Main Line on Main Street, North Fork, West Virginia
Artist
O. Winston Link
(American, 1914-2001)
CultureAmerican
Date1958
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 15 9/16 × 9 7/16 in. (39.5 × 24 cm)
Overall, Support: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Overall, Support: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated by the artist in pencil on the verso of the print. Artist's Studio stamp on the verso of the print.
Credit LineGift of Susan and David Goode
Object number2023.26.25
On View
Not on viewLabel TextO. Winston Link American (1914-2001) MAIN LINE ON MAIN STREET North Fork, West Virginia, 1958 L2004.11.95 The heyday of many of the coal towns in West Virginia's Mercer, McDowell and Mingo Counties came in the first 20 years of the 20th century. Coal was king, and there was plenty of it to be dug from the ground. As a result, many of the small coal towns had very substantial buildings, but the valleys were so narrow that sometimes tracks, roadways and buildings all competed for the same space. By the 1950s, work in the mines had diminished and the population was dropping. Most of the buildings in this photo were empty then and all have since been demolished. Here, a heavy freight, pulled by Class Y6b 2197, rumbles east on the main line, so close to the curb that one had to park very carefully. Link recalled that the man in the window of the third floor apartment was Dr. J. P. Wade, who had an office on the ground floor. Like everyone Winston Link worked with on the N&W project, Dr. Wade was happy to let Link put a flashbulb in his living room and then sit in the window as the trains passed. Edited By: DS Approved By: MHM Approval Date: 07/25/2005Exhibition History"Norfolk and Western Railway Photographs by O. Winston Link," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., July 1 - December 31, 2005.
