# Early Railroad bill of lading (1849)



## Grimm (Oct 5, 2009)

I picked this up and thought it might be of interest for those interested in early railroad operations. It is a bill of lading for the Providence & Worcester Railroad Corporation dated Jan 29, 1849. It's for a shipment of hardware from the Providence Tool Co. to the Starks & Pruyn company in Albany NY. It has a very cool image of an early one-armed billy locomotive with luggage/passenger cars. I did some research on the companies and found out that the Providence Tool Co. made tools, rivets, nuts&bolts, etc. The Starks & Pruyn company made at that time bridges and boilers. The bill doesn't look much different then more modern versions.

Front:











Back: 










Here is the links to the full resolution images:

Front 

Back


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

Cool - an antique Bill of Lading, complete with Rorshach test!

JackM


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## Grimm (Oct 5, 2009)

Maybe it's coffee?







It doesn't smell like anything except dust now, after 150+ years. 

I did have some questions about it now that I have been studying it for a while. "Marks", is this a copy of what would have been written or attached to the actual item(s)? Also can anyone decipher the full "Articles" text? I can read hardware, but the first two words are incomprehensible to me.







I suspect that it is a term widely used at the time but isn't used now. I'm also assuming that the weight is in pounds? Thanks,

Jason


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## Ironton (Jan 2, 2008)

Under ARTICLES I get: Nine Kegs Hardware 

Under Marks I get: Stacks and Pruyn, Albany NY, to be forwarded without delay. 

Hope this helps. This is true cursive writing which has not been taught for years (do you remember references to fine copperplate writhing?).


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

I agree with Rich's interpretation of the writing. I found it interesting to help with this as the lady that was daycare for our daughter's would translate census and other ancient records to her laptop for local organizations. Every now and then she'd ask me for an interpretation of what I thought I saw. It was fun without the work of re-typing all that information into a database. 

I would disagree with cursive not being taught today. Just not widely taught. I know many folks who practice and write fluently in cursive and do some beautiful calligraphy. I suppose if I practiced it more, I could be better than I am. Heck I rarely pick up a ball point pen anymore. 

Chas


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## Grimm (Oct 5, 2009)

Excellent Rich, thanks!







That makes perfect sense, they didn't have cardboard boxes back then so they sent everything in barrels or kegs as they put it. Any thoughts on what "marks" mean? Thanks again, very cool.


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## Ironton (Jan 2, 2008)

Chas, as I understand it it is not cursive that is taught. They are teaching manuscript and calling it cursive. I do not know the details of the differences, but that is how it was explained to me. Copperplate was a cursive as used on the waybill. 

Grimm, I can only guess that marks might be short for remarks. It seems unlikely since they were a lot less likely to use abbreviations at that time. Not impossible, just preferred writing most things out.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

I sort of lean toward "Marks" referring to the markings on the outside of the respective shipping containers.
[*] Ship to:
[*] Address, City, State
[*] Contents: (if present)
[*] Shipper:
[/list]


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

Rich, 
Ok, I see what you mean. Agreed. 

Steve, 
That is where my mind leads me to believe that "Marks" means. 

I once procured a bunch of old waybills too... not sure where they are filed at this point though. 

Chas


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## Grimm (Oct 5, 2009)

Thanks guys, that was my thought as well, just would like to be sure. There has to be some way of identifying the kegs once they got to their destination.


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## Ironton (Jan 2, 2008)

Chas, I may owe you an apology. I did not have an agenda about the handwriting, I was just stating my position. No emotions meant to be involved or implied. My background is mathematics, and other than plagiarizing everybody that has gone before we tend to just state things. 

As for the marks, the conductor would probably not see the kegs, crates, or whatever the merchandise is in. He would probably only see the waybill. That is why I went with remarks, things he needs to know about the shipping. Notice the waybill only has shipper, receiver, and shipping information. Once again, just stating a position, not trying to step on anybodies toes or start an argument.


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

Rich, 
No problem here.. I'm not invested in this either just helping out where I can. Same as you. 

Chas


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Rich

Ditto as to what Chas said, we all just put in our ideas.









Just as an aside, if you want to get an idea of just how much trouble this one little document type (i.e. Bill of Lading) has caused over the years. Go to Google Books and enter railroad bill of lading, and the vast majority of the results-set are from legal proceedings or proceedings of various state governments on statutes, commissions; railroad, warehouse, inland-water etc., and then the federal government. Whew boy what a can of worms. Hehehe


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## cephius (Jan 10, 2008)

The definition of mark as a verb is very flexible and does have much in common with remark. I could see it being used to "take careful notice of", "attach a tag or label to", or "track ownership of". American business English evolves


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## scottemcdonald (Jan 11, 2008)

This might help in defining the term "marks": http://www.export911.com/e911/prod/shipMark.htm 

I ran into this when I was importing from Japan. I had to fill out paperwork and draw the "mark" for the customs company that was to receive the shipment and move it through customs for me. This is a term with regards to shipping that goes way back and I would interpet the bill of lading to mean "this is how the item is marked" to help identify the item. 

Scott


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