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  • | Time Table

    Atlantic & Great Western Railroad

    The Atlantic & Great Western Railroad stressed its safety record and comfortable, elegant, luxurious cars. The time table quotes former Illinois Congressman Elihu B. Washburn on the road's smooth ride and "clean, light, and airy" setting. The road also boasted that its passengers traveling in its beautifully appointed Pullman cars would "not have to leave the train between Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis."

  • | Photograph

    Grading camp for the Union Pacific Railroad in the Rocky Mountains

    This is a photograph of the grading camp for the Union Pacific Railroad in the Rocky Mountains.

  • | Photograph

    Union Pacific Railroad Brigham Young Construction Camp, Echo Canyon, Utah

    This is a digital photograph of an image of the Union Pacific Railroad's Brigham Young Construction camp in Echo Canyon, Utah.

  • | Newspaper

    Rebuke of the Eastern Railroad Company, for their Treatment of Colored Passengers

    Northern railways continued to discriminate against African American passengers and are rebuked in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

  • | Newspaper

    Railroad Corporations

    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.

  • | Newspaper

    To The Public

    The plight of African Americans and their abolitionist supporters on New England railroads is addressed in depth in this passionate editorial.

  • | Book

    American Notes for General Consideration

    Dicken's American Notes came from his 1842 trip to the United States. The author visited prisons, politicians, and toured primarily in New England and the Great Lakes region. In this excerpt, he describes American train travel in its early period, segregated railcars, and the distinctions between gentlemen's and ladies' cars.

  • | Book

    Phelps's Travellers' Guide Through the United States

    This pocket atlas listed over 700 railroads, steamship lines, and canals in the United States and their routes of service, state by state. Frederick Douglass probably consulted a rudimentary timetable in the Baltimore newspaper or one posted at the depot for the Baltimore to Philadelphia route, described here twelve years after Douglass made his escape from slavery on the Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad.

  • | Photograph

    Railroad Workers, 1850s

    Few original images remain of railroad workers in the 1850s, especially of construction crews, whether free labor or enslaved. Northern railroad companies employed thousands of men on their payrolls in a dizzying array of occupations.

  • | Book

    Uncle Tom's Cabin

    An excerpt from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

  • | Book

    Walden

    An excerpt from Henry David Thoreau's Walden. The progress represented by the railroad presents a mixed legacy to the rural life Thoreau treasures.

  • | Book

    My Bondage and My Freedom

    In this excerpt from My Bondage and My Freedom, Frederick Douglass recounts the segregation of Northern railcars and the attitudes of Northern passengers.

  • | Photograph

    Baltimore & Ohio Railroad artist excursion, 1858

    Following its 1857 grand banquet, the B & O hosted an artists? excursion in 1858 to show off its dramatic vistas and massive tunnels. The men and women took turns riding precariously on the cowcatcher, Harper?s Weekly reported, to get a "better view of the grand scenes which were opening before and around them . . . such was the confidence felt in the steadiness and docility of the mighty steed."

  • | Book

    The Book of the Great Railway Celebrations of 1857

    Works like The Book of The Great Railway Celebrations were published with multiple purposes - they served great publicity for railroad companies and town boosters, as well as celebrations of technological advancements and ingenuity. The detailed illustrations and descriptions of the celebrations also made them prized souvenirs for event attendees.

  • | Illustration

    A Brother Artist

    A visual representation of the relationship between photographers and painters.

  • | Illustration

    Anno Domini MMMM.DCCC.LIX

    The artist envisions the lasting legacy of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

  • | Illustration

    Artists' Excursion Over The Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road

    Noteworthy for its marvelous illlustrations, this feature article portrays the joys of railroad travel.

  • | Illustration

    Ascending the Alleghanies

    A key illustration from the article features artists and guests riding the engine.

  • | Illustration

    In The Beginning

  • | Illustration

    LEFT

    The plight of the tardy traveller is part and parcel of the narrative of travel.