Kenneth W. Rendell Collection of Railroad Stock 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