Dudley Stickels Collection of Central New England Railway Photographs
Scope and Content
The Stickels Photograph Collection contains 639 negatives and black and white photographic prints. The majority of the images were taken between the 1880s and the 1930s, with just one from the 1940s and only two from the 1950s. A majority of the images are of steam locomotives from various New England railroads, although the Central New England Railway steam locomotives are the most heavily represented. Also in the collection are images of railroad stations and yards, wreck scenes, bridges, and work scenes. Some of the more unique images include a negative image of a map of the Hartford, Connecticut, to Springfield, Massachusetts, rail line, as well as a promotional photographic print displaying the interior of a new passenger car.
Dates
- 1880s-1950s
Access
The collection is open and available for research.
Restrictions on Use
Permission to publish from these Papers must be obtained in writing from both the University of Connecticut Libraries and the owner(s) of the copyright.
Biography
Dudley Jordan Stickels, born 9 March 1917, in Torrington, Conncecticut, was by trade a carpenter and a salesman. His love, however, was the railroad. Stickels collected and sold model railroad equipment, which led to his founding of an HO gauge model railroad club. He enjoyed visiting the New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad station in Torrington to admire the passing trains. He invested a great deal of his energy in collecting materials relating to the history of the Central New England Railway (CNE), which was at that time no longer in operation. His research interests were in that railroad line's history, routes, and equipment, and specifically in its steam locomotives. As a result of Stickels's study of the CNE, he began a substantial collection of steam locomotive photographs, some of which were used by railroad history author Lucius Beebe. Dudley Stickels died in North Carolina in 1992.
Other railroads represented in this collection were gradually merged with the Central New England Railway. The CNE merged with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in 1927.
Extent
3 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Dudley Jordan Stickels was by trade a carpenter and a salesman. His love, however, was the railroad. He invested a great deal of his energy in collecting materials relating to the history of the Central New England Railway (CNE), which was at that time no longer in operation. His research interests were in that railroad line's history, routes, and equipment, and specifically in its steam locomotives.
Organization
Series I: Negatives (undated, 1880s-1950s) is composed of negatives of images of locomotives representing the following railroads: Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad; Philadelphia, Reading & New England Railroad; Central New England and Western Railroad; Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad; Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway; Poughkeepsie, Hartford and Boston Railroad; New York and Massachusetts Railway; Connecticut Western Railroad; and the Central New England Railway.
Series II: Photographic prints (1880s- 1950s) is composed of photographic prints of images representing the following railroads: Central New England Railway; New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad; Philadelphia, Reading and New England Railroad; Connecticut Western Railroad; Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway; Newburgh, Dutchess, and Connecticut Railroad; Central New England and Western Railroad; and New York and Massachusetts Railway.
Arrangement
The photographs were originally organized in albums. Each negative and photograph print was given a unique identifying number and placed in an archival quality sleeve and box. Each image was then described in an in-house (Access) database.
The unique identifying numbers were assigned to the images as they were removed from the album pages. Neither the placement of images on the pages nor the arrangement of the pages in the albums appeared to have any order.
Acquisition Information
Photographs and negatives were purchased and then donated by Leroy Beaujon of Roseville, California.
- Locomotives Subject Source: Fast
- Maps (documents) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- New England (general region) Subject Source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- Photographic prints Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Photographs Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Railroad stations Subject Source: Fast
- Railroads Subject Source: Fast
- Title
- Dudley Stickels Collection of Central New England Railway Photographs
- Status
- Published
- Date
- 2003
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Archives and Special Collections, University of Connecticut Library Repository
University of Connecticut Library
405 Babbidge Road Unit 1205
Storrs Connecticut 06269-1205 USA US
860-486-2524
archives@uconn.edu
