Elliot Donnelley (1904-1975) was a notable railroad enthusiast, modeler, preservationist, and book collector. After his death his family donated his collection of railroad books and periodicals and made related contributions to the library which he had done so much to make possible through his leadership on the Lake Forest College Board of Trustees. Soon the family also encouraged another major addition of railroad material: books, periodicals, photographs, time tables, etc. from the collection of the late Munson Paddock of Wisconsin, New York and Pennsylvania. Paddock’s collection complemented Donnelley’s; where the former had material of the early days of railroading from the nineteenth century, the latter’s holdings were from the late 1930s to the 1970s, the golden age of the railfan nostalgia and interest in America, as cars and planes gradually supplanted rail travel. Donnelley’s holdings, too, emphasized narrow gauge, western railroads, live steam, and modeling.
In the 1980s the late MIT scholar James Sloss’s collections were donated, including eastern and international material, as well as western railroad books, and 3,000 timetables. From 1999 to 2001 Arthur D. Dubin, A.S.T.P. '47, of Highland Park, donated from his nationally renowned collection an approx. 5,500 item photograph collection relating to the era of the high-speed through limited train, which thrived from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s. These images reflect the make-up of Dubin’s two still-essential books Some Classic Trains (1964) and More Classic Trains (1974).
Today the group of approx. 2,500 cataloged books and over 1,000 volumes and issues of periodicals, some of unique interest, stands as a strong library, or collection of collections, on railroading, with a unique window on the railfan phenomenon. The photograph collection exceeds 10,000 in number, including some rare 1860s and 1870s glass plate negatives and many first-century builder's photos of locomotives and cars.
Arthur D. Dubin (left standing; born 1923) and Elliott Donnelley (1904-1975)
on board a train on one of the latter's privately organized western rail excursions,
1960s. The scenery is in Colorado, on either the second or third of the trips Donnelley organized for friends, according to Arthur Dubin. Both men's collections have combined to provide a major portion
of the railroad holdings in Special Collections. The photo is by the late
William Crosby.
Books
The book collections begin with English and American illustrated and monographic titles of the earliest days of railroading in the early nineteenth century. The later nineteenth century is represented by railroad-specific titles and series, such as Poore’s Manual, and by more general travel books which reflect the rise of rail passenger travel, especially in the West. Some volumes are illustrated by albumen prints, among the earliest photo-illustrated books. The most comprehensive treatment begins with the post-World War II era, reflecting Donnelley and Sloss’s collecting, as well as books purchased with Donnelley family funding and selected initially by John Allen ’80 (Ph.D. MIT), a planner with the Chicago area’s Regional Transportation Authority. Examples illustrating the quality of the book collection make up one of the chapters (items 61-70) in One Hundred Rare and Notable Books… (2004).
Periodicals
The periodical collection is not large or complete, but its areas of interest include early unbound (ads still present) issues of post-Civil-War American trade periodicals from Munson Paddock who may have been associated with Angus Sinclair, a New York railroad publisher a century ago. In addition, there are runs of the standard rail history and railfan periodicals, most often also unbound to preserve their usefulness to modelers: Railroad Stories, Railroad Magazine, Trains, Railroad and Railfan, and Vintage Rails. Some railroad line-specific historical society periodicals are held (the Chicago & Northwestern, the GM & O, etc.).
Timetables, Advertising Booklets, and Maps
Timetable listings of trains for passengers and employees were collected by both Paddock and Sloss, with the latter’s holdings the most extensive, over 3,000 in number. Most are U.S. from the first half of the twentieth century, but there are a few earlier and later, and a small number of international ones. Donnelley, Paddock, Sloss and others have collected advertising booklets and maps. Some are cataloged, but others are organized by railroad (North Am.) and by country.
Photographs and Media
The photo collections date back to the 1860s, with Munson Paddock’s glass plate negatives and prints of John Reid’s Paterson, NJ locomotive builders’ views. Paddock also possessed over 1,000 photo views of locomotives typical of Railroad Magazine’s 1920s and 1930s collector’s exchange. But Arthur D. Dubin’s collections on passenger cars and the lifestyle they represented from the 1890s to the 1960s form the bulk of the organized photo holdings of the Elliot Donnelley photo collection. Over four hundred of these are available on the web at www.railroadheritage.org (search "Dubin" or "Lake Forest College"). There are several smaller collections, including about fifty rare stereo views of the construction of the transcontinental railroad, 1865-69, by photographers such as Jackson and Hart, and focused on the Salt Lake City, Utah area (assembled in the 1980s by dealer William Lee, son of assitant librarian emerita Jo Schaffer).
Donnelley’s own rail interests included his 1930s and 1940s modeling enterprise, Scale-craft (see library catalog), his preservation in the late 1960s of the Shay #5 locomotive at the Illinois Railway Museum and also his legendary 1960s summer western rail trips. Deposited by Miss Mariann Crosby, Glencoe, sister of railfan and Elliott Donnelley associate William Crosby, Jr., are about fifty still images documenting the IRM Shay #5 preservation effort and a small group of reels of amateur 8mm films, now converted to video, documenting some of the western rail trips. Dubin also has donated recently a small number of railroad-related or railfan videos to begin a collection of this phenomenon of the last two decades, heretofore uncollected.
Manuscripts and Papers, Etc.
Correspondence and other records of collecting by Munson Paddock, including sketches in pencil and oil by the illustrator, provide a useful insight into early twentieth century railfan interests. The James Sloss material, received in the 1980s, includes his 1930 Harvard undergraduate thesis on partial loads for freight cars, a seminal work drawn on during Sloss’s career at Sears and in wartime military service. Arthur D. Dubin also has deposited some of his rail-related correspondence, including early Amtrak material and his correspondence with Lucius Beebe, as has Miss Crosby of her brother’s work with Donnelley and the IRM. Holdings total approx. 10 lin. ft.
Published Descriptions and Exhibits
The article by Arthur Miller on “Trains and Railroading” in the Handbook of American Popular Culture (1988), v.3, relies heavily on material in the Donnelley railroad collection, as does the less bibliographical essay "Railroad” in American Icons: An Encyclopedia of the People, Places, and Things That Have Shaped Our Culture, ed. Dennis R. Hall and Susan Grove Hall, 3 vols., Garland, 2006), v. 3. An earlier, longer draft version of this essay, The Railroad as American Icon, can be seen here. An update to the 1988 and subseq. piece is provided in an article also by Miller on the Paddock and Dubin photographic collections in Railroad Heritage (no. 1, 2000).
The Donnelley collection is associated with the Center for Railroad Photography and Art (hdqtrs., Madison, WI) and its traveling exhibition of 150 years of Railroad photography, organized in 1999 and shown since then, in addition to the Donnelley Library early in 2000, in Sacramento, CA (1999), Altoona, PA (1999), Madison, WI (1999-2000), Urbana, IL (2000), St. Louis, MO (2001), and Carson City, NV (2001-2002). The second-oldest image in the exhibit is one of John Reid’s locomotive views from the Paddock collections; other views are from Paddock and Dubin material. Archives and Special Collections acts as the Center’s archives and has hosted on campus the Center’s first three annual national conferences on railroad photography. The Center's "American Railroad History in a Nutshell" inlcudes Dubin material, both in print as a 2009 issue of Railroad Heritage, the Center's periodical (available separately), and on www.railroadheritage.org.
Center for Railroad Photography and Art
Since the late 1990s this collection has partnered with the Madison, WI based Center, under president John Gruber. Archives and Special Collections has hosted six of the last seven annual photography conferences at the College, drawing national audiences and presenters on historical and contemporary rail photography topics. The conference has grown from one day to the better part of three, with exhibits, receptions, formal sessions, and workshops. Also, this collection houses on deposit the Center's collections, most notably the Ted Rose photography archive, organized by volunteer research associate David Mattoon '76.
Actively involved in the railroad collection and in the Center's work are John Allen ’80 and David Mattoon’76 (who volunteers one half day a week, plus additional virtual work as a research associate). Sayre Kos ’07 also played a key role in our Dubin and www.railroadheritage.org projects when he was on the staff, 2005-07; he had been a presenter at the 2005 photography conference.
Arthur H. Miller
Archivist and Librarian for Special Collections
Donnelley and Lee Library
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest, IL 60045-2399
847-735-5064 voice
847-735-6296 fax
amiller@lakeforest.edu
August 13, 2009; rev. November 2, 2009