Highlights
Our Organization
The Center for Railroad Photography & Art is a nonprofit arts organization that preserves and presents significant images of railroading. This focus on visual representations sets the Center apart from most other historical and preservation organizations. It does not maintain its own museum space but instead collaborates with other institutions and scholars. It maintains an office in Madison, Wisconsin, and an archive at Lake Forest College in Illinois. The Center, incorporated in 1997 in Wisconsin, has received 501(c)3 status from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Its board of directors represents a broad range of interests and professions. Generous individual and institutional gifts make its programs possible. Support us with your tax-deductible gifts.
It's Work
Photo © David Plowden
The Center, as a conclusion to its "Representations of Railroad Work" project, has published a 32-page summary with memorable images from all the exhibits, which is available for purchase. It appears in place of an issue of Railroad Heritage. Classic Trains (Summer 2007, page 90) and Railfan & Railroad (June 2007, page 12) featured It's Work in news and reviews.
Photography Awards
Photo by Olaf Haensch, 2008 winner
As a part of its commitment to excellence, the Center has established annual national awards for outstanding contributions to railroad imagery. The next deadline is March 10, 2009. See the 2008 winners.
Center for Railroad
Photography & Art
1914 Monroe St.
P.O. Box 259330
Madison, WI 53725-9330
(608) 251-5785 / Email Us!
Railroads and Visual Culture
No industry has a closer relationship with the growth of America than railroading. Steel rails, the "iron horse," and the railroader made much of the country's development possible. Scarce indeed is the American whose family tree does not include a railroader or whose life has not been influenced by the railroad.
© 2002 Mitch Markovitz
The poster shows locomotive 261, which pulls excursions sponsored by the Friends of 261. An illustrator and fine artist, Markovitz has produced close to 50 posters. All the lettering is done by hand.
Railroad companies employed photographers to record the building of the eastern and western railroads and opening of the West. Artwork commissioned by the companies played an equally significant role in North American life. The Center for Railroad Photography & Art--celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007--recognizes that important, frequently overlooked relationship.
Artists and photographers over the years have produced a vast number of images, which capture the importance and excitement of American railroading. Today an ever-increasing number of artists and photographers portray the romance, history, and continuing development of railroading.
As a part of its goal to preserve and present significant images of railroading, the center takes a visual-culture approach to railroading, bringing together images in an understandable manner. The visual-culture list is long: paintings, sculpture, mass media, photographs, films, patent drawings, artifacts (furniture, utensils, gardens, toys), the buildings we use, and the three-dimensional environments we create. We consider all of these in our quest.
There is an emerging recognition of the importance of all aspects of visual imagery, "which is not just a part of your everyday life, it is your everyday life," according to Nicholas Mirzoeff. This constellation of images our society uses and produces can be defined as "visual culture," including representations and reflections of all the major concerns of the wider culture and the various subgroups--everything we see, have seen, or may visualize.
A Southern Pacific travel folder printed in 1928 features a painting by Maurice Logan (1886-1977), a well-known West Coast artist.
We are exploring how railroad-related images and artifacts have been created and their intended effect and broader impact on the culture as a whole--both intended and unintended results. The approach can shed light on all aspects of society, from the concept of work, to the development of self-images of workers and unions, to expectations about travel, suitable destinations, and appropriate environment for the "better classes." These visual representations include everything from monumental railroad trestles to CrackerJack prizes, from Pullman Palace cars to the family life and living conditions of railroad workers to chief executives.
The Center is the foremost organization in America for promoting railroad visual culture, and has for the last nine years provided programs to achieve that goal. It has worked with institutions and scholars across the country to create historical and fine arts exhibitions that dealt with the intersection of railroads, art, and culture. Its first traveling exhibition, "Railroads and Photography: 150 Years of Great Images," opened in 1999 at Railfar at the California State Railroad Museum; many have followed since then. The Center is promoting new and more varied uses of railroad imagery and visual culture, to reach the widely varied and widely scattered constituencies of the world of railroading.
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.