University of Connecticut |
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Railroad History ArchiveSteam and Electric Locomotives of the New Haven RailroadAbout the digital collectionThe 460 photographs that comprise this digital collection are from the Fred Otto Makowsky Collection, held in Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center of the University of Connecticut Libraries. Archives & Special Collections acquired the Makowsky Collection in May 2000, through the generous gift of Fred Otto Makowsky's nephew Roy Makowsky, a University of Connecticut alumnus. The entire Fred Otto Makowsky Collection consists of several thousand images of railroad locomotives and scenes associated with the New Haven Railroad, taken by Mr. Makowsky throughout his lifetime. For the purposes of the project we chose what we deemed the best of the all the photographs in the collection, winding up with 460 photographs that give the best picture of Mr. Makowsky's focus on the locomotives. Mr. Makowsky was meticulous in describing each photograph, giving date, place, and basic locomotive information. The photographs are an excellent snapshot of the trains of the early 1900s, showing the New Haven Railroad's mid and late generation steam engines and its first electric locomotives and multiple unit cars. The photographs were taken in the time that the New Haven Railroad was a pioneer in main line electrification (which actually began in 1907), when they electrified the line from New York City to Stamford, Connecticut. The donor graciously gave us copyright for the materials. And finally, the photographs are visually appealing. You can access the images by going to the UConn Libraries Images Database, at images.lib.uconn.edu/. This database includes digital images from all of the UConn Libraries collections. The photographs are available as an option on the front page; if you click on the button for the digital collection and press "search" you will see all 460 photographs. See here for more information about Fred Otto Makowsky and here for a brief history of the New Haven Railroad. See here for information about the electrification of the New Haven Railroad. The photographs were described with the generous contribution of Mr. J.W. Swanberg. This page is maintained by L. Smith.
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