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Grant Locomotive Works; [George G.] Rockwood, photographer.

A Description of Locomotives Manufactured by The Grant Locomotive Works of Patterson, N.J. [cover title: Grant Locomotive Works].

New York: James Sutton & Company; Printed at the Aldine Press, 1871. Oblong 4to (9” x 13”) trade catalog in blind-stamped pebbled leather album, gilt title on front cover. Half-title, engraved frontis., title leaf, 13 leaves of text printed on one side only, [48] pp., including 30 albumen print photos (roughly 5.5” x 8”) mounted on paperboard leaves with decorative red borders, interior cloth-tape hinges. CONDITION: Good, some discoloration to covers, hinges somewhat slack, 1.5” separation in cloth at upper front edge of spine, corners bumped and worn, some fading to images, occasional light soiling to edges of leaves, slight typical ripple to leaves.

A rare and impressive locomotive trade catalog illustrated with original photographs of engines and parts, providing comprehensive and detailed photographic documentation of locomotive construction. The photographs were taken by the firm of noted New York City photographer George Rockwood.

Included here are portraits of the Lake Shore & Michigan Railroad engine “Horace F. Clark,” #307; Erie Railway engine #356, the Seaboard & Roanoke engine “Champion”; a St. L.& I[ron] M[ountain] R.R engine and cars, a Virginia Coal & Iron Co. engine, and others. Parts such as valves, rockers, cylinder heads, mudholes, frames, guides, wheels, and pistons are captured in photographs as well. In all there are twelve locomotive portraits and eighteen photographs of parts The images of parts have the feeling of carefully arranged still-life photos and are particularly appealing. The text consists of specification tables and descriptions of parts.

Grant Locomotive Works (1863–1883) was awarded the gold medal at the 1867 Paris Exposition for the locomotive engine America, built for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and reportedly fastened a brass replica of this award on the cabs of all their engines. Noted for its standardization of parts, Grant Works advertised in an 1877 Railroad Gazette that, “all parts are made to gauges and templates and are guaranteed to be interchangeable on all engines of the same class.”

The first engine built by the precursor to Grant Works was commissioned by the nearly completed Erie Railroad in 1848. Due to the cheap water power of the Passaic River Falls, Paterson, NJ became an industrial center for four locomotive firms. One was Swinburne, Smith & Company which was forced into bankruptcy by the panic of 1857, merging into the New Jersey Locomotive & Machine Company, which in turn was bought by D. B Grant in 1863, who managed the business successfully until 1883 when an attempt to move the firm to Chicago failed.

George G. Rockwood (1832–1911) was born in Troy, New York. As a teenager, he met Samuel F. B. Morse, who captured his imagination with accounts of his experiments in telegraphy and photography. Rockwood began his career as a newspaper writer in Troy, then in 1857 established a daguerreotype studio in St. Louis. Soon thereafter, he proposed a partnership to his brother Elihu and removed to New York, the pair opening a photo studio at 839 Broadway. Rockwood’s photographic practice encompassed the daguerreotype, Civil War and other landscape photography, early use of the carte-de-visite for portraits, and extensive use of the cabinet card format. At the end of his career, Rockwood’s studio records indicated that he and his assistants photographed some 350,000 individuals. A prolific writer on photographic topics, Rockwood published extensively in the photography periodicals of the day.

Item #7057

Price: $5,500.00