WITH RELATED RIBBON (RAILROADS.) Christopher Meineke; composer. Rail Road March for the Fourth of July. Illustrated sheet music, [3] pages. Folio, 13 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches, on 2 detached leaves; moderate foxing; inked stamps in lower margin of 2 music sellers (New York and Auburn, NY). Baltimore, MD: George Willig Jr., 1828
Second edition. The Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road was the first common carrier railroad in the United States. The piece was composed for the ground-breaking which took place on 4 July 1828, with the cornerstone laid by elderly Declaration of Independence signer Charles Carroll. This sheet music features one of the earliest illustrations of an American railroad, with an engineer and fireman driving three coal cars down a track, and patriotic emblems overhead. Dichter & Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music page 71; Thomson, Check List of Publications on American Railroads 228.
WITH--silk ribbon illustrated with a similar view of the railroad, juxtaposed with Noah's Ark, and the date "July 4th. 1828." 6 x 4 inches; foxing, folds, minor wear. No other examples traced.
