The following excerpt is from the January 4, 2011 edition of the Milford Beacon:
Dover, Del. — From Hawaii to Germany to Delaware, railroad enthusiasts everywhere clamor for
photos of Jackson and Sharp Company trains. The Delaware Public Archives is the keeper of 4,000 of those images, drawings and documents, and is putting a chunk of them on display from Wednesday, Jan. 5, to Saturday, Jan. 8. Soon after that, those images also will be on the Archives’ website, so those far away can get a close-up look.
Jackson and Sharp operated in Wilmington from 1863 to 1950, building railroad cars for operations around the globe. Once the railroad business started going south, they specialized in ships to broaden their reach.
Images from the Jackson and Sharp collection get a lot of requests, said Tom Summers, manager, outreach services.
“We’ve had train enthusiasts from as far away as California and Hawaii request this collection,” he said.
The Archives is in the process of making the files digital and posting them online. It’s a time-consuming process that Summers said is coming to a close.
Summers and photo archivist Randy Goss said putting the collection online is one way of sharing the collection.
