“Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take…” (Wanderlust 1)
Post published:December 7, 2015
George Inness (American, 1825 – 1894 ), The Lackawanna Valley, c. 1856, oil on canvas, Washington, National Gallery, Gift of Mrs. Huttleston Rogers
This view of Scranton, Pennsylvania, shows the new roundhouse of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad. The painting was commissioned by the president of the railroad ca. 1856. I love the way the train is energetically pulling out of the roundhouse and up the hill, trailing a plume of steam. Most of all, I love the fact that it was painted in an era when the prospect of industrial progress made people celebrate, rather than picket for the snail darter.
“Travel” – Edna St. Vincent Millay
The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn’t a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistles shrieking.
All night there isn’t a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming
But I see its cinders red on the sky
And hear its engine steaming.
My heart is warm with the friends I make,
And better friends I’ll not be knowing,
Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take
No matter where it’s going.
The latest bio of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T.J. Stiles, is a great read. Vanderbilt started his formidable energies from steamboats to railroads in the same decade that Inness completed this painting.
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