Transportation

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.

In the late nineteenth century, the Pope Manufacturing Company was a leader in the bicycle market with its Columbia brand of high-wheelers and safeties. Albert A. Pope, who founded the company in 1877, had succeeded by embracing technological change.
Description
In the late nineteenth century, the Pope Manufacturing Company was a leader in the bicycle market with its Columbia brand of high-wheelers and safeties. Albert A. Pope, who founded the company in 1877, had succeeded by embracing technological change. His factories in Hartford, Connecticut excelled at producing lightweight tubular steel frames, pneumatic tires, and other bicycle parts in vast quantities. Pope also was adept at influencing the social and political landscape; he was instrumental in promoting bicycle touring, starting the good roads movement, and defining the concept of personal mobility. But by 1900, the bicycle riding fad had reached market saturation, and sales fell. Pope astutely used his production capacity and methods to manufacture automobiles, the next personal mobility frontier for his upper middle class, urban clientele. He applied bicycle technologies and parts designs to automobile chassis and wheels, providing a smooth transition. Pope introduced the Columbia electric car in 1897 and built 500 examples in the late 1890s – the largest volume of any auto maker at that time. Pope manufactured several makes of gasoline cars over the years, but he never achieved the same market dominance that he had enjoyed with bicycles or that Henry Ford would achieve with the Model T.
Location
Currently not on view
associated dates
1892
depicted
Pope, Albert A.
ID Number
1990.0294.02
catalog number
1990.0294.02
accession number
1990.0294
In 1885, Henry Copperthite established a wholesale pie baking company in the Georgetown section of Washington, D. C. By the turn of the century, his “Connecticut pies,” named for the state where he had learned his trade, were very popular throughout the nation’s capital.
Description
In 1885, Henry Copperthite established a wholesale pie baking company in the Georgetown section of Washington, D. C. By the turn of the century, his “Connecticut pies,” named for the state where he had learned his trade, were very popular throughout the nation’s capital. The Georgetown bakery produced more than 10,000 pies each day, and a fleet of horse-drawn wagons delivered them to grocery stores and restaurants. The child-size, pony-drawn wagon in the collection of the National Museum of American History was used in parades and other advertising activities according to Copperthite descendants.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1897
ID Number
TR.330651
catalog number
330651
accession number
299303
Ships’ steam whistles were powered by steam lines from the boilers. They were used to signal other ships or the shore, to announce a vessel’s presence or its intentions.
Description
Ships’ steam whistles were powered by steam lines from the boilers. They were used to signal other ships or the shore, to announce a vessel’s presence or its intentions. Whistles were especially useful when approaching or leaving a port or landing, or in foggy or dark waters.
This whistle originally belonged to the 1895 Army Corps of Engineers towboat Gen. H. L. Abbot, built at Jeffersonville, Ind. and named after a famous general in the U. S. Army Corps. In 1906 it was renamed Gen. J. H. Simpson, after another Army Corps staff. The vessel was dismantled in 1919.
The cabin fittings, the ship’s wheel, and the whistle were purchased by Edward Heckmann for his new Missouri River packet boat, the John Heckmann. The Heckmann was 165’ long and 30’-6” in beam but only drew 4’-6” of water. Uniquely, the Heckmann had two independently operated or “split” sternwheels, which provided much greater maneuverability than a single, wide sternwheel could offer. Its boilers came from the hulk of the steamer Majestic, which had wrecked in 1914 at Chain of Rocks, St. Louis. The Heckmann’s engines were acquired from the obsolete Army Corps sternwheel towboats Aux Vasse and Isle de Bois. Employed in the packet trade between St Louis and Jefferson City, the Heckmann lost money because of competition from the railroads.
The John Heckmann was later converted to a Missouri River 1,200-passenger excursion boat by the Heckmann family. Operating on the Missouri as far north as Sioux City, Iowa, its normal summer route was between Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska. In winter, it resumed packet service on the Cumberland, Tennessee, Illinois, and Ohio Rivers. Wrecked in an ice breakup at its homeport of Hermann, Mo. in 1928, it was dismantled.
date made
1895
purchased whistle
Heckmann, Edward
ID Number
1979.0542.01
accession number
1979.0542
catalog number
1979.0542.01
This experimental vehicle is one of the earliest American-made automobiles. On September 21, 1893, Frank Duryea road-tested the vehicle – a second-hand carriage with a gasoline engine – in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Description
This experimental vehicle is one of the earliest American-made automobiles. On September 21, 1893, Frank Duryea road-tested the vehicle – a second-hand carriage with a gasoline engine – in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1896, Frank, his brother Charles, and financial backers founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company, the first American company that manufactured and sold automobiles. Thirteen production models were made; the only surviving example is in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. This forerunner was donated to the Smithsonian in 1920 and was restored in 1958.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1893-1894
maker
Duryea, Charles E.
Duryea, J. Frank
ID Number
TR.307199
accession number
65715
catalog number
307199
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1895
ID Number
NU.68.263.712
catalog number
68.263.712
accession number
281689
Built in 1890 by Belfast shipbuilders Harland & Wolff, the RMS Majestic was designed for luxury ocean travel.
Description
Built in 1890 by Belfast shipbuilders Harland & Wolff, the RMS Majestic was designed for luxury ocean travel. Like its sister ship, the RMS Teutonic, which was launched the previous year, the Majestic was built for the White Star Line’s service between Liverpool and New York.
The interior of the Majestic was opulent. Staterooms featured colored glass screens over the ports, while the smoking room walls were embossed with gilded leather and mahogany panels. Skylights, or lanterns, were installed in the ship’s dining rooms and other common areas. The lantern domes were designed to allow natural light to filter into the Majestic’s interior spaces.
The lantern in the Majestic's first class dining saloon was designed by British architect George Thomas Robinson. It was made up of 56 individual pieces, including eight plaster friezes, leaded stained glass and wood paneling. The plaster friezes depicted the “shipbuilder’s art from the early days of the Spanish Armada to the Battle of Trafalgar.”
When the Majestic was broken up in 1914, parts of the first class dining saloon lantern were sold to a ship salvage company, including the plaster panels. Several of these were paired with a smaller lantern from the ship and installed in the executive board room of Thomas W. Ward Ltd., in Sheffield, England. In the early 1970s, the director of the company donated this lantern and the plaster panels from the Majestic to the Smithsonian. He pointed out that the lantern had been saved three times, once when the ship was broken up and twice during the world wars of the twentieth century. He thought it fitting to donate this survivor to the United States “in memory of the many very gallant merchant seamen . . . who served in the Atlantic during the two World Wars.”
date made
1890
ship was broken up
1914
lantern and panels were donated to the Smithsonian
1970s
architect
Robinson, George Thomas
ID Number
TR.336295
accession number
1978.0206
catalog number
336295
This model represents a New Jersey sneakbox, a small boat invented and used in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. The sneakbox was developed in 1836 by boat builder Captain Hazleton Seaman, as a small boat that could be camouflaged for hunting wild fowl.
Description
This model represents a New Jersey sneakbox, a small boat invented and used in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. The sneakbox was developed in 1836 by boat builder Captain Hazleton Seaman, as a small boat that could be camouflaged for hunting wild fowl. Low in the water, the sneakbox is decked with a small cockpit so that a hunter can camouflage the boat with grasses over the top. During the nineteenth century the sneakbox was used by hunters, particularly commercial duck hunters. It would typically carry one person, along with his gear. Some sneakboxes were fitted out with sails, although this one is not and would have been rowed instead. The original represented by this model was a little under 12 feet long and around 4 feet wide. It was built in 1890 and given to the Smithsonian by J. D. Gifford from Tuckerton, New Jersey.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890
ID Number
TR.026623
catalog number
026623
accession number
5622
This streetcar was originally built for the Pennsylvania Avenue route of the Washington and Georgetown Rail Road. After about 1898, it was converted to a trailer car which was coupled to an electric car.
Description
This streetcar was originally built for the Pennsylvania Avenue route of the Washington and Georgetown Rail Road. After about 1898, it was converted to a trailer car which was coupled to an electric car. It's original number was "247," but it was renumberd "212" in 1898, and, later, as "1512". The car was restored in 1965 and retains the number "212".
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1892
used date
1892-ca 1910
maker
John Stephenson Company Limited
ID Number
TR.335092
accession number
252681
catalog number
335092
George Selden's dubious claim that he invented the automobile cast a shadow on the early auto manufacturing industry. His claim rested on a patent application for a "road-engine" that he had filed in 1879.
Description
George Selden's dubious claim that he invented the automobile cast a shadow on the early auto manufacturing industry. His claim rested on a patent application for a "road-engine" that he had filed in 1879. A lawyer schooled in science, Selden was intrigued by the challenge of devising an engine light enough to propel a road vehicle. He designed a small, improved version of George Brayton's compression engine of 1872 and filed a patent application for "a liquid-hydrocarbon engine of the compression type" combined with broadly defined chassis components. Selden deliberately delayed issuance of the patent until 1895, when automobiles were attracting more attention. Soon a patent-pooling association of auto manufacturing companies demanded and received royalties from other manufacturers for the right to produce Selden's "invention." Henry Ford, then just entering the automobile industry, became locked in a highly-publicized legal battle with the Selden interests when his application for a license was turned down in 1903. Ford blasted monopolistic control and exploitation by the "automobile trust" and forever fixed his image as an independent businessman fighting a corporate Goliath for the good of all. Ford's victory in court raised his standing in the automotive industry and made him one of the best known businessmen in America. In 1911 the Selden patent was limited to vehicles with Brayton-type engines as modified by Selden, and his influence quickly faded.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1879
patent date
1895-11-05
inventor
Selden, George B.
ID Number
TR.252678
catalog number
252678
accession number
49064
patent number
549,160
John D. Libey of Lima, Indiana submitted this model with his patent for a scraper that received patent number 529,925 on November 27, 1894. Designed for road work, the scraper could be operated by one man.
Description
John D. Libey of Lima, Indiana submitted this model with his patent for a scraper that received patent number 529,925 on November 27, 1894. Designed for road work, the scraper could be operated by one man. A two-horse team pulled the scraper that picked up a yard of earth and took it away.
As the good roads movement gathered strength in the 1890s, a host of patent applications were received for machines that, using horses, helped maintain the surfaces of the nation's roadways.
date made
1894
patent date
1894-11-27
ID Number
MC.311047
catalog number
311047
accession number
136522
patent number
529925
This model represents a type of rowboat called a Whitehall boat. The Whitehall was developed in the 1820s and was named after its place of origin, Whitehall Street in New York City.
Description
This model represents a type of rowboat called a Whitehall boat. The Whitehall was developed in the 1820s and was named after its place of origin, Whitehall Street in New York City. The Whitehall was used for transportation in harbors and ports, and was not meant for the open sea. The people who used the Whitehall ranged from crimps, men who kidnapped or tricked people into working on ships, to newspaper reporters and ship chandlers, or retail dealers who sold supplies to ships in port. Although some Whitehalls were fitted with sails, this one was not. Instead, it used four oars and an outboard rudder to steer. This model represents an average size Whitehall boat, at 18 feet at the gunwale and 5 feet wide. The model was given to the Smithsonian in 1899 by the boat builders Nash & Sons.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1899
ID Number
TR.025001
accession number
4880
catalog number
25001
This bicycle is a lavishly decorated example of a common safety bicycle. It is covered with foliage, rosettes, and other organic Art Nouveau-inspired figures made of silver covered with a thin layer of gold.
Description
This bicycle is a lavishly decorated example of a common safety bicycle. It is covered with foliage, rosettes, and other organic Art Nouveau-inspired figures made of silver covered with a thin layer of gold. An expensive product for a limited market, it was introduced by Tiffany and Co. for the 1895 holiday season and was available at the height of the bicycle craze of the 1890s. Mary Noble “Mittie” Wiley of Montgomery, Alabama owned this bicycle. Her monogram MNW appears on the front tube in gold with diamonds and emeralds. Wiley was married to Ariosto Appling Wiley, a member of the Alabama House of Representatives and later a Representative in the United States Congress. Despite the couple’s prominent standing in Montgomery and Washington over many years, the circumstances surrounding the acquisition and use of this bicycle are unknown. In 1915, Mittie gave it to her son, Noble, intending that he give it to his daughter, Hulit, when she was old enough to appreciate it. But Noble Wiley became fascinated by the bicycle’s unusual materials, techniques, and history, and he donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1950.
date made
1896
maker
Pope Manufacturing Company
ID Number
TR.313486
catalog number
313486
accession number
188297
serial number
12877
This Cleveland model 69 bicycle was manufactured by H. A. Lozier Company in Cleveland, Ohio around 1899. This bicycle was used by L. J. Powers who rode to work in Nashua, Iowa from his home in Powersville on a daily basis between the years of 1899 and 1902.
Description
This Cleveland model 69 bicycle was manufactured by H. A. Lozier Company in Cleveland, Ohio around 1899. This bicycle was used by L. J. Powers who rode to work in Nashua, Iowa from his home in Powersville on a daily basis between the years of 1899 and 1902. It was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1989. This type of bicycle was the most common men's bicycle during a period when cycling was an extremely popular activity among adults, factory output of bicycles was increasing rapidly, and bicycle manufacturing methods were changing.
Date made
ca 1899
used date
1899-1902
maker
H. A. Lozier and Company
ID Number
1989.0648.01
accession number
1989.0648
catalog number
1989.0648.01
This is the first production car that Alexander Winton sold.
Description
This is the first production car that Alexander Winton sold. One of America’s earliest automobile manufacturers, Winton had repaired and sold bicycles in the 1890s, then began producing gasoline cars in Cleveland for affluent Americans who wanted to try the new thrill of driving. Robert Allison, a retired machinist in Port Carbon, Pennsylvania, purchased this car. Winton vehicles became known for their quality and rugged durability; Alexander Winton fielded several race cars in the early 1900s, and H. Nelson Jackson made the first transcontinental automobile trip in a 1903 Winton touring car. The Winton Motor Carriage Company made cars until 1924. The Winton Engine Company, a successor company, donated the 1898 car to the Smithsonian Institution in 1929.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1898
maker
Winton Engine Company
ID Number
TR.309601
accession number
105119
catalog number
309601
As the United States expanded westward in the 1800s, the Great Lakes and inland rivers provided a route for transportation, commerce, and communication. Before railroads, waterways were a primary means of transporting bulk cargoes and heavy loads.
Description
As the United States expanded westward in the 1800s, the Great Lakes and inland rivers provided a route for transportation, commerce, and communication. Before railroads, waterways were a primary means of transporting bulk cargoes and heavy loads. Indeed, the first locomotive used in Chicago was shipped there by a Great Lakes schooner in 1837. Stretching from Buffalo, New York, to Duluth, Minnesota, and spotted along the way with port cities such as Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee, the Great Lakes brought thousands of people into the Midwest and in turn carried out the crops, lumber, and raw minerals produced in the region.
Schooners like the Ed McWilliams dominated the Great Lakes trade for much of the 19th century. Designed with a shallow hull for operating in small, inland harbors, Lakes schooners like the Ed McWilliams were also built with a long middle section to accommodate large loads of cargo.
Constructed in 1893 at West Bay City, Michigan, the Ed McWilliams was managed by John A. Francombe. Like most of his crew, Francombe immigrated to the United States in the middle of the century, he from England and the crew more likely from Scandinavia, Germany, or Ireland. The Ed McWilliams was one of thousands of vessels sailing on the Great Lakes in the 1800s, carrying cargoes of wheat, corn, iron ore, coal, and timber.
Date made
1978
date Ed McWilliams was built
1893
managed the Ed McWilliams
Francombe, John A.
ID Number
TR.336150
catalog number
336150
accession number
1978.0383
The skipjack is the last in a long line of sailing craft designed for work in the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry.
Description
The skipjack is the last in a long line of sailing craft designed for work in the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry. First built in the late 1800s, this sloop-rigged, single masted vessel was easy to maneuver even in light winds, and its V-shaped hull allowed oystermen to work in shallow waters. This model represents the Gertrude Wands, a skipjack built by John Branford on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1899. It is named after a little girl who lived in the community of Inverness.
Like bugeyes, skipjacks were built for oyster dredging under sail. But unlike the round-bottomed bugeye, the skipjack had a V-shaped hull, which was easier to build and did not require the huge logs of the traditional bugeye. Skipjacks were also smaller than bugeyes, ranging in size from 25 to 50 feet.
By the early 20th century, skipjacks had replaced bugeyes and were the main dredging craft on the bay. An 1865 Maryland law restricting dredging to sail-powered vessels ensured the continued use of sailing craft for oystering. Only in 1967 was the law amended to allow the use of a gasoline-powered push boat on Mondays and Tuesdays of each week. A push boat is shown on davits at the stern (back) of this model.
Maryland’s skipjacks are the last commercial fishing boats operating under sail in North America. In 1985, the skipjack was named Maryland’s official state boat. With the steep decline of the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay, most skipjacks have become floating classrooms for public education programs about the bay. Several have been donated to museums for preservation. Still, many people who live in the Chesapeake region harbor a sense of longing and nostalgia for the days when the large white sails of skipjacks filled the horizon.
date made
1968
date Gertrude Wands was built
1899
built Gertrude Wands
Branford, John
ID Number
TR.328687
accession number
276670
catalog number
328687
Scotsman Alexander McDougall (1845-1924) was a ship captain on the Great Lakes when he patented the idea of a “whaleback” ship in the early 1880s. With low, rounded hulls, decks and deckhouses, his invention minimized water and wind resistance.
Description
Scotsman Alexander McDougall (1845-1924) was a ship captain on the Great Lakes when he patented the idea of a “whaleback” ship in the early 1880s. With low, rounded hulls, decks and deckhouses, his invention minimized water and wind resistance. Between 1887 and 1898, 44 whalebacks were produced: 23 were barges and 21 were steamships, including one passenger vessel.
Frank Rockefeller was the 36th example of the type, built in 1896 at a cost of $181,573.38 at McDougall’s American Steel Barge Company in Superior, WI. One of the larger examples of the type, Rockefeller measured 380 feet in length, drew 26 feet of water depth and had a single propeller.
Although it belonged to several different owners over its 73-year working life, the Rockefeller spent most of its early life transporting iron ore from mines in Lake Superior to steel mills along the shores of Lake Erie. In 1927, new owners put it in service as a sand dredge that hauled landfill sand for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. From 1936-1942 the old ship saw service as a car carrier for another set of owners. In 1942 the ship wrecked in Lake Michigan, but wartime demand for shipping gave the old ship repairs, a new name (Meteor) and a new life as a tanker transporting petroleum products for more than 25 years. In 1969 Meteor ran aground off the Michigan coast, Instead of repairing the old ship, the owners sold it for a museum ship at Superior, WI. In poor condition today, Meteor is the last surviving example of McDougal’s whaleback or “pig boat”.
Date made
1961
date the Frank Rockefeller was built
1896
patentee of whaleback ships
McDougall, Alexander
company that built the Frank Rockefeller
American Steel Barge Company
ID Number
TR.318433
catalog number
318433
accession number
236171
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1897
ID Number
NU.68.263.1386
catalog number
68.263.1386
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1895
associated person
Wilhelm II King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany
ID Number
NU.68.263.715
catalog number
68.263.0715
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1895
associated person
Wilhelm II King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany
ID Number
NU.68.263.714
catalog number
68.263.714
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1895
associated person
Wilhelm II King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany
ID Number
NU.68.263.713
catalog number
68.263.713
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1895
ID Number
NU.68.263.716
catalog number
68.263.716
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1895
associated person
Friedrich III
Wilhelm II King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany
ID Number
NU.69.127.107
catalog number
69.127.107
accession number
286471
On the main side of this carved tooth is a generic American sailing ship without any of the conventional attributes of whaling, merchant or naval vessels.
Description
On the main side of this carved tooth is a generic American sailing ship without any of the conventional attributes of whaling, merchant or naval vessels. It has only a large American flag at the stern to set it apart.
What makes this tooth unusual is the carving on the reverse side. It is a picture of a medieval archer, complete with quiver, arrows, sword and shield. An American flag completes the ensemble, and the archer is capped with a little hat with a feather off to one side. This is almost certainly derived from an image in a contemporary magazine, perhaps of a costumed archer from some sort of a public performance (opera, play, musical group). On long whaling voyages, magazines and newspapers were prized commodities, and whalemen often cut out the pictures, pasted them on polished whale’s teeth and pinpricked through the image to derive an outline for further carving. The pinpricks on this image clearly outline the major details and in this way, even a sailor who couldn’t draw freehand could produce a fine carving on a sperm whale’s tooth.
date made
1875-1899
ID Number
DL.65.1132
catalog number
65.1132
accession number
256396

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