Thomas H. Gray collection, 1874-1945

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Summary

Abstract:
This collection includes sketches for several railroad-related objects, news clipping chronicling Gray's contributions to railroad safety and photographs.
Extent:
.17 Linear Feet 1 half-box
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Thomas H. Gray Collection, MS 36, California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives, Sacramento, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of news clippings chronicling Gray's contributions to railroad safety and obituaries from various sources marking his death. Also included is correspondence, primarily between Carlton J. Corliss and Thomas Gray's children in 1945.

Mr. Gray's leather-bound notebook, kept approximately between 1874 and 1891, contains sketches for several railroad-related objects, including a crossing sign, warehouse doors, a baggage car floor grating, a tool box, and a caboose ladder. Notes on prices, materials, loans of materials, and mathematical formulas are also scattered throughout the notebook, which is less than half-used.

Two photographs complete the collection.

Biographical / historical:

Thomas Gray (March 22, 1846, Toronto, Canada - January 16, 1935, Burlingame, California) worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco, California from 1876 to 1916. According to Southern Pacific, Gray, and Gray's children, he invented the widely-used "Stop, Look & Listen" crossing sign in 1884. Correspondence included in this collection from Carlton J. Corliss, a manager in the Public Relations office of the Association of American Railroads in 1945, suggests an alternate origin.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Zoe Martin, 1996
Physical location:
Statewide Museum Collections Center
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research by appointment. Contact Library Staff

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the CSRM Library & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Thomas H. Gray Collection, MS 36, California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives, Sacramento, California.

Location of this collection:
111 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814, US
Contact:
(916) 323-8073
Library.CSRM@parks.ca.gov
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