The character of Phoebe Snow, seen on the right in her spotless white dress and corsage of violets, was invented by advertising pioneer Earnest Calkins for the Lackawanna Railroad in 1903 as part of a campaign to promote the cleanliness of its passenger locomotives, all run on sootless anthracite coal. This clean and elegant lady, based on a live model and described as “a Young New York socialite and a frequent passenger of the Lackawanna,” was designed to reassure potential passengers that rail travel did not have to be a filthy and dangerous undertaking. Phoebe Snow became something of a celebrity and a cultural phenomenon, inspiring fashions, romance stories, postcards, and board games. The Lackawanna Railroad even hired an actress, Marian Murray, as an actual ambassador in the guise of Phoebe Snow. Phoebe disappeared with the entry of the United States into the war in 1917, when anthracite was banned on passenger trains and diverted to the war effort. She was reintroduced during World War II, dressed in a patriotic uniform, as the line sought to revive its fortunes, and in 1949, it renamed its premier passenger train, originally the Lackawanna Limited, after her.