Art in the Age of Steam

• Introduction
  • The Formative Years in Europe
  • Human Drama
  • Crossing Continents: America and Beyond
  • Impressionists and Post Impressionists
  • States of Mind
  • The Machine Age
• Comment Card
• Exhibition Catalogue
• Library Resources
• Community Partners
• Group Services
• Press Room
• Sponsors

• Return to Exhibition List ...

The Formative Years in Europe

The Formative Years in Europe presents the early development of the railroad, especially in Britain and France.The first railroad images to appear in Britain were prints, which enjoyed an extensive sale and helped make the new concept of railroad travel more familiar and acceptable to the public. J.C. Bourne's prints and drawings depict feats of engineering: the tunnels, bridges, embankments and cuttings necessary to keep the route level and thus make high speeds possible. In France, the photographer Edouard Baldus promoted the legitimacy of the new railroads by portraying them like timeless monuments, a modern equivalent of the roads and aqueducts of the Roman Empire.

	S. G. Hughes, Travelling on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1833 102.2008.1
	John Cooke Bourne, 1814-1896 Great Ventilating Shaft, Kilsby Tunnel, 1836-1838 74.2008.3
	John Cooke Bourne, 1814-1896 No. 1 Tunnel, 1846 102.2008.2
	John Cooke Bourne, 1814-1896 Wharncliffe Viaduct, 1846 102.2008.3
	John Osborn Brown, Belah Viaduct, 1869 118.2008
	Auguste-Hippolyte Collard, 1812-1897 Roundhouse for Thirty-Two Locomotives, at Nevers, on the Bourbonnais Railway, 1860-1863 103.2008.1