RICHARD COOK

Organized from the personal collection of negatives given to the Allen County Museum by Nola Austin Cook in 1994, this exhibition draws attention to Richard Cook’s significant and unseen collection of photographs. Known within the rail industry and by train enthusiasts, Cook was a self-trained photographer who used his innate handling of the photographic process, his acute sense of aesthetics, and his vast knowledge of rail history to inform his photographs. This collection captures the essence of the historic era of the railroad industry while highlighting Cook’s passion for the giant machines regularly heard in the background of daily life – on the railroads, in the rail yards, and at the locomotive factories and train stations in Ohio, the Midwest, and other cities throughout the country.