Inventory of the Thomas H. Gray Collection, 1874-1945

Processed by Sarah Logue; machine-readable finding aid created by Xiuzhi Zhou
California State Railroad Museum Library
111 "I" Street
Sacramento, California 95814
Phone: (916) 323-8073
Fax: (916) 327-5655
Email: csrmlibrary@csrmf.org
URL: http://www.csrmf.org/library.html
© 2000
California Secretary of State. All rights reserved.

Inventory of the Thomas H. Gray Collection, 1874-1945

Collection number: MS 36

California State Railroad Museum Library



Sacramento, California

Contact Information:

  • California State Railroad Museum Library
  • 111 "I" Street
  • Sacramento, California 95814
  • Phone: (916) 323-8073
  • Fax: (916) 327-5655
  • Email: csrmlibrary@csrmf.org
  • URL: http://www.csrmf.org/library.html
Processed by:
Sarah Logue
Encoded by:
Xiuzhi Zhou
© 2000 California State Railroad Museum. All rights reserved.

Descriptive Summary

Title: Thomas H. Gray Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1874-1945
Collection number: MS 36
Creator: Gray, Thomas H.
Extent: 1 document box
Repository: California State Railroad Museum Library
Sacramento, California 95814
Shelf location: Big Four Building or off-site storage. Please contact the Library in advance of your visit.
Language: English.

Administrative Information

Provenance

Zoe Martin, 1996

Publication Rights

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 Senior Curator. 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.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Thomas H. Gray Collection, MS 36, California State Railroad Museum Library, Sacramento, California.

Collection Description

The collection consists of news clippings chronicling Gray's contributions to railroad safety and obituaries from various sources marking his death. Also included is correspondence, primarily between C.J. Corliss and Thomas Gray's children in 1945. Mr. Gray's leather-bound notebook, kept approximately between 1874 and 1891, contains sketches for several railroad-related objects, including a crossing sign, warehouse doors, a baggage car floor grating, a tool box, and a caboose ladder. Notes on prices, materials, loans of materials, and mathematical formulas are also scattered throughout the notebook, which is less than half-used. Two photographs complete the collection.

Historical Background

Thomas Gray (March 22, 1846, Toronto, Canada - January 16, 1935, Burlingame, California) worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco, California from 1876 to 1916. According to Southern Pacific, Gray, and Gray's children, he invented the widely-used "Stop, Look & Listen" crossing sign in 1884. Correspondence included in this collection from C.J. Corliss, a manager in the Public Relations office of the Association of American Railroads in 1945, suggests an alternate origin.

Folder 1

Correspondence, Incoming, C.J. Corliss, 1945

Folder 2

Correspondence, Outgoing, C.J. Corliss, 1945

Folder 3

Correspondence, Miscellaneous, 1926-1935

Folder 4

Newspaper clippings, ca. 1914-1935

Folder 5

Notebook, ca. 1874-1891

Folder 6

Photographs

Folder 7

Bibliography