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Private Collection
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| Title: |
John Bull, a Sophisticated Locomotive in 1831 (editor's title) |
| Creator: |
Unknown
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Description:
John Bull, a British-built railroad steam locomotive, operated in the United States for the first time on September 15, 1831, on the Camden & Amboy Railroad, the first railroad in New Jersey, which gave it the number 1. The C&A used the locomotive from 1833 until 1866 when it placed it in storage. After the C&A's assets were acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1871, the PRR refurbished and operated the locomotive a few times for public displays. The locomotive was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1884 as the museum's first major industrial exhibit. The Smithsonian commemorated the locomotive's 150th birthday in 1981 by firing it up, making it the world's oldest surviving operable steam locomotive. Today, it is a part of the exhibition, American on the Move. Wrote John H. White Jr., the Smithsonian curator who planned the 1981 operation: "In 1831, it was the most sophisticated and advanced machine of its time, analogous to a modern spaceship." |
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| Classification: |
Equipment and Technology (LCSH)
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| Date Created: |
c1866 |
| Resource Type: |
Image (DCMI Type Vocabulary)
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| Format: |
Sepia print
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| Coverage: |
Spatial, not available; Temporal, c. 1866 |
| Source: |
John Gruber, Madison, Wisconsin |
| Depicted Railroad: |
Pennsylvania Railroad
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| Location: |
Unknown |
| Equipment, Locomotive: |
Robert Stephenson & Co., Newcastle, England, 1831 |
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Creator Description:
The creator is unknown. The copy is by A. S. Walton, general photography, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
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Comments:
The photo appears on page 38 of John H. White Jr., The John Bull: 150 Years a Locomotive (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981). |
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| Collection: |
John Gruber Collection |
| Institution: |
Private Collection
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