Rare Books
Rails west
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Golden West Rail Tours
Rare Books
This collection consists of railroad photographs, ephemera and publications, 1829-2010, with the bulk of material from the early- to mid-20th century. The focus is chiefly locomotives and trains (steam and diesel) of major railroads and interurban electric railways of the United States and Canada. Also represented in the collection are smaller shortline and narrow-gauge railroads; other foreign railroads; streetcars (or trolleys); and burgeoning light rail and subway systems. Most of the ephemera is printed material produced by railroad companies for promotional and business purposes, such as annual reports, brochures, route maps and guides, timetables, tickets, dining menus, stationery, stock certificates, bond coupons and other items. There are also many city and state tourist guidebooks describing sights along rail routes or promoting land available for farming, mining or home-building across the United States. Also included are items produced for or by railroad employees, such as instruction and safety manuals, train orders, freight bills and in-house newsletters. Railroad industry publications, statistics and reports can be found in the American Association of Railroads files, which are part of Donald Duke's subject files on railroad-related topics. Throughout the ephemera files are newspaper and journal clippings, often from scarce small press and trade publications such as The Railway and Engineering Review, The Railroad Gazette, The Santa Fe Magazine, The Western Railroader, Railway Age and others. In addition to railroad history, other topics of social and cultural historical interest in the ephemera are: Depictions of African Americans and Native Americans in mass-marketed train travel brochures. There are many examples that reflect American cultural and class stereotypes in the early- to mid-20th century. Selected files are noted in the container list. Occupational safety and health: See railroad worker safety manuals and accident prevention literature in ephemera files. History of food and drink: See numerous dining and beverage menus throughout Railroads and Foreign Railroads ephemera files (not always noted in container list). History of graphic design and typography: See examples of early- and mid- 20th century popular styles in printed ephemera throughout collection. Photographs and negatives: The photographs depict locomotives, freight and passenger trains, logging railroads, electric interurbans and streetcars across the United States. This was primarily a publishers file of ready-for-press photographs, which are almost all 8 x 10-inch black-and-white prints, made approximately 1950s-1980s. The photographs were made chiefly by various amateur train photographers, including Donald Duke, but most are uncredited. There are some copy prints (photographs of other photographs), and a few original photographs from the late 19th-early 20th century. Some photographs have locations and dates written on the back, but many are unidentified other than the name of the railroad. There are a few files on Ward Kimball (1914-2002), one of the original animators for Walt Disney Studios and an avid rail enthusiast. There are some photographs, biographical materials, and a file on his personal backyard narrow-gauge steam railroad, Grizzly Flats Railroad, in San Gabriel, California.
645950
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Photograph of an unidentified rail yard
Manuscripts
The collection consists of correspondence, business and financial papers, family notes, bound volumes, and ephemera related to the Banning family and collected by Katharine Stewart Banning. It includes most of her original notes on family traditions (particularly Christmas), and genealogy. The correspondence consists primarily of family letters, and correspondents include Ellen Banning Ayer, Frederick Ayer, Elizabeth Lowber Banning, George Hugh Banning, Hancock Banning (1865-1925), Joseph Brent Banning (1861-1920), Katharine Stewart Banning, Phineas Banning, William Banning (1858-1946), William Lowber Banning, William Phineas Banning, Beatrice Ayer Patton, and George Hugh Smith. The legal, land, and financial papers include contracts, deeds, titles, and statements of account for Banning properties in and around Los Angeles. The miscellaneous manuscripts include sewing instructions from the American Red Cross, notes on Santa Catalina Island, and some photographs, as well as copies of printed articles on the life of Phineas Banning. Volumes include "Memories of Phineas Banning" (c.1895-1909), a Yale scrapbook belonging to Joseph Brent Banning Jr. (1889-1969) with accompanying ephemera, a Virginia Military Institute yearbook (1914) owned by Hancock Banning Jr. (1892-1982) with accompanying photographs, embossed volumes used to copy stories and poems and owned by Ellen Barrows Banning (Ayer) and May Alice Banning (1876), a Banning Rancho log book (1889-1894), various family scrapbooks assembled by Katharine Stewart Banning, various notes on "Bill's Comfort Bag for Soldiers and Sailors" (c.1917-1941), and Katherine's Los Angeles Children's Hospital notebooks, as well as a diary she kept while traveling to England aboard the Lusitania in 1914. Also included in the collection are various published books owned by the Bannings and miscellaneous ephemera.
mssBanning Company records addenda II
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West-Southwest Map, Showing Some of the Roads, Rails, Forts, Towns and Trails
Manuscripts
Professional and personal papers of Otis R. Marston and his collection of the materials on the history of Colorado River and Green River regions.
mssMarston papers