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

New York: C.G. Crawford, Printers & Stationer, 1900. Very good.. Large color-printed folding map, 24 x 23.75 inches, with accompanying promotional text in the margins and on verso, folded to pocket size. Minor, expert tissue reinforcements to some folds, a few tiny areas of loss within the map, mild dust-soiling. A large and informative map of Mexico and the American Southwest tracing the Laredo Route of the Mexican National Railroad from Mexico City and its surrounding area to Corpus Christi, Texas. The right portion of the map includes an inset of the railroad's route around and through Mexico City. The supplemental text includes timetables, rates, points of interest, ticket, dining, and baggage information, and more.  The National Railroad of Mexico was one of the primary pre-nationalization railways of Mexico. Incorporated in Colorado in 1880 as the Mexican National Railway, and headed by General William Jackson Palmer of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, it completed a… Read More

Omaha: Burlington Route, 1886. About very good.. 96,[16]pp. Original red printed wrappers. Spine worn and chipped, corners worn. Internally clean. A book of "social amusements" and games "Presented with the compliments of the Passenger Department of the Burlington Route." The final few leaves contain a map of the Burlington Route from Chicago to Denver, as well as numerous advertisements.

Cincinnati, 1856. Very good.. Five issues and supplements, totaling [72]pp. Spines reinforced. Light tanning and dust soiling; scattered, faint foxing. A lengthy extra issue of the Railroad Record, with four additional eight-page supplements, that together comprise a ringing endorsement from this industry periodical and its editors of the southern route through Texas and the Southwest for the American transcontinental railroad. The first two items of this extra, published on October 4, 1855, are by Texas Western Railroad owner and promoter Edgar Conkling, who exhorts readers to examine the evidence supporting construction along the southern route and to invest in his railroad, which was already sanctioned by the Texas state legislature, as the text of two laws printed following his address demonstrate. Much of the issue is taken up by extracts from Secretary of War Jefferson Davis' positive report on the route through Texas and by a précis by Colonel A.B. Davis of his exhaustive survey of the… Read More

New York, 1893. Very good.. [3]pp. on a bifolium, with map laid in. Old fold lines, minor wear and soiling. Prospectus advertising the sale of mortgage bonds for the Sherman, Shreveport and Southern Railway in Texas. The Sherman, Shreveport and Southern was organized in 1893, as a successor to the East Line & Red River Railroad. The text gives earnings and operating expense information, as well as the interest rates on the bonds in question. The map laid in shows the track line in red, running from Shreveport to McKinney, Texas. The railroad was sold to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company of Texas in 1923. An ephemeral piece from this short-lived little railroad.

[Carson City, Nv, 1877. Good plus.. 246 leaves. Oblong octavo. Original quarter cloth and marbled boards. Spine and edges somewhat worn; text block cocked. Internally clean. A fascinating manuscript receipt book that documents the types and amounts of freight carried by the Virginia & Truckee Railroad during the first half of May 1877. The railroad, completed in January 1870, was built between Virginia City and Carson City to serve the mines of the Comstock Lode, and carried a vast amount of freight between the hub of the Nevada mining boom and the state capital. At the peak of the bonanza in 1876 and 1877, twenty-two V&T locomotives and 361 freight cars transported over 400,000 tons of freight per month, running thirty to forty-five trains per day. The present register dates to the latter portion of this period, and well demonstrates the variety and volume of materials that were hauled along this twenty-one mile section of track. The railroad carried lumber, coal oil, ore bags, tin ware, flour,… Read More

[N.p., 1901. Very good.. Broadside on cloth, 10.5 x 8 inches. Minor fraying along edges, minor creasing. A cloth broadside retained by the Southern California Railway Company as a file copy, and stamped, "June 15, 1901 Blank Form File." The text of the broadside reads, in full: "(Form 1667 Regular.) Southern California Railway Company. KEEP THIS GATE SHUT. 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. Southern Railway Company." A unique file copy of a rare and interesting California railroad broadside notice. An excellent display piece.

Cincinnati, 1856. Good plus.. Five issues, each [20]pp. Quarto. Some light to moderate tanning and soiling. Spine edge reinforced with later paper and staples. Five loose issues of this railroad periodical, containing relevant articles as well as a plethora of advertisements for related sundries and industries. Issues here range from January to August. Content includes articles on steam boiler experiments, railroad stocks, sugar production and consumption, the physical geography of America, and more. Notably, the issue for January 10 includes a report from the Secretary of War's on the Pacific Railroad, giving the project a favorable review. Ads include Hall's Patent Concrete Fire Proof Safe, Lee & Leavitt's Steel Works, Lane & Bodley's Power Mortising Machine, and many many more. A wonderful snapshot of the industrial era in the mid-19th century.

Cleveland: Clark-Britton Printing Co, 1890. About very good.. [36]pp. Oblong small folio. Embossed and printed wrappers, rivet bound at gutter margin. Light wear to wraps. Contemporary ownership inscription on front free endpaper. Minor dust soiling and dampstaining; occasional faint foxing. An attractive and well-produced photographic promotional for the Short Electric Railway Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The firm was the brainchild of native Ohioan Sidney Howe Short, who studied physics and chemistry at Ohio State before moving to Denver in the 1880s to make a living as an inventor of electrical gadgets. In 1890, he returned to Cleveland, where with the backing of magnate Charles F. Brush he established the present company, which manufactured electric streetcar systems. The firm was successful enough that it was bought out by General Electric in 1892. The present promotional is a testament to his success, with images and descriptions of Short's trolley lines installed in cities and towns across the… Read More

[Chicago: Poole Bros, 1928. Very good plus.. 32pp. Original pictorial wrappers, stapled. Minor wear and dust-soiling to wrappers. Internally clean. A vibrant depiction of the great city of San Antonio, Texas produced by the Missouri Pacific Railroad during the latter part of the Roaring Twenties. The promotional work is profusely illustrated with photographs accompanied by text touting the many advantages of the Alamo City. The images feature well-known attractions such as the Alamo, Alamo Plaza, various missions, and the downtown commercial buildings, intermixed with lesser-known aspects of San Antonio life such as the golf and polo scenes, Olmos Dam, Fort Sam Houston, Medina Lake, and others. The photographs includes an "Aerial View of the Heart of San Antonio." The Missouri Pacific also includes a bit about itself, with photographs of the "Sunset Special" locomotive and the Missouri Pacific Lines' Bridge across the Mississippi River at Memphis, plus a map of the line on the last page. OCLC… Read More

Chicago: John Anderson & Co, 1881. Good.. 16pp. Original printed wrappers. Minor biopredation at lower right corner, slightly affecting printed area of rear wrapper, but nothing else. Contemporary ink stamps on wrappers. Light tanning internally. Scarce promotional for the routes and grants lands published by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway during the early 1880s. The railroad operated from Chicago to St. Paul and Council Bluffs, and here advertises its services and available westward connections from those points on the Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, and several other lines. It also promotes the availability of railroad and Homestead Act lands in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, with descriptions of the agricultural prospects and natural resources of each. Two maps of the Chicago & Northwestern routes are printed on the rear wrapper.

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

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.

[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

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

[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

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

[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

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

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