Big Four Station train engine photograph

This photograph shows a locomotive engine that ran on the Big Four Railroad, with a note on the reverse which reads "BIG FOUR ENGINE #7514 S. Pruegfred[?]." The Big Four Railroad was also referred to as the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railway. On June 30, 1889, the consolidation of three major railway companies which serviced the American Midwest, formed the Big Four Railroad. In 1890, the Big Four Railway absorbed the Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway. In 1906, the New York Central Railroad acquired the Big Four, and in the 1960s the Penn Central railroad absorbed Big Four's rail lines. This is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in the Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939