Transportation - Overview
Americans have always been a people on the move—on rails, roads, and waterways (for travel through the air, visit the National Air and Space Museum). In the transportation collections, railroad objects range from tools, tracks, and many train models to the massive 1401, a 280-ton locomotive built in 1926. Road vehicles include coaches, buggies, wagons, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and automobiles—from the days before the Model T to modern race cars. The accessories of travel are part of the collections, too, from streetlights, gas pumps, and traffic signals to goggles and overcoats.
In the maritime collections, more than 7,000 design plans and scores of ship models show the evolution of sailing ships and other vessels. Other items range from scrimshaw, photographs, and marine paintings to life jackets from the Titanic.
"Transportation - Overview" showing 2 items.
Japanese Immigrant’s Trunk
- Description
- For decades, Hawai`i was a primary destination for Japanese immigrants. The cane sugar industry, which dominated Hawaiian life from the 1850s to the 1950s, recruited tens of thousands of laborers from Japan. Immigration increased after the United States annexed Hawai`i in 1898, and continued despite restrictions on Japanese immigration to the U.S. mainland. Japanese workers endured severe and unequal conditions in Hawai`i, which was controlled by white American business interests. Still, Japanese immigrants established a strong and lasting community that supported their families and maintained their cultural traditions.
- The need for cheap labor forced plantations to recruit contract workers from China, Japan, Korea, the Pacific Islands, and the Philippines, as well as Puerto Rico, Europe, and California. The unique racial and ethnic mix in contemporary Hawai`i is due to this history. The largest group of workers came from Japan. Unlike other Asian groups, the Japanese included significant numbers and percentages of women workers.
- This trunk belonged to Kumataro Sugimoto, who immigrated to Hawai`i from Kumamoto, Japan, about 1902. After hearing stories of quick wealth, Kumataro left for Hawai`i to seek his fortune. Later, he brought his sons to help him on the plantation. One of his sons, Kichizo, married an American-born Japanese woman and started a family in Hawai`i. Inscriptions on the trunk include Sugimoto, the family name, and Hawai`i, the destination. This was a common practice for identification on any long voyage. This trunk or toronko, made of leather and paper, carried kimono and other personal belongings. Immigrants also carried Yanagi-gori, suitcases made of willow branches, and others made of bamboo and rattan, as well as cloth bags.
- Date made
- late 1800s
- cane sugar industry in Hawaii
- 1850-1950s
- owner immigrated from Japan to Hawaii
- 1902
- trunk owner
- Sugimoto, Kumataro
- ID Number
- 2005.0132.17
- catalog number
- 2005.0132.17
- accession number
- 2005.0132
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ship Model, Steam Barge Edward Smith
- Description
- The three-masted wooden propeller Edward Smith was built in 1890 by F.W. Wheeler & Co. at West Bay City, Michigan. The 201-foot bulk freighter is best known for rescuing crew from the old wooden steamer Annie Young on 20 October 1890 in Lake Huron. The Young was transporting a cargo of coal from Buffalo to Gladstone, MI when a fire began somewhere in the vicinity of the boiler.
- Upbound from Marine City, Smith’s Captain Mitchell saw the Young on fire, dropped the two barges he was towing and began circling the burning ship, rescuing 13 crew and the captain. Nine men were lost when their lifeboat swamped and sank. Capt. Mitchell was awarded a lifesaving medal for his efforts; Annie Young had been insured for $55,000.
- In 1900, the Smith was renamed Zillah, when transferred at Port Huron, MI to new owners. On 29 August 1926, Zillah was transporting a cargo of heavy limestone when it sailed into a summer storm in Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior. The old steamer began to take on water, and the crew removed their belongings while Zillah coasted in a circle. The crew was rescued without loss by the steamer William B. Schiller, with assistance from the Coast Guard. Shortly afterwards, the ship rolled over and sank. The Zillah’s wreck was located in 1975.
- Date made
- 1966
- ship transferred to Michigan
- 1900
- ship sank
- 1926-08-29
- ship wreckage located
- 1975
- built ship, Edward Smith
- F. W. Wheeler & Co.
- ID Number
- TR*326655
- catalog number
- 326655
- accession number
- 265603
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center