Beebe and Clegg: Their Enduring Photographic Legacy, a new book from the Center for Railroad Photography and Art, tells about how partners Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg introduced railroad photography and the world of railroading to wide popular audiences. Beebe (1902-1966) initially championed the three-quarters or “wedge-of-pie” perspective in his photography. Clegg (1916-1979) introduced a more innovative outlook, boosting creativity for both of them. Their photographs shine in this new book, produced with the best of modern digitization, design, and printing techniques.

Over the course of eight chapters, the book traces Beebe and Clegg’s life and times together, their visual influences, short lines, narrow gauge lines, Nevada and the Virginia & Truckee, and their photography. The book includes 222 images from the California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives, all scanned from negatives and carefully cleaned and checked, revealing surprises. Many are previously unpublished. Thirty-six additional images come from other sources. “Their legacy is larger than the publications they produced, for they demonstrated that railroads serve America as an icon of its experience,” authors John Gruber and John Ryan conclude.

$65, plus $5 for domestic shipping, hardcover, 8.5×11 inches, 224 pages, duotone

International shipping is available; please inquire by email at info [at] railphoto-art.org

Wallace W. Abbey: A Life in Railroad Photography, published by Indiana University Press in 2018 and written and edited by the Center’s Kevin P. Keefe and Scott Lothes, presents a cohesive and comprehensive collection of 184 photographs by Wallace W. Abbey. The authors drew from Abbey’s collection of 25,000 black-and-white negatives, which came to the Center in 2010. The 10×10-inch hardcover book, published by Indiana University Press in 2018, charts Abbey’s fifty-year career documenting the railroad industry. Beginning in the 1940s, Abbey masterfully combined journalistic and artistic vision to transform everyday moments in transportation into magical photographs. A photographer, journalist, historian, and railroad industry executive, he helped people from many different backgrounds understand and appreciate what was often taken for granted: a world of locomotives, passenger trains, big-city terminals, small-town depots, and railroaders. During his lifetime he witnessed and photographed sweeping changes in the railroad industry from the steam era to the era of diesel locomotives and electronic communication. Wallace W. Abbey: A Life in Railroad Photography profiles the life and work of this legendary photographer and showcases the transformation of transportation and photography after World War II.

$50 plus $5 for domestic shipping, hardcover, 10×10 inches, 240 pages, b/w