She Worked on the Railroad Too

It sure seemed like rugged, he-man work back then, in 1908, on America’s bustling rails. But wait, in the photograph, the two brakemen--wearing ragged coveralls and caps, standing beside a boxcar--are girls, perhaps in their early teens. Scruffy-looking girls, with lanterns in hand, staring into the camera.

This photograph belongs to railroad historian Shirley Burman, who hopes someone might be able to identify the girls or where the picture was taken. Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Burman will be on hand to discuss her photo exhibition, “Women in the American Railroad,” at Travel Town Museum in Griffith Park. The show will include the 1908 picture and 29 others from Burman’s collection of several thousand photographs featuring women who worked on the rails as engineers, machinists, welders and other laborers from 1890 on.

It’s a topic that first turned her head in 1978, when she was hired as a photographer for the California State Railroad Museum. “You get curious about women being in this man’s environment,” said Burman, 64, who is now a historian and lecturer.

For information, call (323) 662-5874.