?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(WEST VIRGINIA.) Albums depicting the legendary coal-bearing Virginia Railway. 540 photographs, various sizes up to 8 x 10 inches, laid down on 129 album leaves. 3 matching volumes. Large oblong 4to, 10 x 13 inches, original cloth gilt-stamped "Photographs," minimal wear; a few leaves detached, otherwise only occasional minor wear to contents. Virginia and West Virginia, circa 1920s
The Virginia Railway was formed in 1907 to connect the coal fields of West Virginia with a terminal at Hampton Roads on the Virginia coast. Its creation was shrouded in secrecy as its owners bought up previously inaccessible coal mines and linked existing routes into a state-of-the-art freight line. The line retains a certain mystique among rail fans, who still commemorate the "Richest Little Railroad in the World."
Most or all of these uncredited and uncaptioned photographs seem to relate to the Virginia Railway, including numerous shots of the line's locomotives, coal cars, and stations. One view shows perhaps a hundred cars piled high with coal at a depot. Others show rail lines traversing majestic mountain scenery, presumably in the West Virginia coal country. Many show rail employees, including engineers, Black laborers, and cigar-chomping executives. Several photographs seem to depict a celebration, with an open car full of jubilant men in suits.
Beyond the usual cues from clothing and hairstyles, a few other clues suggest that these images date from the 1920s. Two images show part of an advertising sign for 3-C Nectar, a Virginia soda which boasted "Contains No Habit-Forming Drugs." The company was incorporated in 1921 and was short-lived. Another shot shows the American Locomotive Company's Engine 808, made in 1918; and their Engine 231, which apparently reads 1928.
