Trunks All Aboard: An Elephant ABC

When Grandpa goes traveling, he sends home postcards. But these are no ordinary postcards, and Grandpa is no ordinary man. At the turn of the century, Sir William Cornelius Van Horne was one of the most influential businessmen in North America. While in Europe in 1909, retired railroad president William Cornelius Van Horne sent hand-drawn postcards to his grandson in Montreal. He loved to draw elephants: elephants standing at the rail of an ocean liner, elephants smoking cigars on trains, and of course, elephants with their “trunks all aboard.”

Author Barbara Nichol was inspired by this collection of elephantine epistles and has written the whimsical and fanciful verse that captures the turn-of-century spirit of Van Horne’s creations.