Shirley Burman 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

California State Railroad Museum

The California State Railroad Museum is a museum in the state park system of California, USA, interpreting the role of the "iron horse" in connecting California to the rest of the nation. It is located in Old Sacramento at 111 I Street....

'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

Richard Steinheimer

Richard Virgil Dean Steinheimer was an American railroad photographer, often called the "Ansel Adams of railroad photography." His work has been published in Trains Magazine, Railfan, Locomotive and Railway Preservation, and Vintage Rail, and more than seventy books. He lived in Sacramento,...

, she produced a book, Whistles Across the Land, in 1994. She lives in Sacramento, California

Sacramento, California

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

.

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.

• Levinson, Nancy Smiler, and Burman, Shirley, She's Been Working on the Railroad. New York: Dutton, 1997. ISBN 978-0525675457.

• Burman, Shirley, "Women and the American Railroad - Documentary Photography," Journal of the West, April 1994, 36-41.