1932 | Map
This series of maps from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States shows the progressive decrease in travel time by depicting the time required to travel from New York to various western locations in 1800, 1830, 1857, AND 1930.
1975 | Artwork
August 8, 1877 | Newspaper
This brief article, an opinion taken from PUCK Magazine, speculates about the future position of railroad employees.
1928 | Book
In this excerpt from The Story of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Historian Edward Hungerford offers an account of the violence at Martinsburg, WV during the 1877 railroad strike. This selection also includes Allan Pinkerton's vivid description of the event.
1967 | Artwork
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.
August 24, 1894 | Newspaper
Edward Rosewater, a Republican leader and editor of the Daily Bee, accuses the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad of lavishing free passes as bribes to get Thomas Majors the Republican nomination for governor in 1894.
July 25, 1864 | Photograph
June 21, 1862 | Illustration
Corinth was at the junction of two railroad lines, the Mobile & Ohio and the Memphis & Charleston, and so was strategically important to both sides. This image was published shortly after the Seige of Corinth, in which the city was taken by Union forces.
December 7, 1867 | Illustration
This image from the December 7, 1867 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a tragic November 21, 1864 railroad disaster near Lockland, Ohio in which two trains collided. At least four people were killed.
May 22, 1869 | Illustration
This image from the May 22, 1869 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a railroad disaster following a bridge collapse at Buckfield, Maine.
January 10, 1863 | Illustration
This image from the January 10, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the railroad depot in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
July 2, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the July 2, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Union soldiers under the command of General William T. Sherman near a railroad depot at Resaca, Georgia during the American Civil War.
November 1, 1894 | Newspaper
In this advertisement in Bryan's World Herald, the State Republican Party of Nebraska presents the case against Bryan and Populism as harmful to the state's interests. Populism "burns up value" in Nebraska's assets, the ad charges, and accuses fellow Republican Edward Rosewater, editor of the Omaha Daily Bee, of perfidy and betrayal. The ad depicts Rosewater, a Jew, as a "Shylock" and "petty" tyrant, emphasizing instead the manliness of the Republican candidates and leaders.
1939 | Artwork
April 2, 1841 | Newspaper
The maltreatment of African Americans by New England rail companies acting as "epidermis-aristocrats" draws an abolitionist's wrath as a Southerner weighs in on the merits of Southern rail travel.
1862 | Photograph
African American laborers, free and contraband, worked for the Union Army to build and repair rail lines across the South. Note the bent and broken rails scattered in the background, signs of earlier destruction.
1873 | Legal decision
In 1868, Catherine Brown, an African American woman, was ejected from the "ladies car" on the Washington, Alexandria, and Georgetown Railroad Company when traveling from Alexandria, Virginia, to the District of Columbia. Brown sued the rail company and the case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court - the first case addressing race and public transportation to appear before the Court. Although the legal status of the railroad under Congressional rulings that had applied to earlier iterations of the company became a basis for appeal, the rights of African Americans became the most notable outcome of the Supreme Court's decision for Brown in 1873.
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.
April 7, 1860 | Illustration
This image from the April 7, 1860 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a railroad bridge at Nashville, Tennessee.