Siegmund Lubin: The Forgotten Filmmaker

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Siegmund Lubin: The Forgotten Filmmaker In Philipsburg, the summer of 1914 ended with a crash that could be heard for miles and seen around the world. On the slopes of Centre County’s Collision Field, a stadium formed by nature, five thousand festive, flag-waving spectators gathered to watch the wrecking of two great Pittsburgh & Susquehanna Railroad locomotives. Bands entertained the Labor Day celebrants with musical...
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A Special Place for Photography

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Special Place for Photography Edward L. Wilson wanted photography to have a special place at the Centennial Exhibition. Smartly dressed, the publisher of the nationally­-read Philadelphia Photographer stood out from the typically rumpled and chemical-stained lensman. But his enthusiastic promotion caused him to stand out even more. Wilson nudged his colleagues toward professionalism and toward his vision of a productive,...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message “Do not think of the Pennsylvania Railroad as a business enterprise. Think of it as a nation.” Even if we allow for such a hyperbole – in this case by a writer in the May 1936 edition of Fortune Magazine – it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) – or “the Pennsy” as it was seemingly known to all – dominated...
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“The Greatest Highway to the West”: Photographer William H. Rau Documents the Pennsylvania Railroad

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on “The Greatest Highway to the West”: Photographer William H. Rau Documents the Pennsylvania Railroad It is perfectly safe in saying the amateur, and even the professional, will have much to learn from the results of this photo­graphic expedition, fitted out some months ago by the Pennsylvania Railroad with as much care and almost the expense of an Arctic one, and which is still in the field of exploration, daily sending in remarkable illustrations of choice picture finds and showing that which...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Quite a Rau I was intrigued by John C. Van Horne’s article on William Herman Rau in the Fall 1996 issue of Pennsylvania Heritage [see “‘The Greatest Highway to the West’: Photographer William H. Rau Documents the Pennsylvania Railroad”]. I edit a similar magazine in Alabama, and we have exchanged copies with your magazine for years. I always enjoy seeing what our...
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Bridging the Past for the Future

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bridging the Past for the Future Because Pennsylvania was one of the first settled areas of the United States, it should come as little surprise that it possesses one of the most interesting collections of historic bridges of any state. Its ever-expanding population and consequent transportation requirements made the Keystone State a pioneer in transportation innovation, particularly in the design of bridges. Following the...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Railroading with Rau The Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) was not yet a half-century old when it commissioned William H. Rau (1855-1920) to tackle the enormous task of photographically documenting its extensive rail lines. So extraordinarily successful was the Pennsy that by the time Rau commenced his work in 1891, the railroad was the largest corporation in the country and claimed more than...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Traveling the Pennsylvania Railroad: The Photographs of William H. Rau Edited by John C. Van Home, with Eileen E. Drelick Univer­sity of Pennsylvania Press, 2002 (272 pages, cloth, $49.95) In 1891 and again in 1893, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) – known to generations by its sobriquet, “the Pennsy” – commissioned William Herman Rau (1855-1920), a well known...
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