Memento, Old Tay Bridge, [1885]
- Title(s):
- Memento, Old Tay Bridge.
- Published/Created:
- [Dundee, Scotland] : [George Petrie], [1885]
- Physical Description:
- 1 card photograph : albumen print on card mount ; mount 22 x 17 cm
- Holdings:
- Rare Books and ManuscriptsPhotographs A no. 5Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon FundView by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Copyright Status:
- Copyright Not Evaluated
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/14072515
- Classification:
- Photographs
- Notes:
- Photographic memento of the 1879 Tay Bridge Disaster, in Dundee, Scotland, reproducing ticket stubs of passengers that died when a train plunged into the Tay Estuary. The legend at the foot of the photograph states: "These tickets were collected at St Fort Station, on 28th December, 1879, by Robert Morris, agent; Wm. Friend, ticket collector; and Alex. Inglis, porter, from passengers who lost their lives by the Fall of the Tay Bridge."
The memento was described in an advertisement in the Dundee Courier, September 1885: "Memento of the Old Tay Bridge. A sad interest attaches to memento of the Tay Bridge disaster which has been issued. It takes the form of a cabinet-sized photograph of the tickets collected at St Fort Station from the passengers in the ill-fated train, the corners being filled in with [carte de visite] portraits of the driver, fireman, and two guards. The whole is remarkably clear and distinct. Copies of the photograph are to be obtained from Mr Petrie, antiquarian."
After the disaster the tickets and railway staff's statements were crucial in determining the number of passengers aboard the train. The company practice was to collect the tickets at St Fort, the station on the southern side of the Tay preceding the crossing to Dundee station. The three representatives of the company determined that their were between 73 and 75 passengers on the train, "namely, 57 (including two half-tickets as one), four company's servants, two guards not on duty, one mail guard, five persons for Newport, and five or six for Broughty Ferry." It was the rail company practice that the ticket stubs were tied into a bundle and preserved for accounting purposes. - Subject Terms:
- Bridge failures -- Scotland.Carte de visite photographs.Railroad tickets.Railroads -- Scotland.Souvenirs (Keepsakes)Tay Bridge (Dundee, Scotland : Railroad bridge)Tay Bridge Disaster, Dundee, Scotland, 1879.
- Form/Genre:
- Photographs.
Card photographs (photographs)
Albumen prints.
Souvenirs. - Export:
- XML