Issued to Sarah L. Winchester on 1924 New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Co. - Wife of Winchester Repeating Arms Founder

Sarah Lockwood Winchester (née Pardee; 1839 – September 5, 1922) was an American heiress who amassed great wealth after the death of her husband, William Wirt Winchester. Her inheritance from his estate included $20 million (equivalent to $529,862,069 in 2019) as well as a 50% holding in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, which made her one of the wealthiest women in the world at the time. She is best known for using her vast fortune to continue construction on the Winchester mansion in San Jose, California, for 38 years. Popular legends, which began during her lifetime, held that she was convinced she was cursed, and the only way to alleviate it was to add on to her California home. Since her death, the sprawling Winchester Mystery House has become a popular tourist attraction, known for its staircases that lead to nowhere and its many winding corridors and doors leading to walls, or big falls. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Winchester

The New York Central Railroad (reporting mark NYC) was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal. The railroad was established in 1853, consolidating several existing railroad companies. In 1968 the NYC merged with its former rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, to form Penn Central. Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970 and merged into Conrail in 1976. Conrail was broken up in 1998, and portions of its system were transferred to CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway, with CSX acquiring most of the old New York Central trackage. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Central_Railroad

The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a leading American manufacturer of repeating firearms, headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut. Today, the Winchester brand is owned by the Olin Corporation, and its name is licensed to two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group: Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Belgium and the Browning Arms Company of Ogden, Utah.

The origins of Winchester Repeating Arms trace back to the Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson partnership based in Norwich, Connecticut, distinct from the later Smith & Wesson Revolver Company founded by the same individuals. Smith and Wesson acquired an improved version of Walter Hunt's 1848 "Volition Repeating Rifle" and its innovative "Rocket Ball" ammunition from inventor Lewis Jennings. Although Jennings' rifle was commercially unsuccessful and Robbins & Lawrence, the producer, ceased manufacturing in 1852, Smith developed a significantly enhanced rifle based on Jennings' design. The partnership also recruited Benjamin Tyler Henry, the former shop foreman at Robbins & Lawrence. In 1855, seeking to produce their "Volcanic" lever-action rifle and pistol, Smith and Wesson incorporated as the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. Oliver Winchester, a clothing manufacturer, became its largest stockholder.