Series I: Poems and writings, undated, 1887 - 1897, 1932

The Louise Gaffney Flannigan Papers consist of 52 poems and writings written by Louise, mostly in the late 1880s, in her unofficial position as "poetess" of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen Lodge #201 of New Haven, Connecticut. Most of the poems were written in memorial to railroad brakemen who died in the line of duty or in celebration of their work. Interesting items in the collection include an undated jingle Louise wrote in praise of Solution Soap; a report of a visit Louise and her husband Frank made to a Chicago, Illinois, home for "crippled" brakemen, with a request for donations from the members of the New Haven lodge; a 1895 poem written on the "terrible sea disaster of the Steamer Elbe" which sank in the North Sea off of the coast of England; and a ten-page description of a train trip Louise and her husband Frank took in 1897 from New Haven, Connecticut, to California, where she describes the journey in great detail, including her impressions of Indians.