Kalmbach Media donates historic art collection to Center

The Center for Railroad Photography & Art has been named the recipient of Kalmbach Media’s historic art collection, totaling fifty-eight original paintings spanning the hallowed rail publishing company’s history since its founding by A.C. Kalmbach in 1934.

The announcement was made today by Scott Lothes, Executive Director of CRP&A, who worked closely with Kalmbach executives in their search to locate the right permanent home and keep the collection together.

“Kalmbach is a name that has thrilled, educated, and inspired generations of railfans, photographers, and artists, and this collection couldn’t be a better expression of the Center’s mission to preserve and celebrate significant railroad art,” said Lothes. “It’s a tremendous honor and responsibility to care for the Kalmbach Art Collection, and to honor the work of so many artists and designers who poured their talents into illustrating the railroads that they loved.”

The Kalmbach Art Collection is filled with landmark work from renowned artists such as Howard Fogg, George Gloff, Gil Reid, Ted Rose, John Swatsley, and many others. The works were commissioned for use in Trains magazine and in Kalmbach Books—in many cases created by the company’s own designers and artists. Some works were viewed by tens of thousands of railroad fans, appearing inside the magazine, on its covers, or in best-selling books such as The Hiawatha Story and The Nickel Plate Story.

The collection was recently moved to the Center’s archive in Madison, Wisconsin, not far from Kalmbach’s offices in Waukesha. In late June, Kalmbach Media sold many of its marquee magazine titles, including Trains, Classic Trains, and Model Railroader, to Firecrown Media in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“The Center is beyond thrilled to be the recipient of the Kalmbach Art Collection,” said Bon French, Chairman of the Center’s board. “Not only is it a spectacular collection in its own right, but the art invokes many memories for those of us that frequented the hallowed halls of the Kalmbach offices. As the Kalmbach name will otherwise disappear, it’s great that we can preserve the legacy of a ninety-year-old company with a revered name through the collection.”

“We couldn’t have found a better home for our historic collection of railroad art than the Center for Railroad Photography & Art,” said Dan Hickey, Chief Executive Officer for Kalmbach Media. “We are confident that it is the best organization to both preserve the Kalmbach collection and share it with the public. Our founder, A.C. Kalmbach, would be very proud to know that the railroad art accumulated by Kalmbach Media and enjoyed by our employees for decades will also be appreciated by future generations through the expert stewardship of the Center.”

“I can’t imagine a better outcome for Kalmbach’s corporate art collection than to have it find a permanent home with the Center,” said Kevin P. Keefe, a Center board member and former vice president-editorial at Kalmbach. Keefe brought the collection to light in the mid-2010s when he detailed the most important pieces and their histories in a company report he authored prior to his retirement. “In so many ways, Trains and Kalmbach Books played indispensable roles in creating the world of railroad imagery we love so much, and the company’s original art is a big part of that legacy.”

“Over the years, there has been a strong bond between Kalmbach and the Center,” Keefe added. “The donation of this collection is a celebration of that relationship.”

Roaring through Rondout, watercolor on paper by Gil Reid, appeared on the cover of Kalmbach’s most successful hardcover book, The Hiawatha Story. Reid’s painting illustrates Milwaukee Road Class A Atlantic 1 in 1935.

Electro-Motive E7 for Train of Tomorrow, tempera on board, by Allen J. Brewster, as seen on the cover of the January 1979 issue of Trains magazine.

Arrival of the art collection at the Center’s archive in Madison, Wis. Pictured from left: Inga Velten, Lisa Hardy, Kevin Keefe, and Adrienne Evans. Photo by Gil Taylor.

An evening with the winners of the 2024 John Gruber Creative Photography Awards

This presentation was recorded and is available on our YouTube page:

https://youtu.be/FlO-CD6dZDM

Tuesday, August 20, 2024
7:00 PM (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom
8 pm ET, 6 pm MT, 5 pm PT

The 2024 Creative Photography Awards brought 383 submissions from 143 photographers representing 32 states and 9 countries in response to the theme, “Conveyance.” In this evening with the winners, hosted by photographer-writer and Center staffer Elrond Lawrence, you’ll hear their stories and insights behind the winning pictures, as well as their approaches to rail photography.

Scheduled to appear live:
Ewan McLean – First prize winner, color
James Duval – Second prize winner, black-and-white
Ryan Gaynor – Second prize winner, color
Darryl Bond – Third prize winner, color
We’ll also hear from Dafydd Whyles, first prize winner, black & white

Learn more about this year’s winning photos and see the “Judges Also Liked” pictures at the Center’s Flickr page.

This event is free. Join us for a great evening with people who love rail photography!

 

Ewan McLean, 1st prize winner, color
The Victorian Goldfields Railway (VGR) is a preservation group that operates trains in the northwestern part of Victoria, Australia. Ewan and his wife were riding on the observation deck of the ‘Tambo’ through the gum tree forest on the outskirts of Castlemaine; Ewan captured this shot of steam locomotive J541’s smoke illuminated by the sun’s rays, on April 18, 2011.

Dafydd Whyles, 1st prize winner, black & white
With a palpable sense of anticipation, a single-car passenger unit arrives at Worksop station in Nottinghamshire, UK, with a lone passenger waiting. The train is passing the 1880-built signal box (cabin).

Technical Genius: Behind the scenes with O. Winston Link’s famous photographs

Take an in-depth and behind-the-scenes look into technical aspects of several photographs of O. Winston Link, the famed 1950s railroad photographer who iconically captured some of the last steam trains in America, set against the picturesque backdrop of rural Appalachia. Ashley Webb, curator of collections and exhibitions for the O. Winston Link Museum, will present and examine the notebooks, letters, and installation images of some of the photographer’s more iconic and technically complex works.

Tuesday, July 9, at 7:00 p.m. Central Time

(5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, 6:00 p.m. Mountain, and 8:00 p.m. Eastern)

This free presentation is available to view on our YouTube page.

Ashley Webb received her B.A. in History and Anthropology from Longwood University, in Farmville, Virginia, and her M.A. in Museum Studies from Bournemouth University, in Dorset, England. She is currently the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions and acting Executive Director with the Historical Society of Western Virginia, which operates both the Roanoke History and the O. Winston Link Museums. In addition to her job with the Historical Society, Ashley works with several local museums as a contract museum collections specialist. Her specialty is fashion history and she owns Bustle Textiles, a historic dress preservation company.

Based in Roanoke, Virginia, the O. Winston Link Museum collection comprises the striking photographic and auditory works developed by photographer-artist O. Winston Link between 1955 and 1960. A successful commercial photographer from New York, Link brought his studio outdoors to create carefully arranged images designed to convey the end of Norfolk & Western’s steam locomotives and the communities and countryside they passed through. The museum – which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year — is the repository for all of Link’s Norfolk & Western negatives, and contains both rotating and permanent exhibitions; learn more at: roanokehistory.org

Register here

Above: O. Winston Link’s masterpiece “Hot Shot Eastbound at the Drive-In, Iaeger, West Virginia, 1956.” Below: A behind-the-scenes view of Link in action, from the July 9 presentation.

Plowden exhibition to appear at Illinois Railway Museum

Beginning mid-June, the Illinois Railway Museum will present Requiem for Steam: Railroad Photographs of David Plowden, produced in cooperation with the Center for Railroad Photography & Art. “Conversations” attendees who join our planned museum events on Friday, June 14, will enjoy a special reception from 5:00 to 7:00 pm celebrating the exhibition.

David Plowden and the Center produced this traveling exhibit of more than 50 black & white images. It traces the renowned photographer’s fascination with railway steam power, starting from a childhood spent watching steamboats on the East River, in New York City, and traveling behind steam-powered passenger trains in New England. His featured work includes the end of the steam era in the 1950s, and more recent examinations of steam’s lingering imprints on the American landscape.

The traveling exhibition will continue through late December. For more information, visit the Illinois Railway Museum’s web page.

The “Conversations” conference will continue for a full day on Saturday, June 15 and a half day on Sunday, June 16, at Lake Forest College near Chicago, headlined by an exciting lineup of photographers and artists. Visit our conference page for the schedule and listing of presenters.

David Plowden’s portrait of a Canadian Pacific 2-8-2 in Montreal, Quebec, in 1960.

An overview of the Requiem for Steam exhibition at Illinois Railway Museum.

Member Exclusive: Inside the Henry Posner III Collection

Join us Tuesday, May 14th, for an evening of globe-trotting railroad photography and great stories, when the Center hosts our next member-exclusive Zoom program, “Photographer of Last Resort: Inside the Henry Posner III Collection.”

Gil Taylor, reference and processing archivist, will present images from Henry Posner III, whose collection Gil has been processing since 2022. Henry is chairman of RDC, a global railway investment and management company, which he founded in 1987 with his partner Bob Pietrandrea. He also serves as chairman of Iowa Interstate Railroad, RDC-Deutschland, EuroRail, and family investment firm The Hawthorne Group. His leadership roles have taken him across the world and he has photographed railroads in fifty-four countries.

This program was recorded; the private link has been shared with registered members.

The Zoom program will be Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at 7:00 PM (U.S. Central Time)
5 pm Pacific / 6 pm Mountain / 8 pm Eastern
Henry will join Gil for the Zoom program to share anecdotes, behind-the-scenes tidbits, and fascinating details about his rail photographs, which range from spectacular to gritty and frequently spotlight railroad people across geography and cultures. Highlights will include:

  • The Iowa Interstate Railroad, including its Chinese QJ steam locomotives;
  • Henry’s involvement with and photography of Guatemala’s Ferrocarriles de Guatemala, and subsequently Ferrovías Guatemala … followed by his photographs of Peru’s Ferrocarril Central Andino, with a strong focus on the Andes Mountains;
  • Henry’s digital images of railroads that RDC works with in France and Germany, as well as eye-catching safety signs around the world.

Henry also serves as president of the EBT Foundation — a nonprofit organization formed to restore and operate the East Broad Top Railroad. He is Iowa Interstate’s alternate director at the Association of American Railroads, and a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Agriculture and Food Transport Subcommittee. He teaches undergraduate courses on rail deregulation and privatization and he’s lectured and published extensively about railways.

Not a member? Register Here.

Ferrocarril Central Andino no. 609 pulls a charter train somewhere northeast of Matucana, Peru, on July 25, 2000. Photograph by Henry Posner III, Posner-18-23-11.

Ferrocarriles de Guatemala workers gather around a motorcart as they follow a work train led by U10B 803, repairing tracks somewhere in Guatemala in 1998. Photograph by Henry Posner III, Posner-11-03-11.