Image of the Week

Our series examining an Image of the Week from the photographic files, by Kevin Warstadt, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

A Dartmouth cycling club ca 1888

Above are the members of a Dartmouth bicycle club, pictured with penny-farthings. The image comes from a folder titled “Bicycle Club and Bicycling 2.”The numbers on the image correspond to an accompanying list of names, which can be seen in the Dartmouth photographic files here. This photo was likely taken sometime in the spring of 1888.

The penny-farthing was invented in 1869 and remained in common use till the 1880s, when it fell out of favor for the safety bicycle. Variants of the safety bicycle remain in use today.

See more images of cycling at Dartmouth here.

Image of the Week

Our series examining an Image of the Week from the photographic files, by Kevin Warstadt, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

Wreckage of the Montreal Express 1887

This week we have an image from a folder titled “Hartford Vermont Bridge Disaster, February 5, 1887.” A card on the back of the image acts as a key for various images within a collection. An x indicates that this image is the eighth in the collection. The caption reads “Near view of south abutment from the ice with debris and the broken journal in foreground.”

As the folder name suggests, the Hartford Vermont Bridge disaster, the worst in the history of Vermont, occurred early in the morning on Saturday, February 5th, 1887. The Montreal Express jumped the tracks just outside of White River Junction and plunged fifty feet to the frozen river below. The wreckage caught fire, burning many of the unfortunate passengers alive. It’s reported that fifty to sixty died in the wreck, although the exact number isn’t known. See more images of the Hartford, Vermont bridge disaster here.