Any photographer working today or during the turn of the last century would envy the career of the photographer William H. Rau. Today many examples of his photographs of world sites can be found as stereoviews for tourists in many antique shops throughout the United States, but his railroad photographs taken with a large format camera yielding 20 x 24 inch glass negatives are the technical and aesthetic highlight of his vast output. In 1895 Rau was the Lehigh Valley Railroad’s official photographer and during the 1890’s he also worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad provided Mr. Rau with his own train and coach equipped with darkroom facilities for Rau to capture scenic views along the many routes of the PRR, he also captured views of outlying industries such as the Westinghouse Air Brake factory in Wilmerding, PA which provided for the first time safe braking of trains, interior design shots of the well appointed Pullman cars of the 1890’s, rural and city stations, tracks, semaphores and the long gone track pans. Any photographer interested in trains could not help but wish they could have had the experiences on the rails as William H. Rau had. I had a rare opportunity to view up close a collection of Rau’s Lehigh Valley Railroad prints; they were stunning, each albumen print captured views with unsurpassed sharpness and graphic quality. Don’t miss a chance to view an exhibition of Mr. Rau’s work, it will fill you with joy. This is a short introduction for this important photographer who will be featured in many posts over the coming years: stay tuned!

Train assigned to William H. Rau for his photographic excursions along the PRR lines.

William H. Rau in the studio and in the field along the Conemaugh River near Torrance, PA. Rau required two assistants to manage his very large and heavy camera, but getting the camera to the vantage point was just part of the process, prior to taking the picture a light sensitive plate had to be prepared and loaded in holders inside the darkroom of his train car. This light sensitive plate was manufactured of glass and in a very few cases it broke: some original prints exist today made from broken glass plates . The process for making prints involved placing the glass negative in contact with light sensitive paper, the flatness of the glass produced a level of sharpness yielding exquisite detail throughout the print.