Item Info

Item 1, entire page:  A religious bereavement poem, describing the North Pennsylvania Railroad train disaster, variously called "The Great Train Wreck of 1856", and "The Picnic Train Tragedy".  The accident occurred on the morning of July 17, 1856, between a "special excursion train" out of Kensington, overloaded with passengers for a church picnic, and another train, out of Gwynedd.  In a tragic combination of miscalculated timing and failed communication, the two trains collided while rounding a blind curve between the Fort Washinton Station and the now-closed Camp Hill Station, in Whitemarsh Township.  It resulted in more than 60 dead and over 100 injured. The conductor of the latter train survived, returned to Philadelphia, reported the accident, then committed suicide.  He was posthumously absolved by a coroner's jury.  Names of (most of) those who perished appear above the poem, surrounding an image depicting a mourner, leaning on a memorial monument, beneath a weeping willow tree.  Bereavement poem (author unidentified), 16.5 x 24.5 cm, 1856.