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This collection contains 25 items that pertain to Nicholas Patrick Donegan, a railroad worker based in Oregon in the early 1880s. Donegan wrote most of the letters to his sweetheart and wife, Elizabeth Wright ("Lizzie"), while working throughout the state.

This collection contains 19 letters, 4 documents, 1 note, and a copy of a photograph. Nicholas Patrick Donegan, a railroad worker based in Oregon in the early 1880s, wrote most of the letters to his sweetheart and wife, Elizabeth Wright ("Lizzie"), while working throughout the state.

Book dealer P. J. Kenedy wrote the first letter to Donegan about a Bible he had for sale, along with a description, its cost, and a suggested retail price (March 30, 1878). Between October 8, 1880, and April 1, 1883, Donegan wrote 11 letters to his sweetheart and wife, Elizabeth Wright of Aumsville, Oregon. He often expressed his feelings for her and his concern for their young son, Eugene. He mentioned his work on the railroad, his surroundings, and the weather, as well as his efforts to transfer money. In an additional letter of January 5, 1883, Donegan requested assistance from the postmaster at Folsom, California, after he was accused of being married to two women in California.

Later correspondence includes 3 letters and 1 brief note pertaining to Eugene's efforts to locate information about his father's family, as well as a later to G. W. Duran about the lack of information about Lizzie Houtlett. Eugene Donegan also wrote a letter to R. H. Stever in which he claimed to be Martin Brophy's closest living heir (November 7, 1927). An additional undated letter, addressed to "Mrs. Dunagin," concerns an unidentified immigrant's return to the "old country."

The collection also has an employment record for Nicholas Donegan (September 1, 1882); membership cards and dues records for W. H. Schamp, a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (3 items, 1890-1891); and a copy of a photograph of Robert Wilbur Dudley and a friend, both soldiers, taken in the Rhine River around 1918.

These two albums contain photographs of scenery and railroads in Pennsylvania in the 1860s. Workers and buildings are visible in some of the pictures.

These two photograph albums (22cm x 17cm), entitled "Scenery of the Allegheny Mountains" and "Pennsylvania Railroad", are bound in green covers with "Alleghany Mountains Photographic Journal" [sic] stamped in gold on the spines. Volume 1 contains 39 items and Volume 2 contains 47 items, each 12cm x 9cm and mounted directly onto a cardstock page. Volume 1 has a black plate on the front cover with the title "Alleghany Mountains" [sic] and a decorative gold border. A plate pasted into the second volume indicates that photographer was John Moran of 806 Coates Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Many of the photographs show scenic views, railroad right-of-way, railroad tracks, telegraph poles, canals, mills, and small settlements. Several photographs of the sky capture clouds. Several images appear to be of the "Horseshoe Curve" on the Pennsylvania Railroad. A group of pictures of a foundry complex show laborers working with mule-driven railroad carts loading rails onto train cars, and one picture shows a group of boys near a track and a town. Other images of note include a photo of a locomotive at a tunnel portal; an elephant on a rural road, a waterfall; a large gravesite or memorial; and a group of monks outside of an unidentified building, possibly a school.