Fred. 1917 Santa Fe Railway 23rd Annual Report Presentation Copy E.P. Ripley Signed
This is the 1917 Twenty-Third Annual Report of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, covering the fiscal year ending December 31, 1917, and it carries genuine historical significance beyond a typical corporate report. The volume opens with a presentation page reading Compliments of E.P. Ripley, referring to Edward Payson Ripley, the legendary president who led the Santa Fe from near financial collapse in 1895 into one of the great transcontinental railroads of the early twentieth century, a role he held until 1920.
The report also carries a Franklin Institute Library bookplate from Philadelphia, marked with a class and accession number and the handwritten notation Given by E. P. Ripley, tying this specific copy directly to Ripley's personal library gifts and institutional provenance. The cover bears a period ink stamp dated May 31, 1918, further confirming its authenticity as an original distributed copy rather than a later reprint. Inside, the report documents detailed financial statements and operational data from the railway's twenty-third year, offered during the height of Ripley's tenure and just as the federal government would soon take over rail operations for World War I purposes.
This is a genuinely scarce piece for serious collectors of Santa Fe Railway history, presidential railroad ephemera, or institutional library provenance items, showing expected age toning and wear from over a century of history but with all text fully intact and legible. A meaningful acquisition for anyone building a collection around Edward P. Ripley or the golden era of the Santa Fe system.