Portrait of Joe Bloomer and Willie Bradley at Berwyn Station - 1904
Description: This undated image, taken on the east side of the Berwyn train station beside the pump and water trough for the horses, is believed to have been taken by Lucy Sampson. Yet it would have been little more than an illustration had an unknown correspondent not written many clues on both sides of this postcard. The image shows two men, identified in pen as Joe Bloomer on the left, and Wm. Bradley on the right. Joe Bloomer is more formally attired in a Pennsylvania Railroad trainman’s uniform, perhaps like that worn by a ticket-taker, with a double breasted blue serge tunic and trousers, a PRR emblems on the lapel, white shirt and dark tie, and a railroad cap. His companion, Mr. Bradley, is less formally attired, but also wears what appears to be a railroader’s cap. However, close examination of the emblem on Bradley’s cap shows it to say “Adams Express”, an agency not unlike the better known Railway Express Agency. Quite probably Bradley was the agent, or an employee, who would facilitate the movement of freight coming through the station to its final destination. But it is on the reverse of this undated postcard that the mystery increases: “Willie Bradley found dead at Paoli on Sunday morning, July 21st, 1907. Found mangled to pieces on the tracks at Paoli.” - Herb Fry and Roger Thorne
Photographer/artist: Lucy Sampson
Date taken: 1904
Photo location:
Type: photo
Subject: Railroad
Township: Easttown
Source: Herb and Barbara Fry Collection
References:
Contributor: Digitized by Roger Thorne
Notes: Reverse side – “Willy Bradley found dead in Paoli”
