In 1949, the CB&Q prepared to celebrate their centennial, commissioning photographs of the communities and activities along the railroad by photographers Esther Bubley and Russell Lee. The Granger Country photographs are the product of a CB&Q-funded centennial project completed by Newberry president Stanley Pargellis and historian Lloyd Lewis. To celebrate its centennial in 1955, CB&Q hired Newberry President Stanley Pargellis and historian Lloyd Lewis to edit a book documenting the social and economic impact of the railroad using photos by Bubley and Lee as illustrations. The resulting Granger Country: A Pictorial Social History of the Burlington Railroad (1949) was heavily illustrated with historical materials and contemporary photographs. The photographs tell the Burlington story through images of trains, stations, rails, travelers, and workers.

Three thousand negative images shot by Bubley and Lee were discovered in the Newberry Library's unprocessed 20th century CB&Q archives in early 2000. The Granger country photos contain negatives and prints of photographs taken by Bubley and Lee. These contain scenes from CB&Q railroads and railroad stations. Most of the photos are of scenes from railroad towns in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.