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Caught Our Eyes: World War I Train

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Reference staff member Jon Eaker spotted this photograph several months ago in the Bain News Service photographs.

 Austrain [i.e. Austrian] armored train in Galicia. Photo by Bain News Service, between 1914 and ca. 1915
Austrain [i.e. Austrian] armored train in Galicia. Photo by Bain News Service, between 1914 and ca. 1915. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.19471

Jon, who has looked at many a World War I photograph in our holdings, remarked:

It may be my favorite of our WWI pictures. This beast symbolizes how the introduction of widespread mechanization changed warfare. It looks like plate metal was riveted over a train and they even threw a gun in the front for good measure. The angle of the photo is perfect so you can see the full length of it.

Another thing that caught my eye: the ironic spelling mistake that appeared in the caption that the news service wrote on the glass plate. Surely the captioner wasn’t intending to coin a new shorthand term for a train originating in Austria?

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