September 1, 1881 | Time Table
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway's 1881 time table featured linkages to "leading business centers" and "summer resorts of the Great North-West."
1882 | Pamphlet
This translation of an 1882 German language document published by the Burlington Railroad Land Commissioner has an index of Nebraska land agents, describes the lands available for purchase, and presents a list of 12 advantages to living in the Nebraska. The railroad also touts its role in settling the region, noting that it "open[s] the land, develop[s] traffic with the rest of the world, and connect[s] resident[s] to the marketplace". It also claims that "the progress in this region has been remarkable since the building of the Burlington road ten years ago, the district has been rapidly populated with the best and solidest class of immigrant", showing both the railroad companies' targeting of immigrants as land buyers and their perception of their role in settling the Plains.
1882 | Book
In this excerpt, Douglass relates the details of his dangerous escape from slavery. Traveling the railroad with borrowed papers, he flees to New York.
1882 | Time Table
1882 | Time Table
A beautifully illustrated timetable stressing the amenities to be had on the both rail lines and their connections with other railroads. Text in German and Spanish emphasizes the lines' reach and their wide audience.
1883 | Photograph
While a member of the 53rd Ohio Volunteers during the Civil War, Dawes was wounded in the face at the Battle of Dallas in May 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign and was grossly disfigured as a result. A prolific writer of regimental and war histories after the conflict, Dawes was fitted with a prosthetic jaw with lower teeth and adopted a full beard to cover his wounds. Lithographers and publishers used his 1863 likeness for his publications.
March 26, 1883 | Newspaper
The plight of middle- and upper-class African Americans on Georgia railways and in public accommodations is briefly addressed in this report from Savannah, Georgia.
March 31, 1883
The expulsion of an African American preacher from a Georgia rail car draws the ire of Philadelphia citizens.
September 29, 1883 | Newspaper
A brief editorial statement about the conditions on Texas railroads and the lack of equal accomodations for African Americans and the need for a continued struggle against "American intolerance."
November 14, 1883 | Broadsides
This General Order from November 14, 1883, circulated by S. T. Smith, General Superintendent of the Kansas Division of the Union Pacific Railroad, notifies all stations on the Kansas Division that "standard time" will begin at exactly 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 18, 1883. This order coincides with the establishment of time zones throughout the United States, a development necessitated by the speed of railroad travel.
January 25, 1884 | Newspaper
This description of the masculine, almost class-free atmosphere in the smoking car is in sharp contrast to the requirements of the "ladies' cars" expected for middle-class female travelers. Note the sense of freedom men seem to experience in the cars.
August 1, 1884 | Time Table
The Chicago and Northwestern Railway's 1884 time table listed detailed times and maps for its extensive regional system.
1885 | Time Table
The Chesapeake and Ohio's 1885 time table featured excursion rates to "Old Point Comfort" on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Pitched to male travelers, the brochure described "nymph-like bathers" at the resort hotel and "the merry laugh of some bewitching beauty." Travelers could also take steamship to Barbados, Rio de Janiero, or Para, Brazil, at "the mouth of the Amazon." The brochure also emphasized the picturesque scences of the Alleghenies and Virginia, where Civil War battlefields could be toured. "The battle of the Seven Pines was fought near where the railway runs," the brochure explained, "and McClellan's peninsular campaign has made this entire section of Virginia interesting."
March 1, 1885 | Time Table
The Boston & Albany's 1885 time table emphasized its connection with the New York Central and its modern safety, as the "only double track route from New England to the West."
1885 | Time Table
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe's 1885 time table emphasized its connections not only to California but also to Mexico City on the Mexico Central Railroad. Its large map featured detailed insets of Baja California and Mexico for tourists and travelers, and its inside folds described special rates for "land explorers" and emigrants.
1886 | Book
Isabella Bird, a peripatetic traveler, recounted her adventures in the American West to her sister in letters published as A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. In this excerpt, she writes about part of her 1873 train journey, describing the parlor car and conditions on the train.
1886 | Time Table
The Chicago and Atlantic Railway's 1886 time table emphasized its "straight line" to the East and the "smoothness and evenness" of its grade. The road used "the best of steel rails only" and boasted "three thousand oak ties to the mile."
1886 | Time Table
The Chicago and Alton time table stressed the regional, midwestern connections for St. Louis and Kansas City.
September 10, 1886 | Newspaper
The plight of three African American passengers on a Georgia railcar is recounted in this reprint from the Macon Telegraph.
July 21, 1887 | Newspaper
This article from the July 21, 1877 issue of the Baltimore Sun describes a meeting between Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll and Baltimore Mayor Ferdinand Latrobe.