Locomotive James McHenry, Atlantic & Great Western Railway

In spring 1862, the chief engineer in charge of building the Atlantic and Great Western Railway—which ran from Salamanca, New York, to Akron, Ohio, and from Meadville to Oil City, Pennsylvania—engaged James Ryder to make photographs that would convince shareholders of the worthiness of the project. Ryder’s assignment was "to photograph all the important points of the work, such as excavations, cuts, bridges, trestles, stations, buildings and general character of the country through which the road ran, the rugged and the picturesque." In a converted railroad car kitted out with a darkroom, water tank, and developing sink, he processed photographs that make up one of the earliest rail surveys.