Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
A historical review of the New York and Erie Railroad
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Rare Books
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
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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Rare Books
93943
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Manuscripts
Hiram Barney's political, business, legal, and family papers concern a wide variety of subjects including real estate, primarily in Iowa, and New York; court cases (often pertaining to debt collection) and other legal services; politics generally, but especially patronage distribution; family affairs, business transactions concerning the Erie and other canals; small railroads (largely in the Lake Plains region); Mexico and Mexican-American relations; the Civil War; U.S. Customs Service. Barney's correspondence contains numerous references to the anti-enslavement movement in the North, the Civil War, Republican Party politics, and Barney's friendship with Abraham Lincoln. Also found throughout this portion of the collection are transportation papers dealing with Barney's interest in connection with the opening up of waterways, the railroad, and the telegraph from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. Among the correspondents are William C. Bryant, William A. Butler, Salmon P. Chase, Charles P. Clinch, Erastus Corning, Edward C. Delavan, William P. Fessenden, John Jay, David W. Kilbourne, Eugene Kozlay, Abraham Lincoln, Edward L. Pierce, Matias Romero, Horatio Seymour, William T. Sherman, Edward D. Smith, Breese J. Stevens, Lewis Tappan, William D. Waterman. Real estate papers concern mostly the Half-Breed Tract between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers. Which includes signed documents of land indentures by specific Indigenous tribal members of the Sak and Fox (Meskwaki) Nation with papers pertaining to the first Anglo proprietors and settlers. Related to Barney's real estate documents are Francis Scott Key's papers. Legal papers extend from 1825 to 1888 and includes articles of partnership, court cases, powers of attorney, and notes for collection. New York Custom House papers cover the general operations, patronage, and personnel of the Custom House, as well as records of the fraud investigations conducted by the U.S. Treasury Department.
mssHB
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Rare Books
93849
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Visual Materials
105901