By Railfan & Railroad Staff

CLIFTON FORGE, Va. — The Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society has received a collection of nearly 30,000 images from author and historian Thomas W. Dixon Jr. 

The images come from a number of photographers and were collected by Dixon over the decades as he worked on 39 different titles about the C&O, including for the historical society. Dixon kept the material because the society did not have a proper place to store and catalog it all — until now, with the expansion of its Clifton Forge headquarters.

The images are from all eras of C&O operations, particularly heavy in equipment, as well as railroad stations and structures. Some of the photos already have been cataloged and entered into the Society collection through digital scanning in the past ten years. This donation now transfers the remainder. The collection was formally accepted by C&OHS Vice President Clifford L. Clements in August. 

“The Society’s collections are used not only for our own publications but by a wide variety of institutions and entities all over the country and the world,” Clements said. “In recent years, we have provided material to such organizations as the Smithsonian Institution, United Nations, the U.S. Postal Service, BBC, Brookings Institution, A&E and the History Channel, and hundreds more.” 

For more information, visit COHS.org.