Traveling the Pennsylvania Railroad: Photographs of William H. Rau

About this book

In the 1890s Philadelphias preeminent photographer William H. Rau was commissioned to take more than 450 photographs along the routes of the Pennsylvania Railroad in order to promote travel on the railway to the general public. Known as "the standard railroad of the world " the PRR was the largest rail system in the East and linked metropolitan New York and Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and such industrial cities of the Midwest as Chicago and St. Louis. Using a mammoth view camera that made 18-inch by 22-inch glass negatives Rau produced a spectacular series of images for the railroads promotional use. The remarkably detailed and texturally rich albumen prints on deposit at The Library Company of Philadelphia display a harmony between the railroad and the natural and industrial landscapes through which the line passed. The collection includes striking views not just of railcars tracks and stations but also of cities and towns bridges ferry boats rivers canals factories residences and hotels mostly in Pennsylvania but with some views also of New York New Jersey and Maryland. This oversize volume reproduces almost 100 of the photographs carefully selected for their historical and artistic significance as full-page quadtone images capturing the impact of the originals as closely as possible. The photographs are arranged in geographical order along the various branches of the PRR and each photograph is accompanied by a descriptive caption provided by PRR expert James J. D. Lynch Jr. In the three essays that complement the photographs Kenneth Finkel details Raus career and early commercial photography Mary Panzer places Rau and his PRR photographs in the context of the history of American landscape photography and John R. Stilgoe discusses the advent of railroad advertising photography and its role in shaping perceptions of the American landscape.