Lithograph of trains, cars and a railroad depot scene

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A single sheet brings together locomotives, passenger cars and a depot, so the viewer sees the railroad as a whole system rather than one train. Lithographs like this were printed in large runs and were often used for advertising, company promotion or decoration, which is why they tend to show a tidy, idealized version of the station and its traffic. Depot scenes of this kind were the social center of many American towns, where people met arriving passengers, loaded freight and watched the schedule. Look at the details of the rolling stock and platform to see how the railroad presented its own modern appeal.

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