Elmer Frost Farnham was born on January 21, 1893, in the Collinsville section of Canton, Connecticut, and received his early education in the Canton public schools. He graduated from Collinsville High School in 1911 and then
from the Connecticut Agricultural College, now the University of Connecticut, in 1915. In 1917 he enlisted in the Officers Training Corps program and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 303rd Field Artillery during World War I. He was discharged in 1919.

In the early 1920s Mr. Farnham was a tobacco grower in Simsbury and South Windsor, Connecticut. He moved to Norwich, Connecticut, in 1927 and worked as a security salesman with the Aspinook Company in Jewett City, Connecticut. By the late 1930s and early 1940s he was a clerk with the Selective Service System board, until 1947.

In 1952 he joined the editorial staff of the Norwich Bulletin and retired in 1964. After his retirement he was a features writer at the paper. In 1973 his book The Quickest Route, A History of the Norwich & Worcester Railroad was published by Pequot Press.

Elmer F. Farnham died on November 11, 1974, in Norwich, Connecticut.

Norwich & Worcester Railroad freight house and dock at Norwich, Connecticut, with a string of cars at the dock.  The freight house was destroyed in 1938 hurricane .

The collection consists of photographs gathered by Elmer F. Farnham for his book The Quickest Route: The History of the Norwich & Worcester Railroad, and other photographs of locomotives and railroad scenes of southern New England railroad and Norwich, Connecticut. The collection is not processed to an item level.