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THE RENDELL COLLECTION OF RAILROAD CERTIFICATES
The Kenneth W. Rendell Collection of Railroad Stock Certificates
comprises 95 stock and bond certificates printed by railroad companies
during the nineteenth century and 4 municipal bond certificates from the
City of Philadelphia from the same era. The Collection is arranged in 99
folders in 2 boxes. The railroad companies represented in the
Collection range from the obscure (e.g. the Swan Creek Railway Company) to
the prominent (e.g. the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana
Railroad Company) and mainly come from the Midwest and Great Lakes Region.
Many of the companies were competing vehemently for the new markets in
this region and were often short lived before neighboring, larger
companies swallowed them up; most of them wound up as part of the great
New York Central Railroad by the end of the century. Several of the
certificates bear the signatures of prominent railroad men of the time,
including Cornelius Vanderbilt, Alfred Kelley, John B. Jervis, Henry
Pratt, Edwin Dean Worcester and Decatur Axtell. Another
interesting facet of the Collection is the number of fine engravings on
the certificates themselves, many of which were printed by the American
Bank Note Company. Aside from lavish frills and border work, many of the
certificates contain intricate landscape scenes with locomotives and
steamboats and often depict scenes from nineteenth century agriculture and
industry. Kenneth W. Rendell is a collector of manuscripts and
rare books and lives in Dover, Massachusetts. - : -
: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -
Extent: .75 linear
feet Number of Boxes: 2 Bulk dates: 1850 - 1900 Span dates: 1840 -
1915 Provenance: Gift of Kenneth W. Rendell, January, 1992. Processed
by: Michael J. North Date: 12 August, 1992
ACCESSION DATA: Gift of Kenneth W. Rendell, January, 1992.
BULK DATES: 1850 - 1900
SPAN DATES: 1840 - 1915
EXTENT: 2 boxes
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