The Lady Edith Society…and the Lengths Some Will Go To Save a Steam Locomotive

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During the nineteenth century, railroads expanded dramatically across the United States, turning the steam locomotive into a potent symbol of progress in American life. As railroads moved people, goods, and information around the country like never before, the steam-engine seemed to rework the basic nature of time and space. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a keen observer of industrializing America, wrote in 1834 that when riding on a train, “the very permanence of matter seems compromised … hitherto esteemed symbols of stability do absolutely dance by you.”

Yet by the mid-twentieth century, railroads had become a symbol of the past. While trains remained in use, the automobile and airplane replaced them as markers of modernity. Nevertheless, the era of the steam-engine continued to fascinate many Americans, and rescuing relics of the nineteenth century became a hobby for some. One group of hobbyists, calling themselves the Lady Edith Society, even traveled across an ocean to rescue a retired locomotive from the forward march of time.

The Lady Edith Society was founded in 1959 by Edgar T. Mead, Jr., Rogers E. M. Whitaker, and Oliver Jensen, all then living in New York City. None of the men had any engineering background, but they shared an enthusiasm for railroads and their history. Mead, a Wall Street financial analyst, had already spent years preserving railroad equipment and even worked for a railroad in Maine as a young man. Whitaker, who helped to publish The New Yorker and wrote about railroading under the pen name “E.M. Frimbo,” had reportedly traveled over four million miles by train in forty different countries. Jensen, the managing editor of American Heritage magazine, often directed his editorial efforts to covering railroad history.

The three men came together to rescue the “Lady Edith,” the No. 3L steam-engine train for the Cavan & Leitrim Railway of Ireland. The 4-4-0 type locomotive was originally built in 1887 by the noted firm of Robert Stephenson & Company, of New Castle-upon-Tyne, England. The Lady Edith was one of eight steam-engines built by the company for the Cavan & Leitrim Railway. All the trains except one were named after the wives or daughters of the company directors (the final train was named after Queen Victoria).

The Cavan & Leitrim Railway was a 3-foot narrow-gauge railway located in the Irish counties of Cavan and Leitrim. The lighter gauge rail suited the sharp turns and steep grades of the northern Irish landscape. The line was primarily used to haul coal and livestock, though it carried passengers as well. In 1925, the line was absorbed into the Great Southern Railways Company and began to face stiff competition soon after. First highways drew away livestock and passengers, and finally, new mines eliminated the need to transport coal. The line ran for the last time in March 1959.

A few months later, the members of the Lady Edith Society pooled their money together, made arrangements with the transatlantic shipping firm United States Lines, and soon had the Lady Edith and a couple other pieces from Cavan & Leitrim sailing across the Atlantic toward Boston. Once the Lady Edith arrived in the United States, the train was moved to the Pleasure Island Amusement Park in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Cleaned and painted, the Lady Edith and the other pieces from Cavan & Leitrim stayed on display at Pleasure Island for a number of years.

But in 1961, a change in park policy meant the Lady Edith Society had to find a new home for their rescued locomotive. The Lady Edith and its passenger car were then moved to the Pine Creek Railroad Museum near Freehold, New Jersey, for storage and display. Still, the society members longed to see the train run again, so they launched a series of costly and difficult repairs. In 1965, amid the repairs, the Lady Edith was moved a third time to Allaire, New Jersey, home of the new Pine Creek Railroad Division of the New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc.

After many years of repairs, and many delays due to inadequate information, the Lady Edith finally steamed again on May 13, 1967, eight years after leaving Ireland. Although it was a rough ride, everyone gathered was excited to see the train moving under its own power. In subsequent years, the train made additional trips along the tracks in Allaire, usually accompanied by a subsequent series of repairs. By the end of the 1970s, the Lady Edith Society members gradually divested themselves of ownership, with Edgar Meade reportedly the last to transfer his shares.

Today, the Lady Edith remains with the New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc., though some efforts have been made to return it to Ireland.

We know the story of the Lady Edith Society and their efforts to save this steam engine through the papers of Oliver Jensen, which we hold here in Archives & Special Collections. Jensen (1914-2005) was born in New London, Connecticut, and spent much of his life in the state. A railroad enthusiast all of his life, he served as president of the  Connecticut Valley Railroad Company and from 1976-1980 as chairman of the board of directors. The  Connecticut Valley Railroad Company restored tracks along the original Valley Railroad line, transforming the railroad into a popular tourist attraction based in Essex, Connecticut. For more information about Oliver Jensen see the finding aid to his collection at https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/830

This post was written by Shaine Scarminach, a UConn History Ph.D candidate who is a student assistant in Archives & Special Collections. 

Resources in the Archives on Immigration and Ethnic Groups in Connecticut

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When John Lukasavicius first came to this country, he went weeks without seeing the sun. In 1903, Lukasavicius left his native Lithuania at the age of twenty to join his father in the Pennsylvania coal fields. Soon after he arrived, he found himself heading underground before sunrise and working in the pits until after dark. He only lasted three weeks. Lukasavicius told his father he didn’t like the miner’s life, and left to look for something better.

He joined some relatives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he found work in a furniture factory. This job was more to his liking. Not only did it pay better, but bright sunlight streamed in through the windows each day, bathing the shop floor in a warm glow. Despite his rough beginnings, Lukasavicius grew to enjoy his new life in the United States, eventually settling in New Britain, Connecticut.

Lukasavicius told his story to an employee of the Works Progress Administration in 1939. Created by President Franklin Roosevelt four years earlier, the WPA grew to be one of the largest and most diverse New Deal jobs programs. It employed millions during the Great Depression, often in public works projects like roads, bridges, and dams. But it also hired writers, artists, and photographers to study and document local communities.

One such project was the Connecticut Ethnic Survey, a local part of the larger WPA Ethnic Group Survey conducted by the Federal Writers’ Project. Harry Alsberg, head of the Federal Writers’ Project, wanted to represent America’s diverse population in their work. Connecticut would prove a welcome site for the project since by the 1930s, immigrants made up two-thirds of the population.

For researchers interested in the history of Connecticut’s ethnic heritage and immigration, Archives & Special Collections at the University of Connecticut holds a wealth of material on these subjects. In addition to the extensive files of the Federal Writers’ Project, the archive also holds a number of valuable oral history collections that provide a direct window onto the lives and experiences of the state’s many peoples. Among the relevant collections are:

Connecticut Federal Writers’ Project (Works Projects Administration) The collection comprises research materials for the Connecticut Ethnic Survey, carried out by the local office of the WPA Federal Writers’ Project between 1936 and 1939. The material covers all aspects of the immigrants experience and represents people from England, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Poland, and other European countries. It also covers the experience of African Americans who migrated to Connecticut during the Great Migration. Along with surveys and interviews with individuals, the material contains extensive written research produced by WPA employees on work, housing, history, community organizations, education, racial resentment, and many other aspects of the immigrant experience. While a finding aid is not available online, an extensive card catalog is available for researchers to consult in the Archives & Special Collections reading room. Digitized materials can be found here: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/20002:19720002

University of Connecticut, Peoples of Connecticut Project Records The collection comprises a wide variety of material from the Peoples of Connecticut Project. The Project began in 1974 with the goal of educating students about Connecticut’s ethnic heritage. Through research, oral history, and curriculum development, the project provided teaching and learning guides to help students learn about the Connecticut’s rich ethnic heritage. Materials from all aspects of the project are reflected in the collection, from administrative and research files, curriculum guides, bibliographies, and photographs. The oral history materials have been moved to the Center for Oral History Interviews Collection. The finding aid is available here: https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/590 and digitized material can be found here: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/20002:19790014

University of Connecticut, Center for Oral History Interviews Collection The collection comprises interview transcripts conducted by the University of Connecticut Center for Oral History, and individuals and programs associated with the Center. The Center began life as the Oral History Project in 1968 and after expanding over the 1970s was made a center by the UConn Board of Trustees in 1981. Among other collections, the Center holds the oral history transcripts for interviews conducted as part of the Peoples of Connecticut Project. These interviews were conducted by Professor Bruce Stave, who also served as Director of the Center. The finding aid can be found here: https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/984 and digitized material can be found here: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/20002:19840025

Waterbury (CT) Area Immigrant Oral History Collection, University of Connecticut Urban and Community Studies Program The collection comprises digitized transcripts from oral history interviews conducted by students enrolled in Professor Ruth Glasser’s history courses at the University of Connecticut, Waterbury campus. Most of the interviews are with immigrants living in Waterbury and surrounding towns who came to the United States after 1965. Immigrants from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially Puerto Rico, are well represented. As are immigrants from Albania and ethnic Albanians from Macedonia. But the collection also features interviews with immigrants from other parts of Europe, Asia, the Cape Verde islands, and elsewhere. The finding aid can be found here: https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/837 and digitized material can be found here: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/20002:20090014

Italians of New London Oral History Collection The collection comprises video tape recordings of oral history interviews with people of Italian descent living in the area of New London, Connecticut. The interviews were conducted by Jerome Fischer, director of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut, based in New London. The finding aid can be found here: https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/722

We invite you to view these collections in the reading room at Archives & Special Collections. Our staff is happy to assist you in accessing these and other collections in the archives.

This post was written by Shaine Scarminach, a UConn History Ph.D candidate who is a student assistant in Archives & Special Collections. 

DAY-GLO AND NAPALM: UCONN FROM 1967 to 1971

Formal Dinner, McMahon Hall, 1968. Personal Collection of George Jacobi.

August 5th – October 25th, 2019

Reception: September 19th, 2019 6-8pm at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center Gallery

Archives & Special Collections Gallery

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

An exhibition guest curated by alumnus George Jacobi (Class of ’71) on the student times of the late 1960s and early 1970s at UConn and in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival of 1969. Jacobi has curated materials from the Archives & Special Collections photography, periodicals and Alternative Press Collections and incorporated personal collections and narratives from those who lived through it to create a robust personal exploration of the times.

The following essay is an extended introduction to the exhibition Day-Glo and Napalm: UConn from 1967-1971 by guest curator and contributor, George Jacobi (’71).

DAY-GLO AND NAPALM: UCONN FROM 1967 to 1971

Recollections and Impressions for my University of Connecticut Archives Exhibit

George Jacobi ©2019

A small innocuous on-campus house is surrounded by angry UConn students, its front porch protected by armed, helmeted State Police and University Security Officers. The Riot Act has already been read to the 100 or so protesters, whose shoulders are hunched in Navy pea coats against a bitter north wind. It’s the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, 1968. Some of those students spent the previous night with faces lit only by black lights, psychedelic music swirling around them. Smoke from illegal hash pipes drifted out dorm windows. A relaxed but resolute fellowship, they temporarily dwelt in an imaginary world.

Today, back in the daylight, they want UConn to divest itself from the military industrial complex, to end its involvement with Olin Matheson, manufacturer of missiles for the Vietnam War. In fact, they insist. They chant, they yell, they watch as the most committed among them climb onto the recruiting location’s porch to put their bodies in the way of the war machine. This world is far from imaginary. Clubs swing, rocks fly, heads are bloodied. Twenty-one are arrested.

Within two years, the Student Union Mall will be filled with 4000 UConn students – now the entire college is on strike. What is it with these young people? For many, trust in the establishment, from government to church to the University, has completely evaporated. Something is badly broken. How have these middle-class kids, in just a year or two, come to a point of complete resistance to America herself?

The 50th Anniversary of 1969 is more than an appropriate time for this exhibit; it’s also the last significant anniversary when many participants in this bit of history will be alive. Most of the counter-cultural political drama at UConn took place between 1968 and 1970 – ‘69 is a fitting centerpiece. Despite continued racial and anti-war protests, such communal events as the Woodstock Music Festival made 1969 almost feel like a short respite between the more violent bookends of the other two years.

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