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Worcester Salt Special 162 Cars Started by President-Elect William McKinley. Train Nearly One and a Half Miles Long.

Silver Springs, New York: Worcester Salt Factory, ca. 1897. Chromolithograph, 29.625” x 21.5” plus margins.

A lithograph commemorating the departure of the Worcester Salt Special which transported over five million pounds of table salt, an event prompted by the election of William McKinley—who also set the shipment in motion at the press of a button.

This advertising print depicts from an elevated vantage point what was billed as the "largest single shipment of a manufactured commodity ever made," via the Worcester Salt Special—a 162-car train containing a consignment of orders that was contingent upon President William McKinley's election. According to the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, N.Y., “Arrangements had been made by a special electrician to make attachments at each starting point so that a signal bell on each engine near the engineer was connected by wire and at precisely 7 o'clock, by previous arrangements, Major William McKinley, president-elect, at Canton, Ohio, 'pressed the button' and simultaneously the engineer did the rest. At the same moment the trains started while hundreds viewed them with their flying banners.”

Departing on 6 Jan. 1897, the shipment traveled via the Erie Railway, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The long train, consisting of at least five engines and a multitude of orange boxcars, is depicted here leaving the Worcester Salt Factory in Silver Springs, NY, whose factory buildings and smokestacks appear in the background, The train crosses countryside and winds along a river towards "New England points." The massive size of this shipment is detailed as follows: “[The] Train nearly one and a half miles long, over 5,000,000 pounds Worcester Salt packed in 725,613 bags, 50,000 cartons, 7,000 large sacks, enough to season 100,000,000 pounds of butter, the barrels piled end on end would be over six miles high, the barrels laid in a row would extend 131 miles."

The cars were all decorated with banners and the addresses of the different firms to whom the consignments were made; each car has two white flags labeled "W.S." The first section of the train had a parlor car attached that contained representatives of leading newspapers in New York and Boston and cities along the line, in addition to the representatives of the Worcester Salt Co.

No copies recorded in OCLC.

REFERENCES: Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York: 7 Jan. 1897), p. 4; “Worcester Salt Special.” New York Times (NY: 7 Jan. 1897), p. 6.

CONDITION: Very good, a few small expert repairs at edges.

Item #6378

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