Edward Hungerford

Born in Watertown, New York, in 1875, Edward Hungerford grew up around the bustle of everyday business and the pull of nearby rail lines. After schooling in Watertown and at Williston Seminary, he briefly studied architecture at Syracuse University before leaving to work as a newspaper reporter in western New York.

Journalism led him to a long writing career, with reporting and editing posts at papers including the Rochester Herald, the Glens Falls Times, the Brooklyn Eagle, the New York Evening Sun, and the New York Herald. Railroads became his central subject, and he wrote widely about train travel and transportation while also working in publicity and publications roles.

Hungerford is especially remembered for pairing his writing with public spectacle. In the 1920s and 1930s he helped organize major railroad exhibitions and pageants, including the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's centennial celebration and the famous Railroads on Parade at the 1939 New York World's Fair. By all accounts he traveled enormous distances by train simply because he loved it, making him one of the era's most enthusiastic champions of rail travel.