Goist, P. F. after W. L. Breton “First Railway Train in Pennsylvania, drawn by "Old Ironsides" the first Locomotive built in the United States. First trip, 23rd November 1832”

P. F. Goist after W. L. Breton.  “First Railway Train in Pennsylvania, drawn by "Old Ironsides" the first Locomotive built in the United States.  First trip, 23^rd November 1832.” 

Philadelphia: Hoopes and Townsend, 1883.  14 x 11 (paper).  Collotype printed by F. Gutekunst.  Very good condition.  A/A

A broadside from 1883 celebrating Matthias Baldwin and commemorating  the 50^th anniversary of Matthias Baldwin’s, Old Ironsides, and the Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown Railroad Depot.  The artist of this piece based his drawing on an 1832 lithograph but added a tender and the correct rendering of Old Ironsides.       

The first passenger-carrying railroad to open in the United States was the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railway, which was incorporated in 1831.  Its first run was in June 1832 using horses to pull the carriages, and the first trip with a locomotive engine was in November 1832, from Germantown to Philadelphia.  The line was extended to Manayunk in 1834 and to Norristown the following year.  This image shows Matthias W. Baldwin’s Old Ironsides, the first American-made locomotive.  It is shown pulling a tender and two carriages  filled with passengers in front of the “Philadelphia Germantown & Norristown Railroad Depot,” located at Ninth and Green Streets.