Publisher of Railroad Heritage® / Creator of the Railroad Heritage.org® pictorial site

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Highlights

Nutshell

Photo courtesy Norfolk Southern

North American Railroad History in a Nutshell, which started as a feature on railroadheritage.org, is now an expanded, printed publication. It is available as a membership benefit or you may purchase single copies.

Photography Awards

Photo by Brandon Smith, 2010 winner.

As a part of its commitment to excellence, the Center has established annual national awards for outstanding contributions to railroad imagery. See the 2010 winners.

This photograph by A. C. Kalmbach is one of the many images described on railroadheritage.org.

Annual Report: 2007

It was another year of progress for the Center, which marked its tenth anniversary in December. The anniversary--a significant milestone--passed quietly, overshadowed by our sense of accomplishment in 2007.

Our mission, as a nonprofit arts organization, is summarized in one sentence: The Center for Railroad Photography & Art preserves and presents significant Railroad Heritage images, interpreting them in print, exhibitions, and on the Internet.

We launched our Internet archive and web portal, railroadheritage.org, on Labor Day weekend. The timing was appropriate, as we have dedicated many efforts to the human side of railroading, the workers who built the national network, rail by rail. As the site became public, we intensified our efforts to inform the public about our brands, railroadheritage.org, and its companion print publication, Railroad Heritage, and how they complement each other.

Railroadheritage.org is unlike any other railroad-related Internet site. Our curators prepare detailed descriptions, check facts, provide context, and share insights. We have eleven institutional partners, and are adding more all the time, and private photographers and collectors share their personal archives. The Lake Forest College library's special collections department continues as a strong partner and has enabled us to feature its Arthur D. Dubin and Munson Paddock collections. Private collections represented include those of Richard Neumiller, Shirley Burman, Chris Burger, John Gruber, and Jim McClellan. The Center's collections of Sam Brecht and Leo King also appear, as do photographs by A. C. Kalmbach, founder of Trains and Model Railroader, and Richard J. Cook, editor for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers

The idea for this site originated with Carson Burrington, former executive director of the Center. The project reflects his creativity and energy. Burrington left the Center November 1 to become a recruiter for LAB SUPPORT in North Carolina.

The North American Railway Foundation (NARF) is providing project funding for railroadheritage.org for a second year. NARF, formed in 1996 as a private operating foundation "to explore, nurture and support railway safety, efficiency and technology and to educate about and preserve the history of railroads in the United States and Canada," receives its financial support from organized rail labor.

Over the last ten years, the Center for Railroad Photography & Art has grown into a nationally recognized organization, the foremost group in America for promoting an understanding of the place of railroading in America's visual culture. We have committed ourselves to preserving Railroad Heritage in all its facets. To that end we have worked with photographers, writers, and historians across the country to interpret the intersection of railroads, art, and culture. Since we do not maintain a museum space, but collaborate with other institutions, our financial resources are spent on these creative programs, not rents and building maintenance. We intend to be the leader in the Railroad Heritage community in boosting wide public understanding and Internet access.

The two recent special issues of our journal, Railroad Heritage®, have been well received. No. 17 is about women in railroading with Shirley Burman as guest editor. No. 18, "Railroading Journeys," is a retrospective issue devoted to the life and times of Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, whose books changed the way Americans think about--and look at--railroads and railroading. This 32-page issue has 59 photographs, 52 of them by Beebe or Clegg, some of them never before published. Both are on sale by U.S. mail or the Internet (www.railphoto-art.org/store/publications.asp). Research started for a Railroad Heritage article in 2001 led to an entry about King Daniel Ganaway in the Dictionary of African American Biography.

The Center presented exhibitions at the California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento. "Locomotion and the Good Life: The Railroad Photography of O. Winston Link," with 36 framed, original prints that are signed by the photographer, opened Saturday, November 3, and continued through March 9, 2008. "Locomotion and the Good Life" was organized by Thomas H. Garver of Madison, Wisconsin, the principal scholar of Link's work, and produced in collaboration with the Center. A year earlier, the Center presented "Railroads and the American Industrial Landscape: Ted Rose Paintings and Photographs" on a similar schedule.

Exhibitions about railroad work continue. "Many Hands: Representations of Railroad Workers" was at the Long Island Railroad Museum, Greenport, New York. "A Visible Past, Portraits of Work on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad" was at the Parkersburg Art Center, Parkersburg, West Virginia, and Grafton B&O Railroad Heritage Center, Grafton, West Virginia. "Faces of Railroading and the Making of Madison and Dane County" was at the Mineral Point (Wisconsin) Railroad Station, Gandy Dancer Festival in Madison and RP's Pasta, Madison. A full listing of all work exhibitions since 2004 is available (www.railphoto-art.org/galleries/index_report.asp).

For its fifth "Conversations About Photography" conference Saturday, March 24, the Center scheduled seven presentations and a discussion about how the Internet has changed railroad photography, plus a Sunday morning workshop. Canon joined the list of sponsors. The conference, co-sponsored by the Lake Forest College's archives and special collections department, reinforces our partnership with the college. A reception sponsored by Trains magazine followed the last speaker. The Center maintained the informal yet informative atmosphere of its other conferences.

Forty-eight photographers entered the 2007 CRPA photo contest, each submitting up to five prints, the most entries ever received in the five-year history of the annual event. The contest, with the theme "Fascination of Railroad Machines," included the strongest group of images yet entered, said Mel Patrick, an observer of all five contests. Canon provided a Powershot G7 digital camera as a prize for the top winner. Railfan & Railroad magazine published the top winners in its July issue. Photos were displayed at the California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento. All the prizewinners plus images the judges liked are on the Center's web site (www.railphoto-art.org/award_2007.html).

The Center's website itself, www.railphoto-art.org, continued to be a mainstay of our communications with patrons and friends. Refinements included a new home-page banner, displaying links to Railroad Heritage and railroadheritage.org.

We refined our Gift Categories (www.railphoto-art.org/store/gifts.asp) in preparation for a full development campaign in 2008. We added a section to our site about gifts of securities and bequests (www.railphoto-art.org/supporters.asp). A full list of 2007 gifts will be added to this report.

Two of our directors, Chris Burger and Bruce Heard, retired from the board. Two were added during the year, Michael Ross Valentine and Nona Hill. The board continues as a strong advocate for the Center's programs.

In 2007, we had a full schedule of events and opportunities, and we expect to make 2008 another banner year.

The Center, incorporated in 1997 as a nonprofit Wisconsin organization, has received 501(c)3 status from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The Donnelley and Lee Library at Lake Forest (Illinois) College serves as the center's archive. Its journal, Railroad Heritage, is mailed to donors of $40 or more a year, of which $10 is reserved for a subscription. Send gifts to P.O. Box 259330, Madison, WI 53725-9330.