Book Review - O. Winston Link:  The Man and The Museum

Published by the O. Winston Link Museum, Roanoke, VA
Writer - Thomas Garver, Organizing Curator; Editors - Museum Staff and Volunteers, 44 pages soft cover

Unlike the previous Link collections published as coffee table volumes, this little book covers much more ground than his N&W work, albeit more thinly.

RyPN readers may not be aware that Link had a life and career apart from his signature steam-at-night oeuvre. His early family life, career as an industrial and commercial photographer (as an in house employee), first marriage, and breakout as a freelancer, are covered lightly but thoroughly in the first 9 pages, which include some non-railroad images that help us appreciate his technical and artistic expertise in a wider venue.

The following 22 pages focus on his cumulative 9 months of work over a 5-year period on the N&W.  His technique, as well as artistic motivations, are verbally explained and documented with his photographic images, many of which are familiar to Link aficionados.

The final 12 pages cover the close of his professional career, his unfortunate second marriage to Conchita Mendoza, including her collaboration with Edward Hayes (the man Link had hired to restore his steam locomotive) in stealing his estate and portfolio; and the founding and development of the Link Museum itself. The old N&W Passenger Terminal now houses the museum, and rates a couple pages of its own history, and Raymond Loewy styling.

The book is well designed, and professionally executed with high quality reproduction on heavy, slick stock.

This is a great gift shop book, which has much wider general appeal versus just a railfan audience. Art historians and appreciators, photographers interested in lighting and technique, historians of the communities served by the N&W, and the general public will all find it of interest, at least as a pleasantly nostalgic album, but with much more to offer than just a series of B&W images shot 50 years ago.

I would recommend it as a somewhat, but not overly, rail related gift for railfans to give to their non-railfan friends – it could easily help them develop an appreciation of the history we all admire.

(Dave Lathrop)