This collection includes photographic negatives belonging to amateur railroad photographer and one-time Western Union telegrapher William M. (Murray) Hayes. They include images of locomotives, freight and passenger cars, stations, structures, ferries and employees of railroads across the United States and Canada taken from 1900 to 1965.

William Murray Hayes was born on July 26, 1899, in Cincinnatus, New York. Between the ages of 19 and 30, he was a telegraph operator for Western Union. By the 1950s, Hayes was a radar tester for an electronics company. He died on May 17, 1976 in Syracuse, New York.

2 Linear Feet 5 shoe boxes

Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the CSRM Library & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Collection is open for research by appointment. Contact Library Staff.