Perhaps the most striking of all Northwest’s early day carry ons was introduced in the early 1960’s – a bag of beautiful “Northwest Red” with the words “Northwest Orient” and the more flowing version of the Compass that succeeded the previous one on its sides. It featured a “this bag is the property of” seal on its bottom. It was produced by the Bearse Manufacturing Co., Chicago; a firm that also produced some of Northwest’s other bags.

            There is no way of estimating how many flight bags Northwest gave away and sold during the days of their initial popularity. They were all over the place. But you hardly see them anymore. Perhaps the best place to look, if you are interested, is a Salvation Army or Goodwill Store.

WEB SITE

            In the last issue of “History Matters” we reported that we had a Web Site up and running. At that time, that is exactly what we had, a site and it was running. It has taken quite a bit longer than what we hoped, but the site has now been modified considerably and brought up to date. A lot more expansion will be forthcoming. For those interested check us out at NWAHistory.org.

MY!!….. HOW TIMES CHANGE

            A few years ago Northwest became the first airline to ban smoking on its domestic flights, followed a few months later be a system-wide ban. While researching another item we came across the following item in the March 1960 “Northwest Airlines News”.

            “Northwest furnishes its passengers with 2,000,000 miniature packs of cigarettes a Year. At four to a pack, this figures out to 8,000,000 cigarettes. Northwest’s cigarettes are furnished by Winston on a complimentary basis.”

WHO – WHAT – WHY - ETC.

            NWA History Centre, Inc. is not affiliated with Northwest Airlines, Inc. It is an independent, non-profit corporation (designated as a 501,C, 3 organization by IRS). All monetary donations and artifact contributions are tax deductible.

            We operate a museum that is dedicated to the History of Northwest Airlines and the other airlines that have been merged to create the world’s fourth largest airline. We are owned and staffed by volunteers who are NWA retirees, active and former employees. The museum is located at 8101 – 34 th Ave, So. in Bloomington, MN, 55425 – Admission is free, however donations are much appreciated. Museum hours are Wed-Thurs-Fri 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM and on Saturdays 9:00 am – noon. Other times by appointment, We are happy to provide private showing for small groups. To make a reservation for such a showing call (952) 997-8000 ext. 8-6102. Checkout our Web Site – NWAHistory.org.