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
