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Title: Accident on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, near Burlington, N.J. Aug. 29th 1855. 21 persons killed_ 75 wounded
Description: Disaster scene showing the carnage and melee following the collision between a Camden and Amboy mail and passenger train on route from Philadelphia to New York and a horse-drawn wagon of an elderly physician. In the background, rescue workers attend to the tangled wrecks of the derailed passenger cars. Some are smashed and lay in a ditch. The mail car remains upright and on the tracks. The horse pulling the wagon lays dead, his guts seeping out, in the left of the image. Onlookers gather on a debris-strewn hill near the overturned wagon and crash site. In the foreground, dozens of evacuated passengers and crash victims lie on the ground and assist the injured among debris and passengers' valises and personal effects. The crash occurred when the train reversed its direction to accommodate a south-bound train on the one-track system. Physician John T. Hannegan witnessed the initial passing of the railcars and assumed he had safe crossing. He and his accompanying family survived the crash., Not in Wainwright., Name of artist supplied by Peters., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 4, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bb 674 C 14, Inscribed on verso: From Horace W. Smith, Oct. 18, 1866.
Creator: Collins, John, 1814-1902, artist
Date: [1855]
Location: Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Bb 674 C 14

Title: Conflagration of the steam boat New Jersey on the Delaware River opposite Philada March 15th 1856 in which 60 persons lost their lives
Description: Shows, in the distance, clouds of smoke rising from the Philadelphia and Camden Ferry Co. steamboat under the winter night sky as rowboats race to and from the wreck. In the foreground, two survivors sit and cling to cakes of ice near floating debris. In the right of the image, her sister ferry "Dido" travels to the rescue, the ship's reflection visible in the water. Captained by Ebenezer Corson, the "New Jersey," on mid-voyage to Camden from Philadelphia via an alternate elongated route due to heavy ice, caught fire as the result of defective boilers. With the fire spreading rapidly, Corson retreated to Arch Street Wharf in Philadelphia, and came within thirty feet of the pier when the pilot house collapsed leaving the boat unmanned and out of control. Corson survived by leaping ashore before the uncontrolled ship drifted back out on the river., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 154, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bc 83 N 548, See reduced variant "Conflagration of the steam boat New Jersey on the Delaware River opposite Philada. March 15th 1856 in which 50 persons lost their lives" [LCP Wainwirght 82, P.2026]
Creator: Heiss, George G.
Date: [1856]
Location: Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Bc 83 N 548

Title: Explosion and burning of the cartridge factory, cor. Tenth and Read [sic], March 2[9]th 1862
Description: Disaster scene showing the aftermath of the explosion of the factory of Professor Samuel Jackson located in South Philadelphia. Shows people fleeing, trapped, and engulfed in flames at the ruins of the burning factory. In the foreground, a man rushes to cover a man's body that has had its head and arm amputated; men throw buckets of water and blankets on women on fire; individuals carry the wounded; comfort the survivors; rush in with buckets; and hose the fire. Also shows a man looking in horror from a train car in the left of the image and debris flying in the air and lying on the ground. Over 15 people, including the son of the proprietor, perished in the explosion of the factory that was contracted to produce one and a half million experimental "solid water proof patent cartridges" during the Civil War. Jackson, a Philadelphia pyrotechnist and inventor, began the manufacture of fireworks in Philadelphia in 1837. He continued in pyrotechnics until 1887, when he began to manufacture danger signals for railroads. During his pyrotechnic career, a number of his establishments were destroyed through explosions., Name of artist supplied by Wainwright., The numeral "9" printed in the reverse in the date in the title., Inscribed on recto: North of Moyamensing Prison. Philada., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 215, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bb 83 C 328
Creator: Magee, John L., artist
Date: [1862]
Location: Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Bb 83 C 328

Title: The great conflagration in Philadelphia on Tuesday July 9th 1850 Terrific explosion of saltpetre [sic] in Water Street. Houses destroyed by the fire 500 _ Killed 57_Wounded 115_ Loss of property over one million of dollars
Description: Disaster scene showing the commotion in front of the partially destroyed stores of John Brock & Co., and Gordon and Berger at 39 (i.e., 100 block) North Water Street. People hold a crowd back as fire fighters attend to the collapsing building spewing a cloud of smoke. A family, including a mother and child, flee past fire fighters rushing to a fallen comrade as debris falls down upon them. Also shows a man kneeling near the Vine Street Wharf as another stands in the center of the view with his arms up in the air. The explosion emanated from a fire started by the friction of a hoisting-machine igniting a large store of gunpowder and saltpeter in the Brock, and Gordon and Berger building. The blaze that spread about one square mile between Front and Callowhill streets destroyed actually about 367 houses and stores. Several people were blown into the Delaware River and residents evacuated as a result of the explosion., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 329, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bb 83 P 544, Rosenberg, a landscape, portrait, and figures painter, worked in New York and Philadelphia during the 1850s and 1860s.
Creator: Rosenberg, Charles G., artist
Date: c1850
Location: Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Bb 83 P 544

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