Everett Lee DeGolyer Jr. - Trains.

Everett Lee DeGolyer Jr. (1923–1977) was an American photographer, collector and railroad historian whose work concentrated on the railways of the United States during the transition from steam to diesel power. The son of geophysicist and petroleum geologist Everette Lee DeGolyer, he developed an extensive interest in transportation, particularly railroads, and began photographing locomotives and railway infrastructure while also systematically collecting historic railroad photographs. From the 1940s through the 1970s he photographed extensively in Texas and elsewhere in the United States, recording companies including the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, Missouri Pacific, Southern Pacific, Fort Worth and Denver, and numerous regional and industrial railroads. His photographs document steam locomotives approaching withdrawal, expanding diesel fleets, passenger services, freight operations, stations, yards, rolling stock and the physical infrastructure of the American railway system.

DeGolyer's photographic method was strongly descriptive and closely connected to his work as a railroad historian and collector. Locomotives were frequently photographed from broadside or three quarter viewpoints that clearly recorded wheel arrangements, tenders, numbering, mechanical details and company markings. His surviving notes identify locomotive classes, builders, construction dates, locations and subsequent histories, giving the photographs considerable value as technical records. His archive also preserves the work of numerous other railroad photographers, so the Everett L. DeGolyer Jr. Collection should not be treated as exclusively his own photography. Alongside thousands of negatives made by DeGolyer himself are original photographs, copy negatives and prints by photographers including G. M. Best, Fred Jukes, James L. Ehernberger, W. O. Gibson and others, allowing the collection to document American railroading across a substantially broader period than DeGolyer's own photographic career.

Rather than establishing his reputation through conventional photobooks, DeGolyer concentrated on building a research archive of American railroad photography, manuscripts and technical information. His personal collection eventually grew to approximately 15,000 photographic prints and tens of thousands of negatives, organised systematically by railroad company, locomotive number, rolling stock, buildings and location. The collection is now preserved at the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, an institution named for his parents, Everette Lee and Nell Virginia DeGolyer, and forms part of a much larger specialist archive of transportation history. The surviving photographs document both the appearance of individual locomotives and the technological transformation of American railroads during the middle decades of the twentieth century, particularly the replacement of steam traction by diesel electric power.

Everett Lee DeGolyer Jr.

Music
Fields - Shuta Yasukochi

Camera is on:
Thank you for all your support.

Photographs by Everett Lee DeGolyer Jr. (1923–1977).
Collection: Everett L. DeGolyer Jr. Railroad Photographs.
Source: DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.
Licence: Public Domain

#EverettLeeDeGolyerJr #photography #americanrailroad #railroadphotography #steamlocomotives #DieselLocomotives #SteamToDiesel #TexasRailroads #railroadhistory #americanrailway #locomotives #railroads #railroad #railwayheritage #1950s #1960s #1970s