1876 Railroad Timetable & Map
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APPRAISER:
Well, Bruce, when I saw this spectacular image when you walked in, I was very pleased, 'cause it's a wonderful thing. But before we talk about this particular image, what I'm gonna do is what it tells us here. "Read the outside of this folder." So, I'm gonna turn this around. And this looks pretty strange, compared to the other side. Can you tell us what this is?
GUEST:
This is a Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad time schedule dated 1876.
APPRAISER:
Right, so it folded up, and those are the covers. And tell me what it's got on here.
GUEST:
Well, it glorifies the railroad and coming to the West. It gives the time schedules here on the top.
APPRAISER:
It is also selling land, because they owned land, the railroad. And down here, you could buy land from them. Let's flip it again, we'll go this way this time. There we go. Down here we have the dugout house, and your ancestor lived in one of those?
GUEST:
They lived in a dugout, and it was not as nice as what they said in the...
APPRAISER (both laugh): Now, how did you find this and where did you find it?
GUEST:
I found it in an antique shop in Oklahoma about ten years ago, and I paid $30.
APPRAISER:
You paid $30. Now, when you found it, it was all folded up.
GUEST:
Yep.
APPRAISER:
One of the things I'm really pleased about is how you've had this framed, because you've done it properly in order to preserve it. Well, let's flip it around again. Flip it this way. When you look at this side, it's spectacular.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
So, the other side was practical: timetable, sales pitch, information; but this is graphically just glorious. We have along the top here-- and I've been told it's the "Ar-Kansas" Valley...
GUEST:
(chuckles)
APPRAISER:
This shows the route of the railroad, and down here we have a map, which is my primary interest. And map collectors want things that have a connection with the history they show, and you don't get any more immediate. This is something, if you were traveling on the railroad, you needed to know where it was gonna stop, when it was gonna go, or if you were thinking of coming out here, as your ancestors did, and you wanted to buy land. This showed you where the land is. Here's the railroad line, it runs off, and there's actually a spur here that comes down to Wichita. And the railroad line continues out, goes to the Rocky Mountains, you see, because a lot of people were going out there. But it's presented in this really, I mean, what I would call a sexy map.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
Today, in a retail shop, I would expect to see this selling for between $1,200 and $1,400.
GUEST:
That's excellent. (laughs)
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