Engineering, Building, and Architecture - Overview
Not many museums collect houses. The National Museum of American History has four, as well as two outbuildings, 11 rooms, an elevator, many building components, and some architectural elements from the White House. Drafting manuals are supplemented by many prints of buildings and other architectural subjects. The breadth of the museum's collections adds some surprising objects to these holdings, such as fans, purses, handkerchiefs, T-shirts, and other objects bearing images of buildings.
The engineering artifacts document the history of civil and mechanical engineering in the United States. So far, the Museum has declined to collect dams, skyscrapers, and bridges, but these and other important engineering achievements are preserved through blueprints, drawings, models, photographs, sketches, paintings, technical reports, and field notes.
"Engineering, Building, and Architecture - Overview" showing 2 items.
- No Image Available
Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company Records, 1866-1927
- Notes
- Company organized to ensure parent company, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, dominance in the transportation of anthracite coal from the Schuylkill fields of eastern Pennsylvania. Franklin B. Gowen, President of the railroad, decided to gain control of enough acreage to ensure the company's survival; but since it was illegal for railroads to own coal fields or operate mines in Pennsylvania, a separate company, the Laurel Run Improvement Company, was organized for this purpose and incorporated May 1871. Utilizing a loophole in the Laurel Run charter, the Philadelphia & Reading purchased it Nov. 1871, thus circumventing the legal restrictions, and renamed it the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company, Dec. 1871
- Company quickly acquired coal lands and by 1874 controlled approx. 1/3 of entire Schuylkill coal field. Originally did not mine its own coal, but rented collieries to independent operators. This arrangement did not work so company took direct control of mining operations, leading U.S. government to sue, 1913, claiming monopoly of trade; U.S. Supreme Court ruled against company, Dec. 1920. Under Court agreement, in Dec. 1923 the Philadelphia & Reading transferred interests in the Coal & Iron Company to a new company formed for this purpose--the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Corporation
- Summary
- Bulk of collection comprises 124 letterpress copybooks from the company's engineering department. These contain letters and reports sent by engineers located at the major centers of the company's operations in the Schuylkill coal field--Ashland, Mahanoy City, Pottsville, and Shamokin. These include the Chief Engineer, Assistant Engineer, and division, resident, associate, and mining engineers and their assistants, and transitmen
- Among engineers were George S. Clemens, Joseph B. Garner, James F. Jones, Henry M. Luther, Henry Pleasants, and John H. Pollard. Correspondence deals with all aspects of mining construction and operations, engineering personnel matters, and coordination with the Railroad for the shipment of coal; also periodic reports of operations and wagon accounts detailing amount of coal shipped. Also includes correspondence related to the formation and operation of the Schuylkill Coal Exchange Committee, which was set up to ease competition among railroads in the Schuylkill region
- Four letterpress copybooks kept by S. B. Whiting while general manager of the company, 1885-1887. Whiting also kept letterbooks in which he pasted letters from his superiors: two volumes of letters from Franklin B. Gowen, President (1879-1883), and one volume (1881-1884) from George DeB. Keim, General Solicitor and Vice-President. Eight letterpress copybooks kept by S. B. Whiting while General Manager and General Superintendent, 1882-ca. 1888. Eight letterpress copybooks kept by Roland C. Luther while General Superintendent and 2nd Vice President, ca. 1888-1905. Also, a volume of printed circular letters (1874-1887) from both the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company
- Letters relating to the operation of the Anthracite Water Company among the letterpress copybooks of George S. Clemens, who served as that company's manager in the 1910s. Also, several of the circular letters pertain directly to the 1888 anthracite coal strike
- Cite as
- Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company Records, 1866-1927, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1866
- 1866-1927
- 1930-1950
- creator
- Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company
- Creator
- Hoffman, John R
- author
- Luther, Henry M
- Gowen, Franklin B
- Keim, George DeB
- Clemens, George S
- Creator
- Pleasants, Henry
- author
- Garner, Joseph B
- Jones, James F
- Luther, Roland C
- Pollard, John H
- Whiting, S. B
- Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Corporation
- Subject
- Anthracite Water Company
- Schuylkill Coal Exchange Committee
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company Records, 1863-1936
- Notes
- This railroad was chartered in 1833 to provide low-cost transportation from the Schuylkill and Mahanoy anthracite coal fields in eastern Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. Main line from Philadelphia to Pottsville opened 1842. Reading expanded by acquiring other railroads, and by 1869 had monopoly of coal traffic from Schuylkill anthracite region
- Expansion accelerated when Franklin B. Gowen became president (1869) and attempted to dominate entire anthracite trade. Purchased Schuylkill Canal (1870) to eliminate competition for coal trade; then organized the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company in 1871 to purchase and operate coal mines; secured over 40 percent of U.S. anthracite reserves, but debt incurred led railroad to bankruptcy and receivership (1880). Gowen's reckless style drove the Reading into second receivership (1886), and he was forced to resign
- Gowen's Successor, Archibald A. McLeod, tried to increase company control over anthracite trade (1892-1893), then control of several New England railroads. The Reading went bankrupt again and McLeod was ousted. In a reorganization (1896), the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and the Coal & Iron Company became properties of the Reading Company, a holding company. Later additions to system were infrequent and largely confined to short branches and improvements inalignment. Due to anti-trust proceedings, company divested mining subsidiary (1923) and merged wholly owned railroad companies into an operating company. Acquired Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad 1963, went bankrupt in early 1970s, and conveyed portions of its lines to Conrail (1976). The reorganized Reading Company retains real estate and other non-rail holdings
- Summary
- Primarily outgoing correspondence from the Engineering Department of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, the remainder being engineering reports and other miscellaneous papers
- SERIES 1: 219 letterpress copybook volumes from various engineers, each with own index (1865-1892): were generated by Chief Engineer, Assistant Chief Engineer, various resident engineers, other lower-level engineers, and the Chief Road-Master. Bulk of copybooks created by William H. Bines and Henry K. Nichols during long careers with the Philadelphia & Reading. Other volumes contain letters and reports by Charles W. Buckholz, Charles E. Byers, William Lorenz, and others. Correspondence covers all aspects of the engineering operations of the railroad, much of it at highest levels, being addressed to the Presidents of the Reading. Also includes one letterbook from John E. Wooten (1865), Superintendent
- SERIES 2: Reports of Chief Engineer to Auditor, 1908-1910; structural design calculation notebooks, 1901-1935; right of way deeds, 1903; and tracings of assorted machine parts
- Cite as
- Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1863
- 1863-1936
- 1930-1950
- creator
- Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co
- collector
- Transportation, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Engineering and Industry, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Subject
- Bines, William H
- Boggs, George B
- Buckholz, Charles W
- Byers, Charles E
- Chamberlain, E.C
- Davis, N.M
- Gowen, Franklin B
- Jamison, Robert
- Keim, George DeB
- Lorenz, William
- Manning, Charles P
- Nichols, Henry K
- Rice, George
- Royers, John H
- Steele, J. Dutton
- Thompson, J.W
- Richardson, F.E
- Whitney, E.S
- Wilson, H.T
- Wootten, John E
- Yarington, T.O
- Zacharias, H.C
- Atlantic City Railroad
- Mine Hill & Schuylkill Haven Railroad
- Reading Belt Railroad
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH