Shirley Burman

Shirley Burman (born 1934) is a railroad photographer, historian of women's work in the railroad industry, and creator of the traveling photo exhibition, Women and the American Railroad.

Burman received a BA in Art from the University of California-Davis in 1972. She was an illustrator for the California State Parks in 1974, and a documentary photographer for the U.S. federal government in 1976. She resumed employment with the California State Parks in 1978 as a photographer for the California State Railroad Museum's restoration projects.

Since 1983, Burman has been a self-employed railroad photographer and designer. Together with her late husband, the railroad photographer Richard Steinheimer, she produced a book, Whistles Across the Land, in 1994. She lives in Sacramento, California.

Burman established a non-profit corporation called The Women's Railroad History Project. It is a repository for oral histories, photographic and artifact collections, and other historical research. Selections from Burman's international traveling exhibitions Women and the American Railroad TM were compiled into a 1995 wall calendar "Women and the American Railroad."

Publications

• Steinheimer, Richard, and Burman, Shirley, Whistles Across the Land: A Love Affair with Trains. San Rafael, CA: CEDCO Publishing Company, 1993. ISBN 1-55912-505-5.Sh
• Burman, Shirley. "Women and the American Railroad, a calendar for 1995." Cedco Publishing Company, San Rafael, CA, 1994. ISBN 1-55912-637-X
• Levinson, Nancy Smiler, and Burman, Shirley, She's Been Working on the Railroad. New York: Dutton, 1997. ISBN 978-0-525-67545-7.
• Burman, Shirley, "Women and the American Railroad - Documentary Photography," Journal of the West, April 1994, 36-41.
• Shirley Burman. "Women and Railroading". Trains Railroad History, November 16, 2009. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
• Burman, Shirley. Sisters of the Iron Road. SBS Publishing, Sacramento, CA, 2022. ISBN 978-1-7923-9442-3.