Out of the tradition of those long-gone days of great, heaving steam  locomotives and endless rail lines comes this remarkable selection of  vintage cards, a treasure trove selected from John Vander Maas'  consummate collection at the University of Iowa Libraries. This lavish volume is the first general book-length work  devoted to the once-ubiquitous railroad picture postcard. It comprises  an introductory essay and an album of cards. The former fully examines  the nature of the postcard craze, which reached its zenith about 1910,  and discusses why images of American railroads played such an important  part in the card phenomenon. The album divides an engaging assortment of  more than 150 representative views into five sections: “Trains and  Rolling Stock,” “Depots and Railway Structures,” “The Railroad  Corridor,” “People and Railroads,” and “The Lighter Side of  Railroading.” Railroad historians, train enthusiasts, postcard collectors,  and all other readers will find much to interest them in this selection  of images. Not only are the cards themselves visually striking, but they  convey a sense of how important railroads once were to the nation's  citizenry. The sight of steaming locomotives and the hustle and bustle  associated with “train time” caused hearts to quicken. These feelings  made views of railroad scenes popular with buyers of postcards and now  with latter-day railroad fans and card collectors.

Railroad Postcards in the Age of Steam PDF

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