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 31 items.
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Ebony series (Bison Lines) [cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- Ink on negative: "9". Passengers boarding a Bison Bus at the intersection of 15th St. and K St. "KODAK SAFETY FILM" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1950
- 1960
- N.d
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Subject
- Ebony Magazine
- Bison Bus Line
- Local number
- Box 618.04.83
- No Scurlock number
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Ebony series (Bison Lines) [cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- No ink on negative. Two negatives (on one #120 strip of film. Unidentified man in a driver's seat and exterior of a car with Virginia licence plate. "Do not print" is wrirtten on the original envelope. "KODAK SAFETY FILM" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1960
- Ca. 1952
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Subject
- Ebony Magazine
- Bison Bus Lines
- Local number
- AC0618.004.0000556.tif (AC Scan)
- Box 618.04.83
- No Scurlock number
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
1955 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon
- Description
- In the 1950s, the station wagon became a staple of America's new suburban landscape and a ubiquitous extension of the suburban home. This car reveals how one family adopted a mobile, active lifestyle and how station wagons shaped family life.
- Between the 1920s and 1940s, station wagons evolved from small wooden buses to wood-trimmed utility vehicles that carried people, luggage, and recreational gear at rural estates, country clubs, and private schools . Strong demand for used "woodies" among postwar, middle-class families alerted manufacturers to a larger market. The introduction of all-steel bodies eliminated maintenance of wooden panels, and sales soared. Sedan-type styling made the station wagon look at home in suburban driveways. Imitation wood decals preserved the rural, elitist look of the 1940s.
- Suburban families found countless uses for their station wagons: taking children to school, picking up lawn and garden supplies, carrying home project materials, and enjoying day trips and vacations. The station wagon quickly became a symbol of family activity and intimacy in the outdoors. It served as a mobile living room at drive-in theaters, a mobile dining room at drive-in restaurants, and a home on wheels during camping trips.
- Nancy Harder, a southern California housewife, drove this car to schools and doctors with her five children. She and her husband George used it extensively. On family outings, the cargo area was filled with picnic baskets, rubber rafts, beach towels, skis, hula hoops, tricycles, radios, and, of course, the family dog. On vacation trips to national parks, this area served as a playpen. When the children were older, they learned to drive this car, and George taught them to wash and polish the exterior and vacuum the upholstery.
- After the children were grown, George used the station wagon to commute to work and haul materials for do-it-yourself projects. It also served as a spare car when the children came home from college.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1955
- user
- Harder, Nancy
- Harder, George
- maker
- Ford Motor Company
- ID Number
- 1989.0211.01
- accession number
- 1989.0211
- catalog number
- 1989.0211.01
- serial number
- U5LY-125372
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ship Model Dos Amigos
- Description
- Dos Amigos was probably built at Portsmouth, Virginia in 1830. It measured 83 feet in length and 172 tons. The brigantine was designed like the swift “Baltimore clipper” schooners, which were popular in the slave trade. The design of such ships was influenced by the shallow conditions of the African slave ports, the illegal aspects of the trade, and the type of cargo. Slave ships were built to be maneuverable in the shallow African ports, and swift to evade arrest and transport their enslaved Africans quickly. They were usually schooners or brigs. Dos Amigos was a slaver, until it was captured by the British ship Black Joke on the coast of Cameroon, an island off the coast of West Africa. It was renamed Fair Rosamond, and placed in dry dock in Britain to have its lines taken off during the summer of 1832. It became a successful slave-catcher in its own right, capturing the slavers La Pantica in 1834 and El Esplorado and La Mariposa in 1836. In 1837, a drawing was made of the original rig of Fair Rosamond before it was altered. It was sold out of the Royal Navy in 1845.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1956
- maker
- Perry, Anthony
- ID Number
- 2005.0279.091
- accession number
- 2005.0279
- catalog number
- 2005.0279.091
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ebony series (Bison Lines) [cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- No ink on negative, no Scurlock number. Over-the-shoulder shot of unidentified man driving following Bison Bus, "do not print" on the original envelope. "KODAK SAFETY FILM" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1950
- 1960
- N.d
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Subject
- Ebony Magazine
- Bison Bus Line
- Local number
- AC0618.004.0000542.tif (AC Scan No.)
- Box 618.04.79
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
1953 Glasspar sports car
- Description
- This 1953 Glasspar is an example of fiberglass-body sports cars made in small quantities after World War II. Some American motorists, particularly veterans returning from overseas duty, wanted European-style sports cars. Several American companies began small-scale production of sports cars with molded fiberglass bodies. This type of body could be made in small quantities without the expensive tooling, dies, and presses needed to make steel bodies. William Tritt, a California fiberglass-boat builder, introduced the Jaguar-like Glasspar in 1951 and sold several hundred bodies. The Glasspar body fit on a used automobile chassis that the owner obtained and customized by shortening the wheelbase. A fiberglass body was not only simpler to make; it was lightweight, rustproof, dent-resistant, and easy to repair. And it was inexpensive; a Glasspar body sold for only $950, one-fourth the price of a Jaguar and less than half the price of a Ford convertible. Tritt improved the technique of making fiberglass bodies and made more bodies of this type than his competitors. He understood the importance of casting an automobile body in one piece, and he developed techniques to avoid shrinkage, tearing at metal joints, and mismatched parts. Dale L. Dutton, a Glasspar enthusiast, donated this car to the Smithsonian in 1996.
- Major auto manufacturers dismissed plastic bodies following an unsuccessful Ford experiment in the early 1940s, but William Tritt demonstrated that a body made of polyester resin and glass strands was practical, economical to produce, and superior to steel in many ways. Tritt introduced the Glasspar in 1951 and made about 300 sports car bodies by hand over a period of several years. Despite its advantages, the plastic car seemed destined to remain a low-volume vehicle because of slow production and limited capital investment; only one Glasspar body was made per day. But in 1953, General Motors decided to make Corvette bodies of fiberglass and consulted with Tritt
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1953
- maker
- Glasspar Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0401.01
- accession number
- 1996.0401
- catalog number
- 1996.0401.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
[Passenger ticket coupon for Ella Fitzgerald, issued January 14, 1959.]
- Summary
- Issued by Capital Airlines, Inc. Ticket is blue. Acompanied by a card or tag in green ink
- Cite as
- Ella Fitzgerald Papers, ca. 1935 - 1996, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1959
- issued January 14, 1959
- 1950-1960
- collector
- Fitzgerald, Ella
- issuer
- Capital Airlines, Inc
- Local number
- AC0584-0000053.tif (AC Scan No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Ford Coupe Stock Car, 1952
- Description
- In 1952, Leon Hurd extensively modified this 1932 Ford coupe, beefing-up the frame and installing stronger springs, and installing a 1942 Ford "59A"-block "flathead" V-8 engine. Initially the car ran without fenders, during the short time that was permitted by the Atlantic Racing Association racing rules. (NASCAR was in its infancy.)
- Hurd raced in New England from 1952 through 1955, winning more than 100 races in that time. The car carried racing number "00." In 1979, Hurd did some minor restoration on the car.World War II period saw a relative explosion of motor racing on both sides of the Atlantic and a proliferation of distinctly American types of racing with no counterparts in Europe. One such uniquely American type was "stock car" racing. Popular interest was whetted by races run with cars that were entirely like - or mostly looked like - those for sale in the showrooms or on the used-car lots. Fans could cheer for cars that looked like the cars they drove in everyday use.
- Most auto racers preferred two-door coupes: a smaller, two-door car was lighter for better acceleration yet could house a powerful engine; and a coupe had a roof, which helped protect the driver in roll-overs, which were not uncommon in the pell-mell anarchy of beach races. To help him set rules for stock-car racing, Bill France created the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, NASCAR, in 1948; NASCAR's first season was 1949. Then France had another idea: too many spectators could enjoy his beach races without paying the admission charges for his viewing areas closer to the course. So why not build a modern oval race track away from the beach, surrounded by bleachers, and thus configured so that any and all spectators had to pay to see the races - and far more spectators at that?
- It was an old idea, actually. In the US from about 1910, the dominant money in the early years of auto racing came from entrepreneurial track owners (many of whom had previously owned bicycle tracks or velodromes). Track owners knew that strict control of access to the racing venues was the key to maximum income from spectators. And oval tracks gave by far the best view to the most customers, also a motivating factor for ticket buyers. (In contrast, Europe and Britain never developed such enclosed oval tracks. Very wealthy car-owners and manufacturers have always controlled auto racing there, and such elite car-owners and manufacturers have strongly preferred open-road courses as more sporting - and also more likely to help improve auto design technology. Thus modern European closed tracks still follow the "open road" idea, with lots of turns and curves.)
- Bill France saw the success of the paved oval track built at Darlington, SC, in 1950. So, with his business model in hand based on droves of paying race fans, France began raising money in 1953 and, a few years later, opened a new Daytona Speedway. NASCAR came of age in 1959, with the first running of the Daytona 500.
- "Stock-car" racing found a home quickly in the South, where "moonshiners" or "rum runners" during Prohibition had been modifying ordinary-looking cars with "souped-up" engines (i.e., modified for greater power) and stiffened suspensions -- and hidden tanks for booze -- to outrun federal marshals on backwoods roads when necessary to elude arrest. But organized stock-car racing on closed courses -- beginning in the late 1940s -- found eager fans as well in the Northeast, Midwest, and Far West; the South had no monopoly. Sponsorship money, particularly from local auto dealers, became more plentiful; "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" soon became a byword among retail car dealers. The cheaper, individually owned stock cars -- coupes that were often referred to as "jalopies" -- raced on local and regional dirt tracks. Well-sponsored cars fielded by wealthier owners with funding and engineering assistance from Detroit manufacturers raced at larger, paved oval tracks with extensive bleachers for the fans.
- Track owners set the pattern for organized stock-car racing. Bill France, of Daytona Beach, Florida, had witnessed the popularity of pre-war "beach racing" (see Web entry on the racing automobile, Winton 'Bullet' No. 1). In the late 1940s, he organized beach races for any local car-owners who liked the idea of competing against each other with more-or-less "stock" automobiles.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1952
- maker
- Hurd, Leon H.
- ID Number
- 1992.0029.01
- accession number
- 1992.0029
- catalog number
- 1992.0029.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Champagne Glass, SS United States
- Description
- This champagne glass was among the 57,000 pieces of glassware furnished to the SS United States before its maiden voyage in 1952. Launched in 1952, the “Big U,” as the ship was affectionately called, was 990 feet long, about the length of five city blocks. On its maiden voyage, the ship broke the speed records for crossings in both directions and captured the Blue Riband trophy, an award for the ship making the fastest round trip passage on the North Atlantic. The time set by the United States on the westbound leg from New York to England was 3 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes, with an average speed of 34.51 knots, a record that remains unbroken.
- The SS United States was built in Newport News, Virginia, and was the largest and fastest transatlantic passenger liner ever built in the country. The ship had 695 staterooms located on eight of the liner’s 12 decks. It could accommodate 1,972 passengers in first, cabin, or tourist class. Some 1,011 crew were required to run the ship and serve the passengers.
- date made
- 1952
- ID Number
- TR*335564.02A
- catalog number
- 335564.2
- accession number
- 1978.2219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Champagne Glass, SS United States
- Description
- This champagne glass was among the 57,000 pieces of glassware furnished to the SS United States before its maiden voyage in 1952. Launched in 1952, the “Big U,” as the ship was affectionately called, was 990 feet long, about the length of five city blocks. On its maiden voyage, the ship broke the speed records for crossings in both directions and captured the Blue Riband trophy, an award for the ship making the fastest round trip passage on the North Atlantic. The time set by the United States on the westbound leg from New York to England was 3 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes, with an average speed of 34.51 knots, a record that remains unbroken.
- The SS United States was built in Newport News Virginia, and was the largest and fastest transatlantic passenger liner ever built in the country. The ship had 695 staterooms located on eight of the liner’s 12 decks. It could accommodate 1,972 passengers in first, cabin, or tourist class. Some 1,011 crew were required to run the ship and serve the passengers.
- date made
- 1952
- ID Number
- TR*335564.02B
- accession number
- 1978.2219
- catalog number
- 335564.2b
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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