Looking for Railroad Jack: A Historian’s Search for a Long-Lost Canine Celebrity by historian Kelli Huggins.

In the 1880s and 1890s, there were few dogs as famous as Albany, NY’s Railroad Jack. Along with his contemporary, the Postal Service’s Owney, Jack captivated the public with his train-riding antics. When he died in 1893, his body was taxidermied and, subsequently, lost from the historical record. This talk will explain what Jack and fellow animal celebrities tell us about the history of the Gilded Age and will explore attempts to figure out what happened to him.

Kelli Huggins is a historian, museum professional, and artist with a penchant for the bizarre and forgotten. Her current book project is about canine celebrity in the 1800s, focusing on Railroad Jack and Owney, two real-life, famous train-riding dogs. She has a Master’s in History from the University of Delaware.