The arrival of railroads in the Gulf Southwest marked a turning point in America's last frontier. Although the railroads were not the primary cause of westward expansion, they furnished the ways and means for hardy and courageous people, some from distant lands, to build and develop a vast new segment of a growing America. Then Came the Railroads: The Century from Steam to Diesel in the Southwest tells the story of these railroads and the people who built and followed them. American Indians, the land, and even the elements were hostile to the railroad builders, who laid thousands of miles of shining rails from Kansas and Missouri to the Gulf and from the Mississippi to the Rockies. Frontier settlers also faced hostile conditions, and they did not always see eye to eye with the railroads. But when faced with overwhelming odds, they joined forces and worked together to make the Southwest what it is today. The road was not easy. The railroads were torn by internal strife, and settlers met seemingly insurmountable obstacles: droughts, floods, and economic depression. Railroads and settlers depended on each other for existence, and with that realization came the answer to coexistence--friendly cooperation.

In the late 1980s, David Kahler was deeply inspired by seeing an exhibition of O. Winston Link photographs. He soon began making annual trips to the West Virginia and eastern Kentucky coalfields, destinations that strongly resonated with his own aesthetic of "place." Armed with a used Leica M6 and gritty Tri-X film, he and his wife made six week-long trips in the dead of winter to photograph trains along the Pocahontas Division of the Norfolk Southern Railway. Nearly one hundred images edited from this body of work form the core of The Railroad and the Art of Place, along with a selection of earlier Pennsylvania Railroad steam-era photographs that reflect Kahler's interest in the railroad landscape from an early age. Also included are three essays by Kahler, Scott Lothes, and Jeff Brouws, discussing the personal motivations, historical context, and aesthetic development behind the photography. With funding for printing provided by the Kahler Family Charitable Fund, all sales will go to support the Center's work.

Empire’s Tracks boldly reframes the history of the transcontinental railroad from the perspectives of the Cheyenne, Lakota, and Pawnee Native American tribes, and the Chinese migrants who toiled on its path. In this meticulously researched book, Manu Karuka situates the railroad within the violent global histories of colonialism and capitalism. Through an examination of legislative, military, and business records, Karuka deftly explains the imperial foundations of U.S. political economy. Tracing the shared paths of Indigenous and Asian American histories, this multisited interdisciplinary study connects military occupation to exclusionary border policies, a linked chain spanning the heart of U.S. imperialism. This highly original and beautifully wrought book unveils how the transcontinental railroad laid the tracks of the U.S. Empire.

The "iron horse" became a major weapon in the first war fully dependent on railroads. Moreover railroads would escalate and prolong the war. Leavy provides a study of trains in the Civil War through photographs and a rich narrative.

By the time of the Civil War, the railroads had advanced to allow the movement of large numbers of troops even though railways had not yet matured into a truly integrated transportation system. Gaps between lines, incompatible track gauges, and other vexing impediments remained in both the North and South. As John E. Clark explains in this compelling study, the skill with which Union and Confederate war leaders met those problems and utilized the rail system to its fullest potential was an essential ingredient for ultimate victory.