Greenville: Queen City of the Delta
[Greenville]: Tri-State Coaches, [1940]. Route maps, other drawings. Saddle-stapled wraps. Square octavo. [10 pages, including covers]. Very good. Soft cover consisting of 5 sheets folded and stapled along spine. Some minor extremity rubs, minor soil, and a horizontal crease across midsection from booklet being folded long ago. A bit of rust around staples, otherwise clean and sound.
Rare booklet from Tri-State Coaches promoting Greenville, Mississippi as a transportation hub for their bus service in 1940. This piece is printed from entirely hand-drawn copy, giving it a naive and charming feel, from the ice-encrusted lettering of "AIR CONDITIONED coaches", to cursive treatment of certain key words, to the drawing of one of the buses on the back cover. Centerfold map printed in red and black.
It's intriguing to imagine who was riding these routes around and out of the Mississippi Delta in 1940--blues musicians, Negro league baseball players, African Americans headed north in the Great Migration, etc. An amazing survivor and tangible bit of history.
Item #990
Sold