The Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP), an independent research library focused on American Society and Culture, has an extensive collection of non-circulating rare books, manuscripts, broadsides, ephemera, prints, photographs, and works of art. Building on those strong resources, this repository, America’s oldest cultural institution, has been busy creating digital products to share with a broader audience of scholars and public investigators.
Today, we were using Google, a valuable tool for studying the past, to search for seldom-seen photos of some of the old B & O Railroad stations along the company line in Cecil County. The search engine immediately took us to the LCP’s online exhibit of the railroad’s Philadelphia Division images.
In March 1891, a group of B & O employees set out from Baltimore riding on a railroad hand cart to inspect and photograph bridges and stations along the recently completed 111-mile Philadelphia Division linking Baltimore and Philadelphia. Along the right-of-way, the group photographed 78 bridges, culverts, and 37 of the nearly 70 stations on the line.
We were delighted to find many seldom-seen photos of stations and railroad properties in Delaware and northeastern Maryland and thought our readers might have an interest in this resource. There are also other digital collections.
Thank you Library Company of Philadelphia for helping to make these materials readily available.
Click here to reach the full online Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Collection Album
B & O Railroad Station, Aiken, MD. 1891. Source: Library Company of Philadelphia.
What a great find, Mike. One of my favorite photos is the Taylor’s Road Bridge. It says Maryland but not sure if it is in Cecil County. Thanks again for sharing information like this.
Thanks Jim. There were some interesting bridge images in there too.
Mike – did they have any photographs of Garrett Island? Bill Mc—
Bill, I remember they had some of the Susquehanna Bridge and River. Here’s a link to the full list. Definitely worth checking out. By-the-way, where was Harford Station. They list one simply as Harford Station. It’s an attractive building?
http://lcpdams.librarycompany.org:8881/R/?func=collections-result&collection_id=1151
I have seen a picture someplace of the B & O bridge being built over Cedar Creek Road in Perryville.