The Erie Railroad Glass Plate Negative Collections || Syracuse University Library

The Erie Railroad Glass Plate Negative Collection

This digitization project was supported by Regional Bibliographic Databases and Interlibrary Resources Sharing Program funds, awarded by the New York State Library.

Using the Collection:

The collection of 709 images can be accessed via the Library's CONTENTdm server and is fully searchable by keyword, subject, and image number. The item level inventory of the collection in Excel or HTML can help with formulating searches and sorting. NOTE: both links will open new windows.

Collection Searches:

Browse the Collection

Subject Headings Used:

Railway stations
Locomotives
Railroads, passenger-cars
Railroads, Freight cars.
Railroads, Equipment and supplies.
Train wrecks
Residential buildings
Commercial buildings
Bridges
Underpasses
Overpasses

Aqueducts
Track
Horse-drawn vehicles
Motor vehicles
Advertising
Agricultural products
Adults
Children
Landscape

About the Collection:

The Erie Railroad Company glass plate negatives are arranged by Erie subsidiary railroads in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Mainline scenes come from all of the preceding states, as well as from Indiana and Illinois. The image content of the glass plates varies, including individual stations, mile posts, lengths of track, new track construction, and social organizations (such as the East Buffalo Car Shop Basketball Team and shop bands). While, to date, the station images have attracted the most researcher interest, the images also provide a valuable source of information for documenting the early 20th century landscape, product advertising, railroad construction, and on-and-off-the-job Erie Railroad Company employee activities.