David Lester provides a stimulating commentary on McNair Evans’s thought-provoking photographs as they reflect shared experiences within the American cultural landscape. Evans is a Guggenheim fellow and a featured presenter at Conversations 2018. Kevin P. Keefe highlights the outstanding and vivid pastels of artist Stewart Buck. Winners of the 2017 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program are also presented, featuring the top work in two different categories: “vision from the past” and “by the light of night.” The Center spotlights a new project for next year’s 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad called After Promontory: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Transcontinental Railroading. Archives manager Adrienne Evans offers her thoughts on how to understand and use finding aids in her first “Out of the Archives.” Hailey Paige, exhibitions and events coordinator, introduces a new column called “Inside the Exhibition” to give readers an inside look at one of the Center’s current traveling exhibitions. This edition features Milwaukee’s Beer Line. The Center also announces the publication of a new book featuring the photographs of Wallace Abbey entitled Wallace W. Abbey: A Life in Railroad Photography.

$7.95, 48 pages, color and b/w

For the first issue of 2018, photographer and writer Joel Jensen provides an in-depth look at the restoration and repurposing of the former Union Pacific roundhouse in Evanston, Wyoming, a remarkable example of a community embracing its railroad heritage. Photographer Wayne Depperman reflects on his trackside “friends,” the motor car indicators, which also took him to Evanston. We preview our annual Conversations conference with highlights from the Appalachian steam photography of William G. Gordon, which will be featured at the conference. Jordan Radke’s final installment of “Out of the Archives” introduces some of the concerns surrounding born-digital materials. We also introduce our new archives manager, Adrienne Evans, who looks forward to continuing the column as part of her work on our collections, and we introduce two new staff members. Arjan den Boer examines German railway advertising targeting women travelers in his regular column about European poster art. We also review the new book “A Transportation Miracle” while providing an update on our traveling exhibitions’ 2018 tour schedule.

$7.95, 48 pages, color and b/w

Artist J. Craig Thorpe presents his work and art’s role in portraying the future of railroading in his cover story, “Painting the Possible.” Thorpe was a featured presenter at Conversations 2016, and we are delighted to provide this extension of his highly-regarded talk at the conference. In an expanded edition of the regular “Out of the Archives” column, Scott Lothes and Jordan Radke share the Center’s latest developments in how we digitize slides and negatives. You can also see a full recap of our highly successful Conversations 2017 conference thanks to the writing of David C. Lester and photography of Henry A. Koshollek. Arjan den Boer looks at the Trans Europ Express in his regular column about European railway posters, while John Kelly reviews the second edition of Elrond Lawrence’s Route 66 Railway.

$7.95, 48 pages, color and b/w

Artist Adam Normandin, a featured presenter at Conversations 2017, is the subject of a profile by David C. Lester. We offer a glimpse of the work of Canadian Pacific photographer Joseph William Heckman, who worked for the railway’s engineering department from 1898 to 1915. A new book by Ralph Beaumont covers Heckman’s photography extensively, and won it the Canadian Railway Historical Association’s annual book award last year. Winners of the 2016 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program are also presented, featuring the top work in two different categories: most evocative images of all-time and recent photographs made with mobile devices. Archives manager Jordan Radke shares highlights of recent collections acquisitions and processing work in his regular “Out of the Archives” column. We also present our 2016 Honor Roll of donors and an interview with Bon French, who chairs our board and has just made an extraordinarily generous and ambitious matching grant. His photograph of a Chicago and North Western empty coal train at Shawnee Junction, Wyoming, under a July 1994 sunset appears on the cover.

$7.95, 48 pages, color and b/w