Railroad Heritage Visual Archive

THE CENTER CARES FOR nearly 500,000 photographs in our Railroad Heritage Visual Archive under the leadership of Adrienne Evans, director of archives and collections. Our goal is to build a representative archive encompassing the many styles and subjects of railroad photography and art—from their beginnings in the early decades of the nineteenth century to the present, and from throughout the United States and the globe. Our mission is to preserve these images and make them accessible.

We’re able to do this work thanks to the generosity of our community.

• Multi-year support from the Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust has helped us build up every aspect of our collections work, from expanding our space, to adding more staff, to implementing our collections management system.
• Heritage grants from the National Railway Historical Society help fund our work on the John E. Gruber Collection and the Richard Steinheimer and Shirley Burman Steinheimer Collection.
• Thanks to the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society’s William D. Middleton Research Fellowship, we’ve been able to fill in more metadata for many of our collections.
• Our more than 1,000 members empower all of our programs through annual memberships and additional gifts. If you’re already a member, thank you. If you’re not, join now and begin receiving quarterly issues of our beautiful journal, Railroad Heritage.

Use the navigation tabs above or the links below to learn more about the different aspects of our archival work. Please note that the submission review process is currently paused while we update our collections policy.

• Donations: All prospective submissions to our archive go through a review and approval process with our board of directors.
  
• Processing: Once a collection arrives at the Center, our team processes it to ensure its longevity and make it accessible.
• Usage: After processing, we make our collections available for research, publication, and other uses. Our staff members are available to assist with research requests for modest fees.
• Out of the Archives: Our outreach efforts include a regular column in our journal, Railroad Heritage, where we explore archiving topics, share highlights from our collections, and answer your questions.

You can read much more about our archival work by downloading our Collections Management Policy (206 KB PDF file), prepared by the Collections and Acquisitions Committee, adopted by the full board of directors, and reviewed and revised regularly.

Highlights include:

• Wallace W. Abbey Collection, approximately 23,000 black-and-white negatives and 8,000 color slides, acquired in 2010
• John F. Bjorklund Collection, 55,000 color slides, acquired in 2011
• Kenneth Burbach Collection, approximately 2,000 color slides, acquired in 2011
• Perry Frank Johnson Collection, approximately 5,000 black-and-white prints, acquired in 2009
• Donald W. Furler Collection, approximately 5,000 images, mostly black-and-white negatives, acquired in 2017
• Leo King Collection, approximately 14,000 images of various formats, acquired in 2006
• J. Parker Lamb Collection, approximately 2,700 black-and-white negatives in seven groups (as of March 2017, with more on the way), acquired in 2015
• Hal Lewis Collection, approximately 1,000 images of various formats, acquired in 2011
• Glenn Oestreich Collection, approximately 20 small boxes of prints and several thousand negatives, acquired in 2010
• David Plowden Collection, approximately 150 black-and-white railroad publicity prints and 30 archival prints for exhibition, acquired in 2012
• Ted Rose Collection, approximately 4,900 black-and-white negatives, acquired in 2006
• Fred M. Springer Collection, approximately 8,000 black-and-white negatives and 50,000 color slides, acquired in 2011
• Robert A. Witbeck Collection, approximately 1,100 black-and-white negatives, acquired in 2016
• Smaller collections from Lewis Ableidinger, Norm Adler, Chris Burger, Luther Gette, George R. Jones, Arno Lenz, Willis McCaleb, Bob Olmsted, Norbert Shacklette, Tom Sink, Doug Wornom, ranging from a dozen of photographs to several hundred.

MANY RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHERS are deeply concerned about finding permanent homes for their work. If you are one of them, you may wish to consider the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, which has an active, selective acquisitions program through our Railroad Heritage Visual Archive. Our interests span the world and the entire history of railroad photography, from the 1840s to today.

Submissions

Because of the large number of railroad photographs in existence and because a great deal of specialized and costly work goes into processing photographs professionally, the Center carefully reviews all offers of photography donations before deciding which ones to accept. The two-step process begins with review by our five-member Collections and Acquisitions Committee. Their recommendations then go to our full Board of Directors for a final vote.

If you would like us to consider adding your collection to our archive, please get in touch with us by sending an email to info [at] railphoto-art [dot] org. Please describe your collection briefly, including, at a minimum:

• Size: the approximate total number of photographs and the amount of physical space they occupy
• Format(s): Slides, negatives, prints, etc.
• Range of years depicted, e.g., 1960s to 1990s
• Geographic regions depicted
• Railroads depicted
• Details about how your collection is currently housed
• Details about how your collection is currently organized and documented (please be accurate in your description)
• If available, send an example of your organization scheme and documentation
• If you note any preservation concerns such as water damage or vinegar syndrome, please let us know
• If possible, send a selection of sample images (up to twenty-five) as low resolution JPEGs

Before submitting, we recommend that you download a copy of our Collections Management Policy (206 KB PDF file). It provides valuable, additional information. Our Collections and Acquisitions Committee reviews all offers very thoroughly. Because the committee meets only twice a year, you may not receive a decision from us for a few months. When we decide that we are not able to accept a collection, we make every effort to suggest other, often nearby institutions that photographers might pursue as a home for their work.

Image Use

The Center for Railroad Photography & Art provides public access to our collections via our services, digital collections, and archives. Many of our materials are digitized and available for research and usage in various electronic formats. You can browse selected images from our collections on our website (go to the “Collections” menu button and then choose from the drop-down list) and Flickr account. Please use the contact information at right to send us your research inquiries and image requests. Please allow for up to two weeks of turnaround time to receive a response to your request.

To request digital copies of our images, first familiarize yourself with the Center’s unique image ID numbers (e.g., Lamb-01-001-01). Our staff members use these numbers to retrieve requested images. Please reference these ID numbers when making an image request. Non-profit, research, and other fair use requests are not subject to fees or licensing agreements. Commercial users will be asked to sign a licensing agreement and pay the appropriate fee. Please see fee schedule below.

We can supply images in JPEG, TIFF, or RAW file format. Digital copies of images can be sent via email, cloud-based file-sharing sites such as Dropbox, or by mailing a USB drive. Please note that transfers via USB drives are subject to reimbursement fees for the physical media and shipping (typically in the range of $10 to $20.)

We provide images free-of-charge for small press and self-published works, personal use, as well as educational and non-profit efforts. All other users, please see our Usage Fee Schedule for rates.

Research

In-person: Our collections are open to the public for research by appointment. To make an appointment, please use the contact information at right.

Distance: Research assistance is available by phone, email, and mail for patrons who are unable to visit the Center in person. This service is priced per hour of research time. The first hour of research is complimentary for all patrons. Examples include image retrieval and transfer by call number and basic collection inquiries. Center members receive a second hour of complimentary research. Additional research time will fall under the fee structure below. Staff will notify you if additional research time will be needed and advise you on the estimated cost. Payment will be due upon completion of the research. Payment for research services does not guarantee that the information/image will be found. As staff time is limited, please allow for up to two-week turnaround time for responses to research and image requests.

Research Assistant: If you require extensive research assistance beyond what the Center can provide, but cannot/do not wish to visit the Center, we suggest hiring a freelance researcher via University of Wisconsin’s History or Archival Studies departments.

CRP&A Research Fees:

First hour of research	Complimentary
Second hour of research	Non-members: $25; Members: Complimentary
Additional hours (up to six)	Non-members: $35 per hour; Members: $25 per hour

Credit line 

In most cases the Center owns the copyright for the photographs in our collections. The Center does ask for the proper credit (see below) to recognize the photographer and the collection.

“Photograph by [PHOTOGRAPHER NAME], collection of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, www.railphoto-art.org”

OUR ARCHIVAL OUTREACH EFFORTS include “Out of the Archives,” a regular column in Railroad Heritage that brings to light the world of professional archiving, providing a regular forum to share selections from our collections and tips for maintaining your own photographs. Whether you are a photographer, collector, or avid fan, it is important to organize and preserve the materials you create or collect. In this digital version of the column, we will be delivering every installment to further promote the significance and standards of the archiving world. Please let us know if there are any topics you would like us to cover in the future.

Members and supporters of the Center receive a new issue of Railroad Heritage each quarter. We post PDF files of “Out of the Archives” on this page a few weeks following publication of each issue. See the list at right and click on the link to view or download the file.

Archival Principles
Here at the Center we adhere to established archival principles to ensure safety and accuracy. Our work as archivists includes:

• Preservation. One of the Center’s main objectives is properly preserving our collections. This includes appropriately caring for and handling our materials by using archival-safe supplies, and providing a controlled environment where our collections are housed.
• Processing. Processing materials is a long, tedious, and detailed endeavor. Organizing a collection appropriately sets up the rest of the processing work that includes any digitization and metadata entry. This work is essential to the long-term care and future accessibility of a collection.
• Arrangement and Description. To maintain quick and easy retrieval of our materials, we organize every collection down to its individual items, if possible, given the time and resources available to us.
• Accessibility. Finally, the Center will make sure that users have access to our processed collections. We create detailed finding aids to describe each collection and its contents and share images electronically through our websites and many social media outlets.

Additional Resources

• CRP&A Preservation Resources List
• Society of American Archivists (SAA): www2.archivists.org
• Print File Archival Supplies: www.printfile.com
• Gaylord Archival Supplies: www.gaylord.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/railphotoart
• Twitter: twitter.com/railphotoart
• Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/railphotoart