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 755 items.
Page 74 of 76
- No Image Available
Hurry off please. Electric Railway House. [Poster.]
- Notes
- 274 1500/6000
- Summary
- People waiting to get on bus as a woman gets off
- Date
- 1918
- Creator
- M. Geo
- Electric Railway House London
- Local number
- Item 433
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Do not attempt to enter a crowded car. Electric Railway House. [Poster.]
- Notes
- 274B 1500/6000
- Summary
- Man running for a closing door of a crowded car
- Date
- 1918
- Creator
- M. Geo
- Electric Railway House London
- Local number
- Item 433
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Passengers off the car first, please ... pass down the platform. Electric Railway House. [Poster.]
- Notes
- 274c 1500/6000
- Summary
- Two panels: one of five people trying to get off a train while a man gets on; and one of a crowded train platform
- Date
- 1918
- Creator
- M. Geo
- Electric Railway House London
- Local number
- Item 433
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
1926 Stutz sedan
- Description
- The 1926 Stutz sedan introduced two trends in American automobile design: longer, lower cars, and safety features built into the body. The redesigned "Safety Stutz" was noticeably lower than "high hat" sedans of the 1910s and early 1920s. Its safety features included a low center of gravity, which helped prevent skidding, swaying, and tipping over; a wire-glass windshield, an early effort toward shatter-resistant glass; narrow front corner posts for better visibility; and reinforced runningboard side bumpers. The body sat low on the chassis because a worm-gear differential made it possible to place the drive shaft below the rear axle. Some new-car showrooms featured a 1926 Stutz mounted at a 45-degree angle to show how far the safety car could lean without tipping over. Stutz sales literature extolled the car's "road-adhesiveness" and compared it to "a strong magnetic attraction exerted by the earth upon the car's wheels."
- The worm-gear differential used in the Stutz automobile was not widely adopted by car manufacturers, but the lengthening and lowering of sedans continued for decades and had a great impact on styling, manufacturing, and sales. Safety glass became common in the late 1920s and 1930s, but wire glass was replaced by two-layer glass with consolidating material between the layers.
- Eugene Fatjo purchased this car in 1926; he lived in Santa Clara, California, and worked at the Bank of America. Fatjo's granddaughters, Katherine F. Harrington and Candace M. Harrington, donated the Stutz to the Smithsonian in 1994.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1926
- maker
- Stutz Motor Car Company
- ID Number
- 1994.0278.01
- accession number
- 1994.0278
- catalog number
- 1994.0278.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
[Roadway.] 1702 Interpositive
- Notes
- Currently stored in box 2.2.3 [104]
- Date
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- American Stereoscopic Co
- Local number
- RSN 11066
- Video number 10337
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Grand Central Terminal Collection, 1831-1978 (bulk 1903-1933)
- Notes
- New York City's Grand Central Terminal was constructed between 1903 and 1913. It replaced an earlier and smaller depot at the same location
- Twelve photographs in this collection, donated by Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley in 1965, may have been taken by his grandfather, J. Dwight Ripley, who was "in charge of the contract to build the Grand Central Tunnel under Park Ave. These were photos of his taken at time of the construction," according to an undated handwritten note from Ripley accompanying the donation
- Summary
- Records include linen tracings, blueprints, and sketches made during time of construction; Construction Committee minute book, 1916; bound statements of cost of work; contract estimates, 1903-1933; miscellaneous photographs; histories of Grand Central Terminal; contractors' daily reports, 1914; miscellaneous printed agreements between railroad & city
- Cite as
- Grand Central Terminal Collection, 1831-1978 (bulk 1903-1933)
- Date
- 1831
- 1831-1978
- 1831-1978 bulk 1903-1933
- 19th century
- 20th century
- 1900-1950
- donor
- Morrison, Donald H
- Ripley, Sidney Dillon 1913-2001
- collector
- Work and Industry, Division of, NMAH, SI
- History of Technology, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Division of [former name], NMAH, SI
- Subject
- Grand Central Terminal
- Local number
- 259,268 (NMAH Acc.)
- 1981.0598 (NMAH Acc.)
- 2007.3213 (NMAH Acc.)
- 2007.3219 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Frank H. Waring Papers, 1912-1997
- Notes
- Transportation analyst, consultant and planner. Had over fifty years of experience in urban and intercity rail and highway transportation for private companies and public agencies on a national and international level
- Summary
- Reports and project proposals on which Waring worked during the course of his consulting career. The subject matter includes railroad tariffs and rail abandonment to coal transportation. There are seven folders of Waring's personal papers relating to projects completed between 1981 and 1989. Miscellaneous objects include blueprints, photographs and a personal address book
- Cite as
- Frank H. Waring papers, 1912-1997, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1949
- 1949-1996
- 1912-1997
- 20th century
- 1950-2000
- donor
- Waring, Frank H 1925-
- collector
- History of Technology, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Subject
- Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company
- RHM Consultants, Inc
- Virginia and Maryland Railroad Company
- Waring Group, Inc
- Local number
- 2005.3059 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Baldwin Locomotive Works Scrapbooks, 1867-1929
- Notes
- The Baldwin Locomotive Works was started as a sole proprietorship by Matthias W. Baldwin in 1831. The company was the largest railroad engineering plant of its kind in the world. It is now out of business
- Summary
- Four scrapbooks containing items relating to the Baldwin Locomotive Works, including: blueprints, photographs, examples of company letterhead and blank company forms, clippings and articles, business records such as contracts and specifications, trade literature, and miscellany
- Cite as
- Baldwin Locomotive Works Scrapbooks, 1867-1929, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1867
- 1867-1929
- 20th century
- 19th century
- 1860-1930
- author
- Baldwin Locomotive Works
- collector
- Work and Industry, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Transportation, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Subject
- Baldwin, Matthias W. industrialist
- Local number
- 2009.3088 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Delaware and Hudson Railroad Engineering Drawings, 1900-1955
- Notes
- The Delaware and Hudson Railway Company grew out of the former Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which had been chartered in Northeastern Pennsylvania in 1823. The canal was last used in 1891. The company's first rail line ran between Carbondale, Pennsylvania and New York, beginning in 1872. After numerous mergers and purchases, it became the Delaware and Hudson Company and later Delaware and Hudson Railway. It was purchased by Guilford Rail System in 1984, and went bankrupt in 1988. Its lines were purchased in 1991 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. During its most successful years, Delaware and Hudson was the inventor, manufacturer and user of some of the most important innovations in steam locomotive design. One of its most important designers, John E. Muhlfeld, is well represented in this collection
- Summary
- The bulk of this collection consists of approximately 26,500 original ink and pencil drawings from which blueprints were later made. The drawings depict not only the rolling stock but the components of the railroad equipment, from the largest to the smallest. The drawings are indexed, titled, numbered, dated and annotated with dimensions and other information. In addition to the drawings, the collection also includes thousands of blueprints, photographs, ledgers, books, and periodicals
- Cite as
- Delaware and Hudson Railroad Engineering Drawings, 1900-1955, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1900
- 1900-1955
- 20th century
- creator
- Delaware and Hudson Railway Company
- donor
- Brosterman, Norman
- creator
- Muhlfeld, John E
- donor
- Nahem, Edward T
- Sasson, Maurice
- Smith, Sanford
- collector
- Work and Industry, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Local number
- 1991.3199 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Baldwin Locomotive Works Engine Registers and Order Books, 1822-1956
- Notes
- The Baldwin Locomotive Works was started as a sole proprietorship by Matthias W. Baldwin in 1831. The company was the largest plant of its kind in the world. It is now out of business
- Summary
- Records of engine orders, specifications, prices and delivery (some duplicating), purchaser (usually a railroad), date of trial, engine name, construction number, class, track gauge, number of wheels, size of cylinders, number of valves, and fuel type are given. For later years, prices are given
- Cite as
- Baldwin Locomotive Works Engine Registers and Order Books, 1822-1956, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1822
- 1822-1956
- Creator
- Baldwin Locomotive Works
- collector
- Transportation, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Subject
- Baldwin, Matthias W. industrialist
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH