Collections Online
Soledad railroad, Cuba
It was the custom at Soledad for many years to celebrate the end of the sugarcane crop season with a festival at the plantation. As the last trains of cane pulled into the factory, they were decorated with palm fronds and flowers. The mills and engines of the factory were similarly decorated. In the evening, Soledad's employees gathered in the mill for a feast and dance thrown by Edwin and Katharine Atkins. This photograph, circa 1920, depicts one of the last trains of the sugarcane season, fully decorated, pulling into the factory while the Soledad employees watched and applauded.