John E. Gruber

John Gruber, a railroad historian and photographer, is a founder and first president (1997 to 2013) of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Madison, Wisconsin. He edited its journal, Railroad Heritage, through 2012. He has been a freelance railroad photographer since 1960. He received awards from the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society in 1994 for lifetime achievement in photography, in 2010 for an article, "Railroading Journeys," about the life, times, and photography of Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, and in 2015 for a book, Railroaders: Jack Delano's Homefront Photography. He is author of Classic Steam: Timeless Photographs of North America Steam Railroading (2009), editor of Railroaders: Jack Delano's Homefront Photography (2014), and co-author of six books including Beebe and Clegg: Their Enduring Photographic Legacy (2018), a book from the Center for Railroad Photography and Art tells about how partners Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg introduced railroad photography and the world of railroading to wide popular audiences. His personal documentation of preservation and commitment to its realization extends from the 1960s to today. He is known for his portraits of railroad workers in their workplaces. In a 10-page article, Provocateur of Railroad Photography, in the Winer 2014 issue of Classic Trains, Kevin P. Keefe describes him as "one of the most influential figures in the field."