Hand painted lanternslide with handmade wood frame. This slide is part of a collection made by Samuel Reader between 1866 and 1913. Reader was a Kansas farmer who was active in the early Topeka community. He built two homes, served in the Civil War, and wrote in a diary nearly every day for 64 years. The slide depicts a steam engine traveling through the countryside. The Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division (later the Kansas Pacific) was making its way through Topeka in 1865. Reader documented his negative feelings toward the new railroad in his diary. He began painting slides in 1866 and continued throughout much of his life, holding magic lantern shows for the local community in his house and at church.