Original photographic print: The Chicago Special of the O.R. & N. Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, 1901.

Item Details

[Oregon], Unknown, circa 1901, Original Photographic Print, Unmounted

Original Photographic Print, Very Good

Original photographic print, 8 × 4.875 inches. Image attributed to Benjamin A. Gifford and identified in an Oregon Historical Society-derived record as The Chicago Special of the O.R. & N., 1901, OrHi 3755. The image depicts O.R. & N. locomotive No. 131 pulling passenger cars around a double-track curve beside the Columbia River.

THE CHICAGO SPECIAL ALONG THE COLUMBIA.
A striking 1901 view of the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company's Chicago Special rounding a curve beside the Columbia River. Locomotive No. 131 leads the passenger train beneath the basalt cliffs while a long line of men stands beside the lower track, combining railroad, landscape, and human activity in a single panoramic composition. The image was subsequently included in Gifford's Snap Shots on the Columbia, copyrighted in 1902. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: AN ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT.
Continuous-tone photographic print measuring 8 × 4.875 inches, unmounted. The image extends nearly to the edges with a narrow white margin. Blank and unmarked on the verso. Examination under magnification shows photographic tonality rather than a printed halftone screen.

CONDITION: Very Good. Image remains clear with good tonal range and detail. Light age-related handling and surface evidence only. No mounting or markings to the verso.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: RAILROADING THROUGH THE COLUMBIA GORGE.
Gifford records the railroad at the intersection of transportation and landscape that characterized the Columbia River at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Chicago Special represented the growing integration of the Pacific Northwest into national passenger rail networks, while the photograph places that technology dramatically within the Gorge terrain.

LOCOMOTIVE NO. 131.
The locomotive itself is identifiable. No. 131 was a 4-6-0 built by New York Locomotive Works in October 1889 as Oregon Railway & Navigation No. 46. After several renumberings it became No. 131 in 1894 and ORR&N No. 131 in 1896. It later passed to the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company and was retired in 1925. 

SUBJECTS: Benjamin A. Gifford, Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, Chicago Special, Columbia River Gorge, Columbia River, Oregon railroads, steam locomotives, locomotive No. 131, passenger trains, railroad workers, railroad history, Oregon photography, Pacific Northwest

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