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Bruce Cheever railroad photographs, 1890-1977

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Cheever, Bruce Bissell
Title
Bruce Cheever railroad photographs
Dates
1890-1977 (inclusive)
Quantity
3 Linear Ft.
Collection Number
XOE_CPNWS0028cheever (collection)
Summary
The Bruce Cheever railroad photographs depict railway systems in Washington state, Oregon, other states of the region, and also British Columbia from the late 19th century to the late 20th Century. The photographs depict railway cars, engines, and other rolling stock of railroads and railways throughout the Pacific Northwest as well as railway conductors, passengers, train stations, wharves and city scenes.
Repository
Western Washington University, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies
Goltz-Murray Archives Building
808 25th St.
Bellingham, WA
98225
Telephone: (360) 650-7534
cpnws@wwu.edu
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to the public.

Languages
English.
Sponsor
Funding for preparing this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Funding for encoding the finding aid was awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Bruce Bissell Cheever, an avid scholar of railroad history and lore, amassed an impressive collection of photographs relating to railroads and interurban railway systems in the Pacific Northwest in a lifetime of research on the subject. After earning his Master's Degree in Social Studies from the University of Washington, Mr. Cheever became an instructor in the Economics Department at Western Washington State College of Education in 1948.

In 1951, Bruce Cheever took a leave of absence from Western to pursue his personal academic interests. Instead of returning to teaching after his leave of absence, he began a career with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This career change did not dilute his interest or research pursuits in railroads and interurban railway systems.

Cheever published works from the 1940s through the 1970s. His works include "Electric Railroads in Whatcom County" published in Trolley Sparks, three articles written for Traction and Models: "The Fairhaven and New Whatcom Street Railway Company," "The Bellingham-Skagit Interurban," and "The Bellingham Streetcar System" and a monograph titled "The Development of Railroads in the State of Washington: 1860 to 1948," published in 1949 by the Western Washington College of Education.

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Content Description

The collection comprises approximately three linear feet of material, consisting of photographs and a small amount of textual material, including correspondence, notes, maps, train schedules, and manuscripts and drafts of Cheever’s many publications pertaining to his railroad research.

The photographs, which comprise the bulk of the collection, depict railway cars, engines and other rolling stock of railroads and railways throughout the Pacific Northwest. Railway systems in the State of Washington are particularly well represented, and within the state, most notably Whatcom County and the Seattle area. There are also photographs of several railways in British Columbia, and others from Oregon and other states in the region, but these are few in number compared to Washington State railways, the emphasis of Cheever’s research interest.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Bruce Cheever railroad photographs, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Archives & Special Collections, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA 98225-9123.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The Bruce Cheever railroad photographs are organized in accordance with the following series and sub-series arrangement:

  • Series I: Photographs, circa 1890-1950
    • Sub-series 1: Washington State, 1890-1947
    • Sub-series 2: Other States and Provinces, 1898-1954
    • Sub-series 3: Unidentified Prints and Negatives, Undated
  • Series II: Textual Materials, undated; 1912-1977
    • Sub-series 1: Index, Undated
    • Sub-series 2: Research/Reference Materials, 1912-1974
    • Sub-series 3: Articles Written by Bruce Cheever, 1968-1975

Processing Note

Amber Raney re-engineered the Bruce Cheever railroad photographs for the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies in June 2004. Changes made to the initial arrangement of the collection included further preservation of the photographs. This involved re-housing them in acid-free folders, and buffering them with acid-free paper. In addition, the textual materials were divided up into three sub-series, including the card index of the photographs.

Processing Note

About Harmful Language and Content

To learn more about problematic content in our collections, collection description and teaching tools (including how to provide feedback or request dialogue on this topic), see the following Statement About Potentially Harmful Language and Content

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Finding aid created by staff at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies.
1998

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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