Women and the American Railroad series

Background

Part of the Richard Steinheimer and Shirley Burman Collection, this series is comprised of slides, prints, and negatives that illustrate the evolving role of women in the rail industry from the mid-1800’s through the 1990s. In addition, also included is Burman’s research, correspondence, recorded interviews, and other materials used in her series of exhibitions, presentations, and coffee table book Sisters of the Iron Road.

While Burman’s larger body of photography has previously been promised to the Center, the “Women and the American Railroad” images are a distinctly different assortment collected by
Burman over four decades, and combined with images made by Burman specifically for the project, as well as those made by Richard Steinheimer, her late husband and photographic
partner.

“We couldn’t imagine a better way for the Center to celebrate Women’s History Month than this wonderful gift from Shirley Burman,” said Scott Lothes, president and executive director for
the Center. “Her landmark examination of women in the railroad industry is a labor of love that spans four decades of research, interviews, and photography, and we are honored and humbled that she continues to place her trust in us to preserve and share her work.”

Burman’s interest in women’s contribution to railroad history was sparked in 1979, and gained momentum through the 1980s. The first public showing of her women’s research was in 1990 with a slide lecture at the Oakland Museum to an all-women’s history group, followed by an exhibition and lecture at the California State Railroad Museum titled “Women and the American Railroad.” The exhibition traveled for thirteen years to more than twenty locations
across the country, including the New York Transportation Museum, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, Virginia Museum of Transportation, Nevada State Railroad Museum, and National
Railroad Museum, plus libraries, state parks, and additional museums. The images and text conveyed the historic scope of women’s participation in the development, management, and
operation of American railroads. Burman’s lectures and slide shows about the topic were presented at more than thirty museums, conferences, symposiums, historical societies, and other locations. Highlights included presentations at the American Council of Railroad Women Convention in St. Louis, the Colorado State Historical Society, Smithsonian Institution Conference for Railroads in Washington D.C., Penn State University Transportation Conference in Altoona, and the Center’s own Conversations event in Sacramento.

In 2022 she released her own hardcover book about the history of women in railroading, Sisters of the Iron Road, in which she drew upon the research begun forty years earlier studying historical archives and photographing women railroaders to present their definitive story.