Skip to main content
Notice: The Library is open for research by appointment only, please visit our research services page for more information.

Railroads -- Employees

 Subject
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Scope Note: Railroads--Workers

Found in 16 Collections and/or Records:

Baldwin Locomotive Works World War Two workers group photograph

 Collection
Accession: 1993-246
Abstract:

Baldwin Locomotive Works was a manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 until 1972. This image shows group of about forty male employes and fifteen factory visitors or managers posed on a 8-inch (?) railway gun mount in the Eddystone, Pennsylvania, plant.

Dates: 1943

Conrail photographs

 Collection
Accession: 1993-231
Abstract:

The Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) was incorporated in October 1974. It was formed under the auspices of the United States Railway Association, a quasi-public agency established for the purpose of solving the problems of bankrupt railroads in the Northeast and Midwest. The Conrail photograph collection consists of a large number of images from its company files, but the majority of the material comes from its predecessor companies: Pennsylvania Railroad and Penn Central Transportation Company. These items are predominanatly composed of photographs, negatives, transparencies, lantern slides, and films.

Dates: 1900-1979

Equipment, trains, and personnel, 1865, 1905-1961

 Series
Accession: 1988-231Identifier: 1988-231-I.
Dates: 1865; 1905-1961

Errett M. Graham and Helena "Lena" W. Graham diary

 Collection
Accession: 2838
Abstract:

Errett McLeod Graham (1877-1974) was a civil engineer for various railroads. He was married to Helena "Lena" Washburn Graham (1881-1970) for nearly sixty-six years. Helena Graham was a homemaker to the couple's three children. The Grahams spent the early years of their marriage in remote railroad construction camps and small towns in Tennessee and West Virginia before settling in Rensselaer, Indiana. This item is a single-volume diary handwritten by both Errett and Lena Graham in 1910 while living in Tunnelton, West Virginia, were Errett was working for the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company. The diary would be of interest to those researching women's studies, railroad history, and civil engineering.

Dates: 1910

Frank A. Weer collection of Reading Railroad photographs

 Collection
Accession: 2017-221
Abstract:

Frank A. Weer (1932-2019) was an employee of the Reading Company and an enthusiastic photographer of all things related to railroads, specifically in Pennsylvania. Fascinated by trains from a young age, Weer spent time taking photographs of the passing rolling stock. He developed his own photographs, and over time, he established a vast collection of photographic prints of steam locomotives and other rolling stock, as well as the railroad tracks and structures with which the railroad was affiliated. The Reading Company, where Weer worked for thirteen years, was an influential railroad company that served the economic development of the Greater Philadelphia area for over 100 years. Before it became a booming passenger railroad, the Reading Company began transporting anthracite coal. The passenger "ridership" of the Reading Company reached its peak in the 1950s. The company went bankrupt in 1971, and the passenger services were taken over by the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority by 1974. This collection documents the construction and expansion of the Reading Railroad and the company's tangible property and human resources throughout the twentieth century. The collection consists of negatives (glass plate and film), photographic prints, and color slide transparencies. The creator established a chronological order, which has been maintained. The collection is arranged into five series: Structures and objects, Passenger stations, Rolling stock, People, and Frank A. Weer's personal slides.

Dates: 1885; circa 1900s-1985

Pennsylvania Railroad Company records

 Collection
Accession: 1807
Abstract:

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic from the last quarter of the nineteenth century until the decline of the northeast's and midwest's dominance of manufacturing. These records provide nearly comprehensive coverage of corporate matters for the entire time span and reasonably complete coverage of the functional departments from 1920 to 1950, with less coverage from 1893 to 1920 and from 1950 to 1968.

Dates: 1813-1968

Pennsylvania Railroad women workers' oral histories

 Collection
Accession: 1998-234
Abstract:

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was chartered in 1846 to completing an all-rail road across the state. Between 1855 and 1874, the PRR underwent rapid expansion and emerged as one of the two largest railroad systems in the area east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. This collection consists of two interviews conducted in 1998 in West Chester, Pennsylvania with five women who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Dates: 1998

Reading Company employee records

 Collection
Accession: 2067
Abstract:

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871 as the Excelsior Enterprise Company, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals, and coal mines assembled by its predecessor, Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, between 1833 and 1896. The records are a fragmentary group from the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company; its successor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company; and its subsidiary, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company. They are primarily registers of employees and wage rates for employees in the Reading, Pennsylvania, repair shops of all three companies.

Dates: 1872-1910; Majority of material found within 1872-1887

Reading Company employment and real estate records

 Collection
Accession: 2176
Abstract:

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871 as the Excelsior Enterprise Company, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled by the predecessor Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company between 1833 and 1896. The Reading Company employment and real estate records comprise a largely incomplete and extremely fragmentary synthetic collection of material related to the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company and its successors. The collection comprises incomplete employment records largely dating from the first half of the twentieth century, records related to the employee pension program and the Relief Association, a small amount of contracts, and deeds and agreements reflecting the company's process of land acquisition following initial main line construction in the 1830s and through to the early twentieth century.

Dates: 1836-1960

Reading Company photographs

 Collection
Accession: 1974-330
Abstract:

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coalmines assembled between 1833 and 1896 by its predecessor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company. The collection consists of photographs [negatives, blueprints and other graphic materials relating to the Reading Company and its predecessor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company.

Dates: 1873-1945

Reading Company photographs

 Collection
Accession: 1975-430
Abstract:

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled between 1833 and 1896 by its predecessor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company. The collection consists of graphic materials relating to the Reading Company and its predecessor, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company

Dates: circa 1842-1960

Reading Company records

 Collection
Accession: 1520
Abstract:

Chartered in 1871, Reading Company was the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled by the predecessor Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company between 1833 and 1896. The collection consists of the corporate records of the Reading Company (1871-1976), the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company (1833-1896), the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company (1896-1923), and 159 predecessors and subsidiaries.

Dates: 1795-1979

Thomas L. Foster photographs

 Collection
Accession: 2007-212
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1947-1952

Unidentified male workers group photograph

 Collection
Accession: 1989-277
Abstract:

The railroad in Pennsylvania expanded greatly throughout late nineteenth century. This item is a photographic print showing posed group of twelve laborers photographed by industrial building near railroad track.

Dates: circa 1885-1895

William Hollis diary

 Collection
Accession: 2640
Abstract:

William Hollis (1868-1908) was a telegrapher working a block station of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Marietta, Pennsylvania. The pocket diary primarily documents his record of work in 1891, including assignments, discipline for mistakes, travel to headquarters, and records of many accidents - but also includes occasional references to entertainment he attended.

Dates: 1891

Women at work World War II posters

 Collection
Accession: 1994-263
Abstract:

The collection consists of four World War II posters related to women in the workforce. Women on the Home Front worked in war industries and volunteered for war-related organizations, excelling at historically male-dominated trades such as welding, riveting, and engine repair. Their contribution was essential for the production and supply of wartime goods.

Dates: circa 1941-1945