{{short description|American photographer}} '''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''.
== Education == 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.
== Career == She resumed employment with the California State Parks in 1978 as a photographer for the California State Railroad Museum's restoration projects.<ref>Burman, Shirley, "Women and the American Railroad - Documentary Photography," ''Journal of the West'', April 1994, 36-41</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Shirley Burman |url=https://www.pbssocal.org/people/shirley-burman |access-date=2026-05-04 |website=PBS SoCal |language=en}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women and the American Railroad, a calendar for 1995|last=Burman|first=Shirley|publisher=CEDCO Publishing Company|year=1994|isbn=1-55912-637-X|location=San Rafael, CA|pages=Inside front cover}}</ref>
In 2012 she was awarded the Fred A and Jane R Stindt Photography Award for her railway photography and her work documenting women's contributions to railroading.<ref name=":0" />
==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. * {{cite web | title=Women and Railroading | author= Shirley Burman | work=Trains Railroad History, November 16, 2009 | url=http://trn.trains.com/en/Railroad%20Reference/Railroad%20History/2009/11/Women%20and%20Railroading.aspx | accessdate= 2011-05-01 }} * Burman, Shirley. ''Sisters of the Iron Road''. SBS Publishing, Sacramento, CA, 2022. {{ISBN|978-1-7923-9442-3}}.
==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burman, Shirley}} Category:1934 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American photographers Category:Rail transport photographers Category:University of California, Davis alumni Category:21st-century American photographers Category:20th-century American women photographers Category:21st-century American women photographers