1859 | Illustration
American railroad progress is compared with the adoption of the technology in England.
1859 | Illustration
December 4, 1858 | Illustration
The railroad depot at Pittsburgh (Harper?s Weekly, December 4, 1858). Pittsburgh celebrated 100 years since Fort Duquesne was captured from the French--the railroad depot stood on the site of the old fort, a symbol of the city?s modernity. By 1861 Pennsylvania possessed over 500 depots, so many that 85 percent of the state?s population lived within fifteen miles of a depot.
July 31, 1858 | Illustration
This image from the July 31, 1858 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the beginning of a train derailment on the Erie railroad.
July 31, 1858 | Illustration
This image from the July 31, 1858 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the scene at a train derailment on the Erie railroad.
June 26, 1858 | Illustration
This image from the June 26, 1858 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a train passing through the Wabash Valley during a flood.
June 26, 1858 | Illustration
This image from the June 26, 1858 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the flooding of Cairo, Illinois.
May 28, 1858 | Illustration
This image from the May 28, 1858 edition of Harper's Weekly depicts an accident on a railroad bridge near Utica, New York.
1858 | Illustration
This 1858 advertisement for the Barnum Hotel in Baltimore promotes the hotel, notes a few of its luxuries, and boasts of the ability to house 600 guests. Railroads helped inaugurate a wide array of luxury hotels designed to meet the needs of a traveling public and business class.
December 1, 1851 | Illustration
An example of the ways opportunities created by railroads pushed Americans to to conceptualize space and time in new ways, this illustration for the article "Thoughts on a Rail-Road System for New Orleans and the Southwest. No. III" emphasizes the commercial opportunities offered by rail networks.
October 29, 1850 | Illustration
Note the delicate illustration of the passenger car in this advertisement.
January 1, 1840 | Illustration
A steel-engraved image by Henry Adlard, from a drawing by William Henry Barlett, in American Scenery or Land, Lake, and River Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature.