I have a party that has come into a large collection of vintage Pullman "cyanotypes." For the uninitiated, these are blueprint-style photographic reproductions, done as an inexpensive way to rattle off copies for reuse (think early photocopying).

These are eight albums, each 100 photos, each numbered on the cover "PHOTOGRAPHS 100 to 199" up to 800-899. The albums are otherwise unidentified, but all the photographs show what are obviously interior and exterior photographs of Pullman cars in the 1900-1909 time frame. A few photos show details of individual parts, cracked wheels, toilet mechanisms, accident damage, furnishings, and the like. The only identification is the numbers on the original photos all suffixed with "B", with a very rare notation on the back of a couple and some of the later ones dated.

There is evidence that this set was borrowed for use by at least one noted historian ( a business card used as a bookmark).

The current custodian of these albums is interested in seeing that they go to an appropriate home, not so much what they're worth--preferably someone willing to scan them and make them available, like the Mercantile Library has with the Barriger photo collection.

My guess is that the Newberry Library has the originals of these photos, From there, we might look at either the Pullman collection at the Illinois Railway Museum or the Pullman Historic Site.

Any suggestions or offers?

A collection of Pullman builder's photo glass plate negatives were obtained by the Smithsonian. I once had John White and Art Dubin tell me that they had to make a selection because the Smithsonian could not take all of the available plates. So they often selected only one exterior and one interior view of the passenger cars unless it was an interesting car. The Smithsonian collection also includes freight cars.

From the website for the Smithsonian Institution American History Archive Center Pullman Palace Car Company Photographs
The California State Railroad Museum was to acquire another portion of the Pullman negatives (this from the CSRM Foundation webiste):

The California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives has a sizable collection of original Pullman negatives - the majority of the original negatives that did not go to the Smithsonian. the Museum also has a number of prints of Pullman builder photos. I believe the Museum would be interested in the Pullman cyanotypes if they are offered as a donation.
Please contact me off-line if you want to discuss this further.
Kyle K. Wyatt
California State Railroad Museum
Kyle.Wyatt@Parks.ca.gov

Point of order:

Current custodian is more interested in finding a home where it doesn't duplicate current holdings. Odds are both the Smithsonian and CSRM collections have these images already. But the only way for us to ascertain this is to ID exactly what these are (a specific series or category, which plant, etc.) and cross-examine. We do have some specific car names visible in many of the photos. If I get someone who can say "The B### photos were internal company documents, not builder's photos--those are in the CSRM stash" or whatever, then it's a start.

To be "useful," all of these images will have to be scanned, rendered into grayscale, and adjusted appropriately (or do it with film, I don't care). Our one volunteer scanner at the Md. Rail Heritage Library is set up for batch processing of slides, not large prints, though he does prints when they interest him. And Pullman didn't have a plant in Maryland. Thus, I'd like to find someone for them where Pullman fits into the mission statement--Newberry, CSRM, IRM, Pullman Historic Site, etc.

At IRM's Pullman Library we have a fairly small collection of Pullman glass plate negatives numbering in the hundreds mostly of car interiors including a smaller number of exterior passenger, freight, and damaged cars. The earliest negatives have a CS- prefix, the later photos either numerical digits or the digits preceded by a "P". If the described photos have a number that was scratched onto the glass plate negative those numbers would correspond with the numerical listing of official Pullman photo negatives taken at the Pullman Works in Chicago.
There are several locations that might have interest in addition to CSRM, which is a valuable resource with adequate facilities to preserve and access them. The only resource I can come up with is the Center for Railroad Photography and Art in Madison Wisconsin, who do a lot of scanning of individual collections including those at Lake Forest College north of Chicago. If the collection of Pullman cyanotypes represent those cars in the Maryland area, hopefully there would be an excellent repository in the area. If they are of general nature, I am certain there would be interest in scanning and preserving them in a location that can adequately preserve them. The problem is, they do have to be handled very carefully from what I can pick up on the Internet: non-buffered neutral storage as apparently they have had in bound books, good temperature control, and limited exposure to light to prevent fading.
Since we now have glass plate negatives, most not scanned yet and comparable in number to those in the described books, I would take a pass unless otherwise they would be lost to posterity.

Ted Anderson volunteer curator

The photo numbers, apparently written on the negatives and showing up as white on the pictures, are all prefixed with a capital letter "B".

It's been suggested that possibly these are photos from a car builder that built for Pullman in that time frame. I'm certain the right historian looking at the right photos would instantly ID the Chicago Pullman plant or whatever it is in the background of some of the exterior shots.

These booklets are simply bound with giant staples holding together 100 of these single-sided cyanotypes and a cover sheet glued over them. They measure approximate 9" x 7". They could be easily dismantled, scanned (the photos disappear into the binding portion of the booklets), and reassembled into more archival binders.

The time period 1900 to 1909 and the prefix "B" match the construction of cars in the Buffalo Shops of Pullman after the shops were bought from Wagner. We do have original floor plan drawings of Wagner cars when they were incorporated into the Pullman floor plan series after Pullman's acquisition of Wagner Palace Car Company. Under those circumstances, we would be very interested in the cyanotypes which possibly were taken in the Buffalo Shops after acquisition by Pullman, as they would fill a gap in the knowledge of Pullman's Buffalo construction facility where cars were built and serviced from 1899 to 1911 according to Eric Neubauer's timeline. Floor plan drawings of the Wagner cars acquired by Pullman are available from us to compare window layouts, as would be Wagner car photos from others. We can supply a few photos with the 1900's Chicago shop complex in the background for a comparison to backgrounds in the cyanotypes.
Consequently if the above analysis proves correct, these images quite likely are a rare find and worthy of incorporation into any collection including those at IRM's Pullman Library. We would honor the request to scan the cyanotypes and make them available in a form to preserve the integrity of each of the 8 books of 100 images, most likely on CD to preserve detail and minimize shipping cost. Note that the library is self supporting and the volunteer effort must take this into account.
Sincerely, Ted Anderson volunteer curator, IRM Pullman Library