Snapshots of the Past

The express train – Antique Wall Art

The express train, New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1870. — antique lithograph
The express train, New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1870.. Antique lithograph from the Railroads & Depots collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Step back in time with The express train, an antique lithograph rich in period detail. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.

Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. A conversation-starting piece for home, office, or as a meaningful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

The express train

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Here a single fast passenger locomotive, the "express" of the title, is the focus rather than a station or a crowd, which sets it apart from many railroad scenes of the period. Express trains of the 1870s ran fewer stops and shorter schedules than local service, and they came to symbolize the speed and reach of a rail network that was knitting American cities together. Currier & Ives, the New York firm that printed this lithograph around 1870, turned out large numbers of inexpensive railroad views for a broad public. Such prints offer a view of how Americans pictured the machine that was reshaping their travel and their sense of distance.

Created / publishedNew York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1870.
Medium1 print : lithograph.
GenreLithographs 1870.
NotesCurrier & Ives : a catalogue raisonne / complied by Gale Research. Detroit, MI : Gale Research, c1983, no. 1944.
SubjectsRailroads--United States--1870. Railroad locomotives--United States--1870.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,000 × 2,397 px · prints to 10 × 8 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-183517

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