Permanent Collection

 Photography

Southern Alleghenies

Museum of Art

William Herman Rau

(American, 1855-1920)

Horseshoe Curve, Pennsylvania Railroad, c. 1901

Albumen print,  18" x 45"

R.K. Mellon Family FOundation Art Acquisition Endowment Fund

(95.147)

 
William Herman Rau, best known for his photographs of the Pennsylvania Railroad at the turn of the century, is recognized as one of Pennsylvania's most important and technically accomplished photographers of the 1880s through World War I.  Early in his career Rau was employed by a United States government sponsored survey project in the South Seas.  He also participated in the first systematic photographic documentation of the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone Park, traveling in a special rail car equipped with a darkroom and living area.  His photographs of the Pennsylvania Railroad and life along the tracks were published to encourage the public to travel by rail.  They reflect the symmetry, composition, and style of academic and Barbizon Realism of the mid-19th century. Extensive production of photographic records generated by such projects played a vital role in the development of landscape photography in the United States.

Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art
Saint Francis University Mall

P.O. Box 9,

Loretto, Pennsylvania  15940
Phone: (814) 472-3920  

sama-art.org