Ohios Railway Age in Postcards (Ohio History and Culture)
by H. Roger Grant
Category: History

When America's love affair with trains met its craze for the picture postcard, a new version of commercial illustration was born. And nowhere was this more true than in the heartland of the country, in a state where corridors of steel rails brought together large urban centers, small towns, and farms that fed the nation. From unpublished collections of quality railroad picture postcards, including rare "real-photo" cards, H. Roger Grant has selected more than 150 black-and-white views of the railway age in Ohio. These scenes of steam trains and electric interurban lines, of railroad workers and depots and travelers, focus on the period 1900 to 1915, when Ohio railroading was in its heyday and the great American postcard passion was at its height. In his informative and fascinating introduction, H. Roger Grant tells the story of Ohio's relations with the railroad from the 1830s to the present and traces the popularity of the picture postcard, particularly those that still charmingly evoke the images of an era long past.