About the Collection
The William Halsey Locomotive Drawing Collection contains ink and watercolor drawings by railroad enthusiast William W. Halsey (1850-1913). The drawings depict locomotives and tenders primarily built or purchased by the Erie Railway between 1863 and 1876, with locomotives from some other railroads also included.
The drawings provide a comprehensive study of locomotives of the New York state region in the 1863-1875 period. The images are realistic in proportion and detail and correlate with photographs of locomotives of the period. All the drawings include the locomotive and tender.
A significant aspect of the drawings is the record of colors and paint schemes used at the time. Some of these drawings represent the only record of this applied decorative railroad art to survive. The engines display a wide range of colors and schemes indicative of locomotive builders or the maintenance shop’s style. Colors varied from one Erie shop to another. Hornesville Division engines had a single wine-red scheme, Susquehanna Division locomotives varied widely, and Eastern Division had common colors but many styles. The individualistic nature of the managerial structure is rarely visible in such complete form as in this set of drawings.
Information on each drawing is written in graphite underneath the image. Although uncertain, it can be assumed that this was done by the artist. The dates recorded here are most likely the dates that the locomotives were manufactured or refurbished (1860s and 1870s) and not the dates of the drawings since watermarks on the paper date from later periods, even as late as 1897.