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 157 items.
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1866 Dudgeon Steam Wagon
- Description
- The Dudgeon steam wagon is one of the earliest self-propelled road vehicles built in the United States. Richard Dudgeon, a machinist who was known for his commercially produced hydraulic jacks, designed and built a steam-powered wagon because he hoped to end the abuse and mistreatment of horses. The wagon resembles a small locomotive, but it has a steering wheel and seats for the driver and eight passengers. Dudgeon drove the vehicle on New York City streets and at his farm on Long Island. It burned coal and ran at a top speed of 25 to 30 miles per hour.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1866
- maker
- Dudgeon, Richard
- ID Number
- 1981.0328.01
- accession number
- 1981.0328
- catalog number
- 1981.0328.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Carpenter-Dodge School Bus, 1939
- Description
- This bus carried rural children to the Martinsburg, Indiana school in the 1940s. Busing enabled children to attend consolidated schools, which were larger than one-room schools and had better curricula, teachers, and facilities. All-steel school buses like this one were safer than earlier school buses, which had wooden bodies. The paint color, double deep orange, was common at the time, but yellow later became the standard color for school buses. This body was built by Carpenter Body Works of Mitchell, Indiana in 1936 and later was attached to a 1939 Dodge chassis.
- date made
- ca 1936-1939
- used date
- 1936-1946
- maker
- Carpenter Body Works, Inc.
- Dodge Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1982.0600.01
- accession number
- 1982.0600
- catalog number
- 1982.0600.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kramer Farm Wagon
- Description
- Versatile, sturdy, and dependable, horse-drawn farm wagons were common in rural America well into the 1920s. They carried crops, goods, and supplies and served as passenger vehicles for families. Guy McCartney of Simpson, West Virginia used this wagon to deliver coal to area homes for furnaces and stoves. Built by the Kramer Wagon Company in Oil City, Pennsylvania, it is believed to date from the 1920s. During America’s first oil drilling boom in the late nineteenth century, Kramer also built wagons that hauled oil and carriages for wealthy oil businessmen.
- date made
- ca 1925
- maker
- Kramer Wagon Company
- ID Number
- 1984.0743.01
- catalog number
- 84.0743.01
- accession number
- 1984.0743
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bread Box
- Description
- This box was used to transport loaves of bread by wagon or train from Meinburg's Bakery of Washington DC to establishments in the city and outlying counties. Delivering goods by rail meant a larger customer base for businesses like this bakery. After reaching its destination and unloaded, the grocery would return the box to the bakery where it was reloaded for another shipment.
- The box is constructed of wood with rope handles and could be carried by one person. The box is numbered so agents could track the shipment.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1890-1900
- ID Number
- 1985.0709.01
- accession number
- 1985.0709
- catalog number
- 1985.0709.01
- 85.0709.01
- accession number
- 1985.0709
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
U. S. 66 Route Marker
- Description
- Cyrus Avery, a highway advocate in Tulsa, Oklahoma, founded Route 66 while helping to plan a national highway system in the 1920s. New, long-distance highways crossed the nation east to west and north to south, superseding short, local roads. Roadside markers with route numbers, like this example from Clinton, Oklahoma, directed motorists and replaced road names. Avery’s proposal for a route from Chicago to Los Angeles through his home state was approved and designated U. S. 66 in 1926. Route 66 became a corridor for important migrations by Dust Bowl victims, military personnel, veterans, and vacationers.
- ID Number
- 1993.0282.01
- catalog number
- 1993.0282.01
- accession number
- 1993.0282
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1929 Oakland sedan
- Description
- This car belonged to George W. Hibbs, who worked in his uncle's stock brokerage, W.B. Hibbs and Company, in Washington, D.C. The car was last driven in 1950; it was stored in a home garage until 1993, when it was added to the Smithsonian collection as a bequest of Audrey H. Thomas, Hibbs's granddaughter.
- The 1929 Oakland All-American Six sedan was a moderately priced, mass-produced luxury car. Its fine body work, luxury accessories, and styling accents distinguished it from lower-priced sedans. These features reflected middle-class motorists' desire for greater sophistication and General Motors' focus on the sales appeal of artistically designed, comfortable, closed-body cars. Another selling point of GM sedans and coupes was its Fisher Body Division, which brought a heritage of carriage and closed body skills and artistry to mass-produced automobiles.
- In the 1920s, General Motors introduced a marketing strategy that featured a spectrum of makes and models with graduated prices and levels of quality. This strategy enticed motorists to "step up" to the next level of price and luxury when their means allowed. Oakland was placed between Oldsmobile and Buick in price, quality, and body details. GM discontinued the Oakland line in 1931, during the Depression, because of declining sales and the popularity of other GM cars, including one of Oakland's own products, the Pontiac.
- Image from sales brochure in division object files.
- date made
- 1929
- maker
- General Motors Corporation
- Oakland Motor Car Company
- General Motors Corporation. Fisher Body Division
- ID Number
- 1993.0483.01
- accession number
- 1993.0483
- catalog number
- 1993.0483.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
EV1 Electric Car, 1997
- Description
- In 1996, General Motors began leasing a new generation of electric cars to consumers. This car was leased to an individual in California from 1998 to 2000. It is the last one produced in the first series, which had lead-acid batteries; the second series had nickel-metal hydride batteries with greater range. GM developed the EV1 to meet a requirement for emission-free vehicles in California. It was aerodynamic and had a sophisticated, computer-controlled energy management and propulsion system. Many drivers liked the EV1, but GM chose not to mass-produce the car because of its projected high price and limited market.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1997
- maker
- General Motors Corporation
- ID Number
- 2005.0061.01
- accession number
- 2005.0061
- catalog number
- 2005.0061.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Oceanic Cut Plug Tobacco Pouch
- Description
- In 1852, Daniel Scotten began his career in Detroit's tobacco industry as an apprentice to cigar maker Isaac Miller. At that time, Detroit was known for its cigar and chewing tobacco production, producing 210 million cigars and 14 million pounds of chewing tobacco a year. The tobacco companies were among the leading employers in Detroit, providing over 10,000 jobs (mainly for women). In 1856 with partner George Lovett, Scotten founded the Hiawatha Tobacco Company.
- In the late1880s, Scotten moved to a bigger factory and renamed his company the Scotten-Dillon Company, to signify the addition of a corporate partner. The company mainly produced cigars, chewing, and flake tobacco. By the 1890s, Scotten-Dillon had 1200 employees and $4 million in annual sales. The Conwood Corporation would eventually acquire the company.
- Of Scotten-Dillon's products, chewing tobacco was the most popular. Chewing tobacco is made by pressing cured tobacco leaves, usually in sweet molasses-based syrup, between two large tin sheets. The sheets are then cut into blocks or plugs. During the 1930s the standard plug size was 2 ¾" x 4 ½" and 1" thick. This plug sold for a nickel or a dime, depending on the quality of the tobacco. The consumer could either cut or bite the tobacco from the plug for consumption.
- One of Scotten-Dillon's brands was Oceanic Cut Plug tobacco. This was a reference to the 1899 ship Oceanic, built for the White Star Line by Harland Wolff Ltd. Known as the "Queen of the Sea" and considered the most glorious ship of her time, the White Star Liner was built for around one million pounds silver. It was 700 ft. long with a 68 ft. beam, 17,274 tons and a maximum speed was twenty knots. The ship would have 15 years of service before being grounded 20 miles off Northern Scotland in the Shetland Islands on September 8, 1914 while serving in the Royal Navy as an armed merchant cruiser. Oceanic would remain there untouched until 1973, when salvaged.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1930s
- maker
- Scotten-Dillon Company
- ID Number
- 2006.3072.01
- accession number
- 2006.3072
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Canoe, SAIRY GAMP
- Description
- This small canoe was built in 1882 by J. H. Rushton in Canton, New York, for writer and adventurer George Washington Sears. Under the name "Nessmuk," Sears penned essays on hunting, fishing, and camping for popular journals and magazines.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- date made
- 1882
- maker
- Rushton, J. H.
- ID Number
- TR*160315
- accession number
- 7809
- catalog number
- 160315
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Duryea Motor Carriage, 1893
- 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
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center