Railroad Construction Photograph Album, 1904-1907
approximately 300 photographs in 1 volume
The Railroad construction photograph album contains approximately 300 photographs taken by an unidentified railroad engineer showing construction projects on the White River Railway, Gordon & Fort Smith Railway, Wabash Southern Railraod, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway in Northern Arkansas, southern Illinois, and Missouri.
The album (18.5 x 28 cm) has black cloth covers, and many of the photographs have manuscript captions. Photographs of interest include images of engineers' and contractors' camps on the Antoine River in Arkansas and the Big Muddy River near Zeigler, Illinois, including interiors and exteriors of tent offices and living quarters; work parties (one of which includes a Japanese man identified as "K. Okora") relaxing and eating in camp, using survey equipment, building concrete piers, operating grading machinery, unloading equipment, laying track, and repairing bridges and tunnels, including sections damaged by flooding. Also of note is a photograph labeled "G. M. Callaway on his speeder, 1907," showing a man riding a Fairbanks velocipede railroad handcar. Several family photographs are also present, showing the unidentified engineer who created the album and his wife in their tent "home" at Antoine River, Arkansas, and with their young child at home in Chicago. Additional photographs include street views from Carthage and Kansas City in Missouri as well as Chicago and Benton in Illinois. Also present are three images of Wabash Southern Railway maps that are affixed to the inside of the back cover.
Railroad employees identified in photographs include: R.C. Larimore, Geo. Gentry, J. F. Reidnaar, Ernest Cameron, K. Okora, Carlos Dunn, Don Bradley, Braun, Wherry, Humber, Guy Hardin, Jno. P. Sanderson, Dick Armstrong, H. W. Perstrup, Geo. N. Lampley, Roy Watson, W. R. Smith, H. Rohmer, S. L. Morrow, F. Hammond, and C. L. Moorman.