Finding Aids

David Harrison Cope (1913-2001) held a lifelong interest in railroads and, in particular, steam locomotives. He began collecting photographs at an early age. This collection primarily consists of black and white photographs and negatives of steam locomotives from a variety of railroads, but it includes some other rolling stock, station photos, related railroad items such as coaling stations and some street railroads, interurbans, and trolley images.

This collection consists of glass plate negatives and photographic copy prints which were made directly from the negatives. The images document an array of subjects, though the majority of the images are of locomotives, railroad cars, railroad stations, and other railroad infrastructure. Various landscape and cityscape photographs are also included. Where it is possible to identify the locations, the majority of images document sites in Pennsylvania, though photographs of sites in New York state and Ontario are also present.

Founded in 1846 with headquarters in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) was an American Class-1 Railroad that pervaded early American culture. As a chief source of employment and transportation, the PRR served as a national symbol of America's progress as a leading industrial nation. This item is a poster featuring an E6s Atlantic class locomotive on the turntable at the Pennsylvania Railroad's 46th Street Enginehouse in West Philadelphia. The poster was created to celebrate 150th anniversary of the Pennsylvania Railroad's charter.

Thomas Lansford Foster (1894-1956) was manager of export sales for Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Baldwin Locomotive Works was a manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 until 1972. This small colleciton consistate of five photographs showing Thomas L. Foster with other Baldwin staff and customers visiting the headquarters.

Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware located on the Christiana and Brandywine Rivers. This collection consists of three reproduction photographs of diverse subjects: an A5A steam locomotive #1167 of Reading Railroad crossing the road at Greenville, Delaware; a unoccupied trolley car in Wilmington, Delaware, originally built by the Peoples Railway Company in 1904; a postcard illustration of the Delaware Trust Building, Wilmington, Delaware.