Welcome to the Empire State Railway Museum!

Our Featured Exhibit: The Era of the Steam Locomotive
as seen through the lens of Ed Bolsetzian

Born in the heyday of the steam locomotive, Edward Bolsetzian (1914-2008) dedicated much of his life to photographically document these mighty iron relics. A long time board member of the Empire State Railway Museum, he left his prints and extensive negative files in care of our organization. Along with his wife Elizabeth, Eddie documented the era of steam locomotives across our great nation. In a time long before digital cameras, Eddie’s favorite format was the 5x7 view camera. But his photographs also come to us in 8x10 and 2 1/4” format as well as 35 mm slides.

Eddie was born in Yonkers to Armenian parents in 1914. Eddie’s presence at the Museum reminded one of an old mountain guide as he spoke with knowledge and experience to patrons of all ages. Eddie and Betty retired here from New Jersey in 1979 where Eddie continued machining camera fittings and watch parts in the brick house and shop they had built in Chichester until a few years before Eddie passed away in 2008.

We have recreated Eddie’s darkroom as a demonstration of how elaborate photography was just a few years ago, before instamatic digitals and Photoshop. As many of his photographs are undocumented, we invite railroad buffs and historians to use the post-its to help identify the mighty steam locomotives for our museum archives.