Cafe Witteveen (run by friend Jeremy W.) featured a website dedicated to the insignias of railroads long gone by. Honoring my Maryland roots, here’s a Baltimore & Ohio insignia from 1945:
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad insignia (1945). Photo: http://annyas.com/railroad-company-logo-design-evolution/
This reminded me of a job Walker Evans did in 1956 for a Fortune Magazine article entitled “Before They Disappear.” The film is housed in the Walker Evans Archive at The Metropolitan Museum of art, 1994.259.11.1-155. Interestingly, the Fortune article did not mean “before trains disappear,” but was focusing on older railroad insignias being replaced by mid-century commercial designers, “lurking near, T square poised.”
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Walker Evans Archive, 1994.259.11.1.