St. Paul, Minn., January, 1888

• Format: Poster reproduction, 40 in. x 26 in.

In 1888, St. Paul, Minnesota was a bustling state capital, the head of steam navigation on the Mississippi River, and a national hub of railroad transportation with a population of about 125,000 residents (a figure sometimes inflated to 175,000 by city boosters). Numerous businesses and houses lined its busy streets, as depicted in this colorful panorama published as an advertisement by the J.H. Mahler Company, a local manufacturer and wholesale dealer of buggies (including the Daisy), wagons, carriages, carts, and sleighs.

Although titled "January," possibly for the month in which it was issued, the panorama does not show St. Paul in winter when the city is covered with snow and the Mississippi is frozen. Trees and grass are green in this bird's eye view seen from the south. Steamboats travel freely along the river bluffs past Harriet and Raspberry Islands, and under several bridges that were all later replaced.