception to that rule was locomotives powered by anthracite, a clean-burning form of coal. The Lackawanna owned vast anthracite mines in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, and could legitimately claim that their passengers' clothes would still look clean after a long trip.

To promote this fact, Calkins advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 department created Phoebe Snow, a young New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 socialite

Socialite

A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....

, and a frequent passenger of the Lackawanna. The ad campaign positioned Miss Snow as often traveling to Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, always wearing a white dress.

The first ad featured the image of Phoebe and a short poem:

Says Phoebe Snow

about to go

upon a trip to Buffalo

"My gown stays white

from morn till night

Upon the Road of Anthracite"

The campaign became a popular one, and soon Phoebe began to enjoy all the benefits offered by DL&W: Gourmet food, courteous attendants, an observation deck, even on-board electric lights:

Now Phoebe may

by night or day

enjoy her book upon the way

Electric light

dispels the night

Upon the Road of Anthracite

Phoebe soon became one of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

' most recognized advertising mascot

Mascot

The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...

s. The campaign's concept and its famous jingles were created by Earnest Elmo Calkins

Earnest Elmo Calkins

Earnest Elmo Calkins was an American advertising executive who co-founded the Calkins and Holden advertising agency. He pioneered the use of art in advertising, of fictional characters, the soft sell, and the idea of "consumer engineering"...

. Calkins said he based the campaign on an earlier series of Lackawanna car cards - All in Lawn - created by DL&W advertising manager Wendell P. Colton which had been built on a rather limiting nursery rhyme, The House That Jack Built, and featured a nameless heroine dressed in white. For his new campaign, Calkins adopted a form of verse inspired by an onomatopoetic rhyme, Riding on the Rail, that he felt offered endless possibilities.

"Phoebe Snow" was the only name Calkins ever used in the ads, and he laughed at later claims by Lackawanna officials that the name was selected only after lengthy scientific experimentation. The original artwork was first painted by Henry Stacy Benton who worked from a series of images of a model, Mrs. Murray, who was photographed in a variety of actual railroad activities. Gowned in white and standing in for the cool, violet-corsaged Phoebe, Mrs. Murray was one of the first models to be used in advertising.

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, anthracite was needed for the war effort, and its use on railroads was prohibited, thus ending her career. As she passed into legend, Calkins' heroine said farewell with the following jingle:

Miss Phoebe's trip

without a slip

is almost o'er

Her trunk and grip

are right and tight

without a slight

"Good bye, old Road of Anthracite!"