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Kent Griffith Collection

6 cartons, 5 oversize folders (10.5 linear feet)

(1868 – 1998)

Edward H. Nabb Center for Delmarva History and Culture, Salisbury, University, Salisbury, Maryland

Identifier 1992.008
Creator(s) Griffith, Kent
Acquisition

Donated in 1992 with additional accessions in later years (1992.008, 2012.102, 2015.116, 2015.141, 2017.073, and 2019.095).
Language(s) English
Use Records are open for research. Copyright, including literary rights, belongs to the author(s) or their legal heirs. Permission to publish or reproduce must be obtained from the Nabb Research Center which extends beyond "fair use."
Preferred Citation "Item, collection title and identifier, box # and folder # (if applicable), Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture, Salisbury University, Salisbury, Maryland."
Attribution Finding aid written by Ian Post
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Separated Materials

Oversize items are located in the Nabb Center's flat files.
Abstract

The Kent Griffith Collection consists of extensive documentation of railways on and near Delmarva, including (but not limited to) the Eastern Shore Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad, and New York, Pennsylvania, and Norfolk Railroad from the 1800s to the 1990s. While the collection includes Griffith's research notes and correspondence, as well as photographs he took and collected, the railroad memorabilia that Griffith collected was thorough and diverse. These documents include pass cards, time tables, employee timebooks, papers from a railroad employee TC Hurst, a scrapbook with hundreds of early 20th century Pennsylvania Railroad technical and safety memos, shipping and freight tags and receipts, detailed track charts and maps, and more.

Biographical History

"James Kent Griffith 60 of Princess Anne, died Friday, February 6, 2015. He was born on August 3, 1954 in Beebe Memorial Hospital in Lewes, Delaware (today, Beebe Healthcare) the first of five children born to Hannah Ayres Esham and Robert Cyrus Griffith, IV. Kent graduated from Stephen Decatur High School in 1972 and soon thereafter headed west to “seek his fortunes” in California. On his return east several years later he met and married Janet Catlin of Princess Anne, MD. They had two children: Michael C. Griffith and Elizabeth A. Griffith.

He is survived by his wife, Linda M. Wiles, of Princess Anne, MD; her parents, Thomas H. and Evelyn Stump Wiles of Princess Anne; his mother, Hannah Esham of Berlin, MD, his siblings Dirk Griffith of Kinston, NC., Holly Eckman of Fargo, ND; and Christina Del Pino of Monte Verde, FL. He was preceded in death by his father and a sister, Melinda Alvarez, of Middleburg, VA, and his brother-in-law, Dale S. Wiles.

Kent was active in several organizations, including the Asbury Chancel Choir and the Salisbury Chamber Singers. He had a lifelong love of history, and anyone who knew him knew that he had a love of trains, in particular steam engines. Kent had an affection for PRR #1223. He was conversant in all areas of American, Maryland, and regional history. Kent had a penchant for genealogy, leading him to spend countless hours in library archives. While he was comfortable being alone in his research, he was equally comfortable sharing the knowledge he had gained, talking to local organizations that shared his interest and gleaning additional information from the citizens who had lived the events he’d researched.

Kent had an uncanny recall for dates, including births and deaths of family, friends, historical figures and entertainment industry figures from the early 1900 to the mid 1970's. He read extensively and tended to focus on histories and biographies. His preference for the pun was exceeded only by his quick wit and caring nature."

Arrangement Statement

The collection is arranged into two series:

Series 1: Personal Papers and Research

  • Subseries 1.1: Family History Tree
  • Subseries 1.2: Correspondence
  • Subseries 1.3: Notes
  • Subseries 1.4: Newspaper Clippings and Articles
  • Subseries 1.5: Photocopies of Documents
  • Subseries 1.6: Photographs

Series 2: Railroad Memorabilia

  • Subseries 2.1: Pass Cards
  • Subseries 2.2: Time Tables
  • Subseries 2.3: T.C. Hurst
  • Subseries 2.4: Railroad Management
  • Subseries 2.5: Shipping and Freight
  • Subseries 2.6: Track Charts and Maps
  • Subseries 2.7: Miscellaneous

Subject Terms

  • Topical Terms
    • Labor History
    • Newspapers
    • Photography
    • Railways
    • Transportation
  • Corporate Names
    • Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
    • Eastern Shore Railroad
    • Maryland Railroad
    • New York, Pennsylvania, and Norfolk Railroad
    • Pennsylvania Railroad
    • Pennsylvania Railroad Company
    • Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad
  • Location Terms
    • Delaware
    • Maryland
    • Virginia

Inventory List

The inventory list for this item is hidden due to its length. Click the button below to view it.

Box 1

  1. Subseries 1.1 (Family History Tree): Hearne family tree [SEPARATED]
  2. Subseries 1.2 (Correspondence): Correspondence, 1971-1976
  3. Subseries 1.2 (Correspondence): Correspondence, 1977-1979
  4. Subseries 1.2 (Correspondence): Correspondence, 1980-1989
  5. Subseries 1.2 (Correspondence): Correspondence, undated
  6. Subseries 1.3 (Notes): Railroad research notes, undated
  7. Subseries 1.4 (Newspaper Clippings and Articles): Railroad newspaper clippings, 1800s-1900s
  8. Subseries 1.4 (Newspaper Clippings and Articles): Oversize railroad newspaper clippings, 1800s-1900s [SEPARATED]
  9. Subseries 1.4 (Newspaper Clippings and Articles): The Comet Advertiser issue, 1896 [SEPARATED]
  10. Subseries 1.4 (Newspaper Clippings and Articles): Transcribed newspaper articles
  11. Subseries 1.4 (Newspaper Clippings and Articles): Salisbury Advertiser indexed clippings
  12. Subseries 1.4 (Newspaper Clippings and Articles): “Ellendale”, 1985
  13. Subseries 1.4 (Newspaper Clippings and Articles): “Dining by Rail” recipes, undated
  14. Subseries 1.4 (Newspaper Clippings and Articles): “The PRR in Norfolk” article, undated
  15. Subseries 1.5 (Photocopies of Documents): Photocopies of railroad documents, 1800s-1900s (Many in series 2)
  16. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Black and White 8x10 prints (1/3)
  17. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Black and White 8x10 prints (2/3)
  18. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Black and White 8x10 prints (3/3)
  19. Subseries 1.6: Oversized photographs, [SEPARATED]
  20. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Black and White photographs
  21. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Color photographs
  22. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Ocean City photographs
  23. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Robert J. Lewis photographs
  24. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Negatives and transparencies
  25. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Photocopies and reproductions

Box 2

  1. Subseries 1.6 (Photographs): Slides (41 boxes)
  • Westover Station Methodist Church, Snow scenes
  • Maine. August 1987
  • M&E Pinetree removal, Girdletree Freight Station, Fruitland Railroad sunset, Snow Hill Station renovation. January 1997
  • Maryland and Delaware Railroad, Delmar, Rockville B&O station, Ocean City aerial photos
  • Ironshire Station, Powellville building, Big Oar
  • Cassatt, sunsets, Poco Pass Station. November 1989
  • Altoona. April 1987
  • October 1981
  • Big Timbers debris, SH bridge collapse. August 1989
  • 614 Port Jervis NY. November 1998
  • Powellville, Dagsboro Frankford rehab, Locomotive 1666. September 1984
  • December 1994
  • Gale Frags. October 1983
  • Wilkens Station, PC river trestle, Cassatt, Delaware Lewes Station. April 1985
  • Pittsville Station, B&A move, Ebenezar Methodist Church, Berlin Main Street
  • Coolspring Station, Lewes Station, Delmar. April 1986
  • Mirror image of sunset and pine bluff, countryside photos, abandoned farm, Saint Alban’s interior, Seaford Mill. April 1997
  • Sunrise photos, Delmar yard. July 1984
  • Ebenezer Esham, gravestone, various ruins, painting. May 1990
  • Tuchahoe sawmill, Girdletree Freight Station, Saint Georges, flood. August 1989
  • Victory Chimes, Cape Charles, White Haven. November 1985
  • Conrail
  • Conrail Coal, Easton, Harborwatch. February 1983
  • Pittsvile Station. October 1988
  • M&D Frankford, Rockawalkin station. October 1984
  • High Tides, night club. November 1981
  • 1890 Ocean City painting, Locust Grove, Worton Blacks.
  • Last Easton Br. Train, Goldsboro to Greensboro to Clayton, group portrait. February 1983
  • Saint Martin’s. August 1984
  • Westover Station interior, Stockton, Girdletree Station, M&D snow shots. March 1986
  • Milton-Ellendale Line, Trestle, Berlin track, Townsend, Vandyke, Golts, Chesterulle, Sudlerville.
  • Closeups of locomotives
  • Countryside, Cassatt, city hall tower. January 1997
  • Hudson K.C. (Kansas City?) November 1995
  • Williamsburg Station, CS Horn pt camp.
  • Steam Town 614. October-November 1998
  • Altoona. April 1987

Box 3

  1. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass cards for Baltimore and Delaware Bay Railroad, 1896-1899
  2. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass cards for Baltimore and Eastern Railway Company, 1926-1937
  3. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass cards for Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Atlantic Railway, 1901-1915
  4. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Due assessment card for Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers, 1955
  5. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass card for Chesapeake and Delaware Railway, 1880
  6. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass card for Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Railroad, 1885
  7. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass card for Delaware Railroad Line, 1868
  8. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass card for Kent County and Townsend Railroad, 1874
  9. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass card for Maryland and Delaware Railroad, 1877
  10. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass card for Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Railway, 1917
  11. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass cards for New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad, 1886-1916
  12. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass cards for The Order of Railroad Telegraphers
  13. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass cards for Pennsylvania Railroad, 1904-1956
  14. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass cards for Wicomico and Pocomoke Railroad, 1882
  15. Subseries 2.1 (Pass Cards): Pass card for Worcester and Somerset Railroad, 1879
  16. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroad time tables, 1914-1919
  17. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroad time tables 1920-1925
  18. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroad time tables 1926-1929
  19. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroads time tables 1930-1932
  20. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroad time table broadsheet, 1932
  21. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroad time tables, 1933-1939
  22. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroad time tables, 1941-1945
  23. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroad time tables, 1946-1949
  24. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroad time tables, 1950-1956
  25. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Pennsylvania Railroad time table, 1962
  26. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Florida East Coast Railway Company time tables, 1971-1975
  27. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Norfolk and Western Railway time tables, 1945, 1954
  28. Subseries 2.2: (Time Tables): Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway time table, 1940
  29. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Eulogy of Thomas Carroll Horst by Richard Hirata, 1991
  30. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Pennsylvania Railroad and Washington Terminal Company books of rules, 1925-1931
  31. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Penn Central Electrical Operating Instructions, 1973
  32. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1963 (October)
  33. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1964 (October)
  34. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1965 (April)

Box 4

  1. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1965 (October)
  2. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1966 (April)
  3. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1966 (October)
  4. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1967 (April)
  5. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1968 (April)
  6. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1969 (April)
  7. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1969 (October)
  8. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1970 (May)
  9. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1971 (July)

Box 5

  1. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers time table, 1972 (April)
  2. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Engineer and Firemen time books, 1942-1946
  3. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Engineer and Firemen time books, 1953-1957
  4. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Engineer and Firemen time books, 1957-1960
  5. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Engineer and Firemen time books, 1960-1965
  6. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Engineer and Firemen time books, 1965-1969
  7. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Engineer and Firemen time books, 1970-1975
  8. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Engineer and Firemen time books, 1975-1978
  9. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Engineer and Firemen time books, 1980-1981
  10. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): “K4s I have fired” list
  11. Subseries 2.3: (T.C. Hurst): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers pocket book (blank), undated
  12. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): JL Shortall’s Pennsylvania Railroad Management scrapbook, 1929-1949
  13. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): JL Shortall’s loose Pennsylvania Railroad Management scrapbook items, 1938-1951
  14. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): Annual Report of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, 1863-1864

Box 6

  1. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): Pennsylvania Railroad special instructions to telegraph operators and linemen, 1884
  2. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): Pennsylvania Railroad Book of Rules, 1925
  3. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): Pennsylvania Railroad Maintenance Instructions, 1954
  4. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): Pennsylvania Railroad electrical operating instructions, 1960
  5. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): Delmarva Division Railway Employee’s time book, 1957
  6. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers agreement with Pennsylvania Railroad, 1965
  7. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): Station and Railroad listings, undated
  8. Subseries 2.4: (Railroad Management): Blank forms (daily time reports, time returns, delay reports, and report of tests of signal apparatus), undated
  9. Subseries 2.5: (Shipping and Freight): Freight ratings, rules, regulations, 1953-1954
  10. Subseries 2.5: (Shipping and Freight): Fruit/Freight invoices, 1896
  11. Subseries 2.5: (Shipping and Freight): Fruit/Freight invoices, 1896
  12. Subseries 2.5: (Shipping and Freight): Fruit/Freight invoices, 1896
  13. Subseries 2.5: (Shipping and Freight): Freight bills/waybills, 1876-1940
  14. Subseries 2.5: (Shipping and Freight): Various Clearance forms, 1940-1971
  15. Subseries 2.5: (Shipping and Freight): Ticket stubs, 1912-1925
  16. Subseries 2.6: (Track Charts and Maps): Pennsylvania Railroad track chart (Milton Branch/Cape Charles), 1950
  17. Subseries 2.6: (Track Charts and Maps): Pennsylvania Railroad track chart (Delmar to Cape Charles), 1950
  18. Subseries 2.6: (Track Charts and Maps): Pennsylvania Railroad track chart (Wilmington to Delmar), 1954
  19. Subseries 2.6: (Track Charts and Maps): Pennsylvania Railroad track chart (Wilmington to Delmar), 1961
  20. Subseries 2.6: (Track Charts and Maps): Cape Charles and Ocean City maps, 1941-1951
  21. Subseries 2.6: (Track Charts and Maps): Cape Charles Station blueprints, 1944-1945
  22. Subseries 2.6: (Track Charts and Maps): Track, siding and switch charts, undated
  23. Subseries 2.6: (Track Charts and Maps): 3 rolled Right of Way track maps, drawn 1918 (revised to 1942) [SEPARATED]
  24. Subseries 2.7: (Miscellaneous): Worcester County Railroad stock certificate, 1896 [SEPARATED]
  25. Subseries 2.7: (Miscellaneous): Angus Sinclair locomotive parts chart, 1920
  26. Subseries 2.7: (Miscellaneous): Worcester County property dispute correspondence, 1908
  27. Subseries 2.7: (Miscellaneous): Methodist Episcopal Church ephemera, 1891-1918
  28. Subseries 2.7: (Miscellaneous): Odd Fellows’ opera programs, 1897

Artifacts

Please contact Nabb Center staff for complete list.

Attachments

None