Railroaders: Jack Delano's Homefront Photography

In the winter of 1942-3, photographer Jack Delano was assigned by the Office of War Information (successor of the Farm Security Administration) to tell the story of the American railroad system and its essential role in keeping the nation's troops armed, fed, and housed, in addition to normal homefront railroad work. Delano's boss was Roy E. Stryker, the visionary leader of FSA photography projects during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, documenting social conditions during the Great Depression. The best of Delano's photographs compare favorably with images made by such other famed FSA photographers as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.
Delano's photographs of railroaders in Chicago, the nation's railroad hub, captured life in the yards, shops, and environments of the freight lines. He concentrated on the men and women who made the railroads tick: those employed directly in train service as well as many working behind-the-scenes in repair, maintenance, and bookkeeping. These superb portraits and their subjects' milieus have never before been published as a collection, and they are reproduced here magnificently. Extraordinary documentary text complements the images. Editor John Gruber and others at the Center for Railroad Photography & Art researched the railroaders' lives and wrote their biographies. Delano's son Pablo, himself a professional photographer, made new portraits of many of the railroaders' families and wrote a reflection on his father's career. The book also includes essays by historian Jeremi Suri on the railroad and modern America and by editor John Gruber on Delano's railroad assignment.
Railroaders breaks new ground for the genres of railroad books and historical photography books. These workers' compelling, universal stories create a composite history not only of railroad work but of labor in the first half of the twentieth century.

Winner, George W. and Constance M. Hilton Book Award, Railway & Locomotive Historical Society

Author: John Gruber
Publisher: Center for Railroad Photography and Art
Published: 08/15/2015
Pages: 200
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 3.85lbs
Size: 11.10h x 11.70w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780615951560


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/01/2015 pg. 76

About the Author
Between 1975 and 2000 Jack Holzhueter became well known around Wisconsin for his hundreds of appearances on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television concerning Wisconsin history and Frank Lloyd Wright. He worked at the Wisconsin Historical Society as a research specialist and editor from 1964 until 2000, serving as an editor of the Wisconsin Magazine of History as well as a researcher and editor for the definitive six-volume history of the state. He currently is a member of the Wisconsin Historical Society's governing body. Among his retirement consultancies have been a role in the historic structure report of the Wisconsin capitol building; an essay (with George Talbot) in Zane Williams's acclaimed re-photography book Double Take; and research, editorial, and writing tasks for the Center for Railroad Photography & Art of Madison, particularly for its Railroaders exhibition with the Chicago History Museum.Jeremi Suri is an American historian, and the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs, at University of Texas at Austin.Scott Lothes became the Center's executive director in 2011, after serving on its staff part-time since 2008. In 2013 he succeeded John E. Gruber as the Center's president and editor of its journal, Railroad Heritage. Lothes is an accomplished photographer and author, with more than seventy bylined articles in magazines including Classic Trains, Locomotive, NRHS Bulletin, Railfan & Railroad, Railroads Illustrated, and Trains, as well as two front-page travel stories in newspapers. He is the author and editor of the The Railroad Photography of Donald W. Furler, coauthor of Wallace W. Abbey: A Life in Railroad Photography, and he has contributed forewords and chapters to five other books.John Gruber (1936-2018), the author or coauthor of seven other railroad photography books pursued a photographic interest in railroads from the early 1960s. His images of Chicago's Union Station in that era are milestones in railroad photography. He also was among the first railroad photographers to capture workers in their daily routines. He had a thirty-year career in publications for the University of Wisconsin, and he served as editor of the magazines Vintage Rails and Railroad Heritage. Gruber was the principal founder of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art and served on its board until his death.