The Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) was incorporated in 1850 to build a rail line from Louisville, Kentucky, south to Nashville, Tennessee. The railroad was completed in 1861 just in time for the Civil War. L&N, unlike most southern lines, thanks to providing transportation for the Federal Army during the Civil War, survived the war with money available for expansion. Thus L&N acquired a number of southern railroads that would provide the L&N with track extending south from Louisville to Pensacola, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; and New Orleans, Louisiana. L&N's Kentucky track was served by fifteen yards: Madisonville, Owensboro (Doyle), Bowling Green, Skilman, Louisville (Strawberry), Latonia, DeCoursey, Paris, Lexington, Winchester (Patio), Corbin, Ravenna, Hazard (Crawford), Loyall, and Harlan. Within the following pages we will journey over the L&N in Kentucky via postcards, but our journey routes will not always follow direct L&N train routing.

When the Louisville and Nashville Railroad was founded in 1850, it was the first major railroad in the west, and the only one headquartered in Kentucky. In the twentieth century, the L&N grew into one of the nation's major rail systems, reaching from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River Valley and down to Florida and the Gulf Coast. Kincaid Herr worked for the Louisville and Nashville for more than forty years, and this book originated as a series of articles that he wrote for L&N Magazine between 1939 and 1942. After various printings through the 1940s and '50s, this fifth edition, completely revised and updated, was released in 1964. The 1950s saw the reluctant abandonment of the old steam engine (the L&N was a major coal-carrying railroad) in favor of the diesel. During the late 1950s and early 60s, the railroad experienced significant expansion in the South, where the economy was being fueled by new industry. Coal, automobiles, mail, and passengers all counted on the L&N to get them around the region. Herr traces the development and expansion of the L&N system over a century and profiles important company figures, such as longtime L&N president Milton Smith. Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan and railroad bandit Morris Slater also find their place in this entertaining history. Four appendices on topics ranging from the materials used to build trains to passenger equipment to motive power round out the complete, but accessible, account. Even after all these years, this volume remains the concise, illustrated history of "The Old Reliable" for its many fans around the world.

Equal parts mail art, data visualization, and affectionate correspondence, Dear Data celebrates "the infinitesimal, incomplete, imperfect, yet exquisitely human details of life," in the words of Maria Popova (Brain Pickings), who introduces this charming and graphically powerful book. For one year, Giorgia Lupi, an Italian living in New York, and Stefanie Posavec, an American in London, mapped the particulars of their daily lives as a series of hand-drawn postcards they exchanged via mail weekly—small portraits as full of emotion as they are data, both mundane and magical. Dear Data reproduces in pinpoint detail the full year's set of cards, front and back, providing a remarkable portrait of two artists connected by their attention to the details of their lives—including complaints, distractions, phone addictions, physical contact, and desires. These details illuminate the lives of two remarkable young women and also inspire us to map our own lives, including specific suggestions on what data to draw and how. A captivating and unique book for designers, artists, correspondents, friends, and lovers everywhere.