HUNTINGTON, WV -
Paying tribute to the community's long-time
ties to railroading, the Huntington Museum of Art is hosting a traveling exhibit
of more than 50 photographs depicting railroads and images related to railroads
from around the world.
"Tracks: Photography and the Railroad from the George
Eastman House Collection" opened Nov. 3 and will remain on view until Jan. 27,
2013.
On Nov. 27 at 7 p.m., the museum will offer a guided tour
of the exhibit and an appearance by author and local historian James E. Casto
portraying rail tycoon Collis P. Huntington. A reception will follow. Admission
to the event is free.
Margaret Mary Layne, the museum's executive director,
termed the city of Huntington a "natural fit" for the traveling exhibition of
railroad photographs. Not only was the city founded by Collis P. Huntington as
the western terminus of his Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, "trains and the
railroad still define the layout of the town and remain an important part of its
identity and culture."
A description of the exhibit prepared by George Eastman
House, which originated it, notes that in the early decades of the 19th Century
"two new inventions changed our understanding of space and time. The railroad
made it possible for people to travel well beyond a day's walk from their home,
and the photograph permitted a kind of time travel that made detailed and exact
memory possible, even beyond the grave…. Even today, when the train is less and
less important to most of us, its image retains the power to stir our feelings
and engage our thoughts."
The photo exhibit includes works by Bisson Frères,
William Henry Jackson, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Lewis W. Hine, Aaron Siskind and
others.
The George Eastman House International Museum of
Photography and Film opened in 1949 and is the world's oldest museum dedicated
to photography. It's located in Rochester, N.Y., in the former home of
Eastman (1854-1932), who founded the Eastman Kodak Co. and invented roll film,
helping to popularize photography.
Sponsors for "Tracks" at the Huntington Museum of Art
include the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, and the National
Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the
Arts. For more information about the Huntington Museum of Art, visit www.homoa.org or call (304) 529-2701.
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