Accession Number
1989/1.53

Title
Malloy's Cut, Sherman Station, Laramie Range

Artist(s)
Andrew Russell

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1868

Medium & Support
albumen print on paper

Dimensions
8 in x 9 13/16 in (20.32 cm x 24.92 cm);14 5/16 in x 19 5/16 in (36.35 cm x 49.05 cm);8 in x 9 13/16 in (20.32 cm x 24.92 cm);5 15/16 in x 8 in (15.08 cm x 20.32 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. W. Howard Bond

Subject matter
This photograph depicts a ground-level view of a train track running through a freshly excavated passage. Running diagonally away from the camera, the track enters the frame in lower left corner, the roughly hewn railroad ties and iron tracks stretching into the distance. On either side of the track, the walls of the manmade passage rise steeply upwards. Cleaved out of the rock and soil in the train’s way, Malloy’s Cut allows the railroad to continue onwards unfettered by the natural topography before it. A lone man stands to the right of the tracks in the center of the frame, one leg raised on the banks, slightly turned away from the viewer and gazing into the distance. The man’s stance evokes the industrious and determined spirit of the time. This pose, paired with the railroad running out of sight, speaks to the enthusiastic momentum of American westward expansion of the time.  

Physical Description
This photograph depicts railroad tracks cutting through a man-made passage.  To the right of the tracks stands a lone man looking into the distance.

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
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Keywords
Figures
Landscapes
Transportation
excavation (process)
excavations (earthworks)
hills
men (male humans)
railroads (infrastructure)
train tracks
transportation engineering (civil engineering)