Search Results: Authors starting with R from McBride Rare Books

[Athol, Ma, 1916. Good plus.. Broadside, 16 x 5 inches. Previously folded. A couple of chips and small closed tears at edges. Even tanning. Rare broadside advertisement for a weekend engagement of D.W. Griffith's infamous silent epic The Birth of a Nation at Steinberg's Athol Opera House, located in Athol, Massachusetts. The broadside gives dates and times of screenings (November 4-6, 2:10 & 8:10 daily), a list of cast and characters, a lengthy discussion of Griffith's desire for historical accuracy in his work, and a message about "the play's message of peace." To wit, the broadside states that, "If this graphic presentment serves no other purpose, its message of universal peace marks it of great important. Morally and educationally it established the futility of armed conflict.... But for the hatreds engendered in the Civil War, the suffering of the Reconstruction period would never have been known." The film, based on Thomas Dixon's 1905 novel, The Clansman, is often cited as the principal… Read More

St. Louis: Woodward & Tiernan, 1899. About very good.. [60]pp, plus large folding map. Original pictorial wrappers, embossed in gilt. Rear hinge starting, light wear to wraps. Light dampstaining at fore-edge of final two leaves. An attractive and quite scarce promotional for farming lands in the Ozarks along the line of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, apparently published to commemorate the gold medal awarded to Laclede County Missouri Fruit at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition of 1898. The text is a lengthy and effusive encomium to the fecundity of land in the Ozarks and the fruits produced there, including a county-by-county account of planting and production in Missouri and Arkansas, ordered as if one were passing through and taking in the view from a Frisco observation car. The whole is extensively illustrated with photographic reproductions and the final two pages contain a map showing Frisco railroad lands available in Phelps and Pulaski Counties in southwestern… Read More

Buffalo: Clapp, Matthews & Co, 1856. About very good.. Small broadsheet, approximately 5 x 12 inches. Matted. Short interior tear near left edge. Light dust soiling. Scarce broadsheet advertisement promoting direct rail travel to points in Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota on the Illinois Central Railroad, the first federal land grant railroad in the United States. The recto advertises that, "Two daily express trains will leave Pana, (running in direct connection with Trains of the Terre Haute & Alton Railroad,) for Galena, Dubuque, St. Pauls, Dunleith, Rock Island, Bloomington, and all points North and North West," saving time by eliminating the connection in Chicago. The verso promotes the availability of, "Over two million acres of farming lands in tracts of forty acres and upwards, on long credits and at low rates of interest," and goes on to praise the fecundity of the land and the generosity of the financial terms in expectedly glowing fashion. Not in OCLC; the offer of "over two million acres"… Read More

Cincinnati, 1888. Good.. Folding pamphlet. Some wear and worming along folds, with minor losses slightly affecting text. Some tanning and dust soiling. Scarce promotional and time table for the Queen & Crescent Route during August 1888. The route, begun in the early 1880s, was a cooperative between five railroad companies that connected Cincinnati to New Orleans and Shreveport via Chattanooga, Birmingham, and Meridian. One side of the pamphlet contains a map of the principal route and its national connections. The other side contains the schedules for each section of the route, as well as for connections from Shreveport and New Orleans to destinations in Texas, Mexico, and California via other railroads.

Mexico City, 1893. Good.. 84pp. Original printed wrappers mounted onto later card stock wraps. Wear and contemporary ink stamps to original wrappers. Light dampstaining to final leaves, otherwise light tanning. An extensive and unrecorded report on the progress and prospects of the Hidalgo Railroad Company in the state north of Mexico City at the end of the 19th century. The company sought to build a main line from the capital northeast through Hidalgo to Tuxpan in Veracruz, with branches to Pachuca, Irolo, and Teoloyucan. The first section of the report provides a description of the foundation and formation of the company and its officers, and then gives a detailed account of the progress of construction and the generation of revenue since the establishment of the railroad in 1891. The second, lengthier portion of the work comprises an enthusiastic detail of the agricultural production and mineral resources and a description of the underwhelming transportation options in the region that the Hidalgo… Read More

Boston: H.G. Collins, 1891. Good plus.. 68,[1];78,[1]pp. 12mo. Original pebbled cloth, printed labels. Light wear and soiling to cloth, front hinge separating. Light toning and dust soiling internally. A late 19th-century bilingual, dos-a-dos printing of regulations for the "Transportation Department" of the Mexican Central Railway, which comprised conductors, engineers, brakemen, and other train operators. Opened in 1884 by American owners, the railroad connected Mexico City to Ciudad Juarez and to the major United States railroads of the Southwest in El Paso. The present rule book contains over 250 regulations for conductors, engineers, train masters, and others concerning the operation of Mexico Central trains. It also includes several charts, diagrams, illustrations, and other visual aids. Although the title pages announces that the rules within took effect August 15, 1889, we locate no examples of an edition from that year or any other copies of the present edition.

[Iowa, 1900. Very good.. Four cyanotypes (one duplicative), 10.5 x 13.5 inches. Light wear and soiling, heavier to third image. Manuscript notation to verso of one image. Slight toning. Three large cyanotype photographs depicting a railroad trestle near Council Bluffs, Iowa, belonging to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. Per a notation on the verso of one photograph, the bridge was "designed and built" by Julius Flagler (1854-1935) who began working for the railroad in the mid-1880s through the early 20th-century. These images are unusually large for cyanotypes and have good definition of the images. One photo is present here in duplicate, taken from the bank of the river below and depicting the bridge with a train passing over. A man can be seen perched on the top of one of the cars. The second of the two images shows the bridge from a slightly different angle without a train, and a third is taken at track-level facing the oncoming engine. A nice visual record of the structure, which was… Read More

Popayan: Manuel G. Córdova, 1836. Good plus.. [1],7pp. Small quarto, stitched as issued. Small chip at foot of title page. Light dust soiling and some dampstaining. An unrealized proposal to build an early railroad in Colombia from the Cauca Valley to the port of Buenaventura on the Pacific coast. Two families, the Borreros and the Sanders, formed the company to fund the construction of the line in Cali in 1836. Because of the legal intricacies of the federal system in Colombia at the time, the central government could only subsidize interoceanic transportation, and it fell to individual states and private companies to build infrastructure. The first railroad in Colombia, which crossed the isthmus of Panama, was completed almost twenty years later, in 1855. Not in OCLC.

[St. Louis, 1900. About very good.. Photographs approximately 9.5 x 7.5 inches, mounted onto boards measuring 15 x 12.5 inches. Lightly scuffed, toned, and worn. Collection of nine vintage, large-format photographs portraying locations in Missouri and Arkansas along two St. Louis-based railroads. Five of the images are from along the Iron Mountain Route and four from along the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The photographs are mounted onto stiff board, with railways and locations identified in hand-lettered paint along the bottom margins of each board. Adhesive residue on the versos suggests the photographs were used in some promotional capacity, possibly in a ticket office or train station.

Cameron, Tx, 1890. About very good.. Broadside, 12 x 8 inches. Previously folded. Short separation at right edge of old central fold, a couple of short closed tears at edges. Light wear and dust soiling. A promotional broadside published by the International & Great Northern Railroad from their land office in Cameron, Texas, that touts the advantages of the central and eastern swaths of the state, with a focus on agriculture and particularly the Texas peaches, which are continually being sold at "fancy prices." The preponderance of the text gives facts and statistics concerning Texas, some of which seem quite plausible ("more prairie land than Kansas; more fine timber land than Michigan"), while others are downright duplicitous ("the summers are long but not oppressively hot"). The principal line of the International & Great Northern traversed Texas from Texarkana to Laredo via Austin and San Antonio, with branches to Houston and Galveston, Waco, and Bryan. At the end of the 1890s, the… Read More

[N.p., 1900. Very good.. Broadside on cloth, 10.5 x 8 inches. Mild creasing, light spotting, tiny hole in upper left margin. A dual-language cloth form retained by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company for use in making warning signs for farm and ranch gates. The text is printed in both English and Spanish, with the English version reading: "Gates at private or farm crossings are constructed for the personal accommodation of adjacent land-holders. This company will not be responsible for any stock killed, or other damage done by reason of gates being left open, and any person or persons leaving such gates open will be held responsible for all loss and damage resulting from open gates." The top of the work identifies this broadside as "Form 1667 Regular." We could locate no other copies of this small broadside connecting this particular Kansas railroad to the ranchers and farmers of the American West.

Cincinnati: Enquirer Print, 1858. Good.. Broadside, approximately 14.5 x 7 inches. Matted. Internal tear near top edge, slightly affecting text. Light dust soiling, heavier at foot; some creasing and foxing at edges. An attractive broadside advertisement for the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, promoting its newly completed line from Cincinnati to St. Louis. The broadside highlights the O&M as the "Shortest and Quickest" route from Cincinnati to Indianapolis, Vincennes, and St. Louis, travelling on the "Only Wide Gauge in the West," with two trains leaving Cincinnati daily and arriving in St. Louis "two hours in advance of any other route." Ohio & Mississippi passengers enjoy "wide and spacious Saloon Cars, unattainable on narrow gauge Roads, and cross the River at Illinoistown, on arrival." By contrast, the dimwitted passengers of the Terre Haute and Alton, "wait on bank of River one hour before crossing." With a woodcut illustration and a bracing combination of woodcut types. Not in OCLC; the line was… Read More

Boston, 1868. Very good.. Broadside, 13 x 9.75 inches. Printed on purple paper. Light fading and minor soiling at edges. Broadside advertising the rail line from North Bridgewater, East Stoughton, and East Randolph departing for Boston for passengers to take in the afternoon and evening theatre shows in the city. Times are listed for all three departure locations, with returns from Boston departing at 11:15p.m., tickets costing 75 cents round trip. The Old Colony & Newport Railway operated in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island from 1845 until 1893.

Philadelphia, 1900. Good plus.. 59,[3]pp. plus folding map. 12mo. Original yellow printed wrappers. Spine and lower corners chipped; faint contemporary ink stamp on rear wrapper. Quarter-size chip to upper corner of first leaf, slightly affecting frontispiece image. Light toning and dust soiling. Scarce itinerary and program for a six-week tour of California and Mexico by rail, operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Their dedicated "Mexico and California Special" sleeper train departed Philadelphia on February 12, 1900, after receiving passengers from across the Northeast arriving on specially organized parlor cars, and returned on March 29. The train took passengers to San Antonio, where they boarded Southern Pacific service for three weeks in Mexico before rejoining the original train in Los Angeles on March 5 for the tour of California. The present pamphlet contains a detailed description of the train and its amenities, a daily itinerary of activities, and information on points of interest at… Read More

Ottawa: Imprimerie du Journal "Le Canada, 1880. Good plus.. 139pp. Original printed wrappers, rear lacking. Otherwise, light dust soiling and toning. French-language edition of this extensive transcript of debates held in the Canadian House of Commons concerning the construction of the Trans Canadian Railroad. Speakers include Sir Charles Tupper, Minister of Railroads and Canals, and H.L. Langevin, the Minister of Public Works. The plan for the railroad was eventually approved, and construction of the line from Montreal to Vancouver began the next year.

Omaha: Nebraska Publishing Company, 1881. Good plus.. 32pp., including self wrappers. Stitched, as issued. Some wear at spine and edges; light damstaining to wraps, continuing internally at gutter and lower edge. Scarce time table for Burlington and Missouri River Railroad lines through Nebraska for the month of November 1881. This pamphlet includes schedules for the main line, which ran from Omaha and Plattsmouth to Red Cloud, and branches to Atchison, Kansas, and Columbus from Lincoln; to Culbertson and Crete from Red Cloud; to Nebraska City and Kearney from Hastings. The central pair of leaves contains a small map of the system in the state, and describes various connections to the lines of other companies. With numerous illustrated advertisements for Omaha businesses and a full-page advertisement for Burlington and Missouri River Railroad grant lands. A good encapsulation of the railroad's operations in Nebraska during the early 1880s.

[Primarily Los Angeles, 1938. Overall, about very good.. Thirty-four printed items, varying lengths; forty-eight postcards; eighty-four loose photographs, mostly larger formats; string tied, oblong folio album with sixty-six medium and large format images. Some wear, with scattered chipping and closed tears to printed items. Occasional chipping and creasing to photo mounts. A few images beginning to fade, but mostly crisp and clean. An extensive collection of photographs and ephemera related to the Mount Lowe Railway and various hotels and attractions that operated on Echo Mountain at the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains at the turn of the 20th century and the first part of the 1900s. The mountain was the site of a popular funicular that was originally engineered by Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe and opened as the Pasadena & Mt. Wilson Railroad Company in 1893. It was the only scenic mountain electric traction railroad ever built in the U.S., and it remained in operation until 1938, although its… Read More

[Havana & Puerto Principe, 1846. Overall very good.. Two letters, totalling [23]pp., plus four printed forms completed in manuscript, each measuring approximately 12 x 8.5 inches. Letters previously folded, with small stab holes at left margin where previously bound. Contemporary ink stamps. Moderate, even tanning; scattered light foxing. Accomplished in a neat, legible script. In the earliest period of railroad technology, Cuban leaders became interested in a rail line to carry sugar and coffee to the port in Havana from inland. The first completed line from Güines to Havana began operation in 1837; it was one of the first substantial railroads in the world, and beat the arrival of rail transportation to Spain by over a decade. The project was initially approved by the Queen Regent, Maria Christina, in 1834, and civil engineer Benjamin Hall Wright, son of Erie Canal chief engineer Benjamin Wright, was hired to consult on the construction. The two lengthy letters present here were composed in… Read More

Des Moines: Kenyon Company, Inc, 1922. About very good.. Large folding map, color printed, 27 x 51.5 inches. Original printed wrappers. Minor wear to wraps. One separation along fold from top edge extending into map area. Light tanning. A scarce, attractive, and huge color map of the railroad system in Oklahoma during the early 1920s. The map depicts the paths of thirty-three steam and electric railroad lines across the state, with an inset legend listing each and containing illustrations of a gushing oil well and a passenger train with a group of customers gathered on the rear porch of the caboose. The lines of large steam railroad companies are delineated in various colors, with each stop identified, and the distances between each station marked. The map is also quite interesting for its inclusion of electric train lines, which were growing out of larger population centers such as Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Muskogee, and McAlester at this time. Several editions of the map, all scarce, were published in… Read More

[Chicago, 1916. Very good.. [12]pp. Original pictorial self-wrappers, stapled. Small contemporary publisher's notice affixed to front wrap. Light wear and dust soiling. Rare promotional for the Salt Lake Route by rail to Los Angeles, and for the attractions of the city itself, published circa 1916. The text touts the population and commercial growth of Los Angeles from the turn of the 20th century, its many attractions, and year-round seasonability. The last leaf provides a summary of ways to arrive on the West Coast via the Salt Lake Route through Las Vegas from Chicago, Minneapolis, and Denver, and prints a full-page map of the route and intermediate stops across Utah, Southern Nevada, and Southern California. The Salt Lake Route was operated by the Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, whose line between the two cities was completed in 1905 under the ownership and direction of Montana mining baron William A. Clark, and as a result it was also known informally as the "Clark Road." With many… Read More