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Approximately thirty-nine collodin negatives featuring scenes from the Union Pacific Railway, including mountain and park scenes and the framework of railroad tracks. Sizes range from 4 x 8 to 10 x 13. Together with correspondence and important family documents such as property leases, wills and Sedgwick family genealogy. Stephen J. Sedgwick was a teacher and lecturer from New York, as well as one of the early photographers documenting the western route of the Union Pacific Railroad. He started with a lecture series of Illuminated Lectures, called Across the Continent on the Pacific Railroad. These lectures were said to have been very captivating, as Professor Sedgwick would show the building of the railroad using a Magic Lantern. In the spring of 1869 when the railways opened up the West, he made the trip with a well-known Civil War photographer, A.J. Russell, to gather more material for his lectures. Together with A.J. Russell, O.C. Smith, and J.P. Silvis, he contributed to the Stereoscopic Views of Scenery series while working with the Photographic Corps of the U.P.R.R.. The Magic Lantern views were the successors to the large-scale painted or sketched panoramas that provided a window into the western scenery for the eastern audience. The approximately six hundred photos in the series depicted the route from Omaha to Sacramento. Although Professor Sedgwick contributed to the catalogue, the Union Pacific Railroad did not have him on their payroll. From the glass negatives he acquired working with the U.P.R.R. team, he created his Lantern Journey lecture series. It is also believed that Sedgwick gained possession of some of the originals produced by A.J. Russell. In the lectures he gave throughout the country about his journey with the U.P.R.R. photographers, he shared the grand landscapes with many eager audiences. From the approximately six hundred photographic negatives that were produced, almost four hundred now reside with the American Geographical Society. In addition to these, some of the images were left with Professor Sedgwick?s doctor to hold; from there they descend to the Combes family. Other images can be found in libraries and museums across the country, including the Oakland Museum in Oakland, California, and also in the UCLA Collection. Compiled from: 1) Pattison, W.D., The Pacific Railroad Rediscovered. Geographical Review, Vol.52, No. 1 (Jan., 1962), pp. 25-36. 2) Pattison, W.D., Westward by Rail with Professor Sedgwick: A Lantern Journey of 1873. Reprint from The Historical Society of Southern California, Vol. XLII. No. 1 (December, 1960).

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