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 4 items.
- 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
Wilbur L. Metz Collection of Railroad Ephemera, 1910-1986
- Notes
- Railroad brakeman
- Summary
- Printed materials collected by Metz during his railroad career, including timetables, rule books, operational manuals, safety manuals, labor union materials, regulations, Metz' IDs and certifications, blank company forms, company newsletters, and internal memoranda and correspondence. The papers relate to several railroads: Western Maryland Railway Company, the Reading Co., Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and Conrail. Unions for which papers are included in the collection are the United Transportation Union, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, and the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen
- Cite as
- Wilbur L. Metz Collection of Railroad Ephemera, 1910-1986, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1910
- 1910-1986
- 20th century
- collector
- Metz, Wilbur L
- Creator
- United Transportation Union
- Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America
- Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen (U.S.)
- Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company
- Chessie System, inc
- ConRail
- Pennsylvania Railroad
- Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Company
- Reading Company
- Western Maryland Railway Company
- collector
- Work and Industry, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Local number
- 1996.3025 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Harry A. McBride Railroad Photographs, ca. 1940s-1950s
- Notes
- McBride was a foreign service officer and museum official. He was also a railroad enthusiast
- Summary
- Approxiamtely 3,000 views of railroads, railroad equipment, stations, yards and employees. The emphasis is on American railroads, but the collection includes a few views of railroad subjects in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Europe, Scandinavia, and several island nations
- Cite as
- Harry A. McBride Railroad Photographs, 1940s-1950s, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1940
- 1960
- ca 1940s-1950s
- 20th century
- 1940-1970
- photographer
- McBride, Harry A
- collector
- Transportation, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Work and Industry, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Local number
- 228816 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company Records, 1863-1936
- Notes
- This railroad was chartered in 1833 to provide low-cost transportation from the Schuylkill and Mahanoy anthracite coal fields in eastern Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. Main line from Philadelphia to Pottsville opened 1842. Reading expanded by acquiring other railroads, and by 1869 had monopoly of coal traffic from Schuylkill anthracite region
- Expansion accelerated when Franklin B. Gowen became president (1869) and attempted to dominate entire anthracite trade. Purchased Schuylkill Canal (1870) to eliminate competition for coal trade; then organized the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company in 1871 to purchase and operate coal mines; secured over 40 percent of U.S. anthracite reserves, but debt incurred led railroad to bankruptcy and receivership (1880). Gowen's reckless style drove the Reading into second receivership (1886), and he was forced to resign
- Gowen's Successor, Archibald A. McLeod, tried to increase company control over anthracite trade (1892-1893), then control of several New England railroads. The Reading went bankrupt again and McLeod was ousted. In a reorganization (1896), the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and the Coal & Iron Company became properties of the Reading Company, a holding company. Later additions to system were infrequent and largely confined to short branches and improvements inalignment. Due to anti-trust proceedings, company divested mining subsidiary (1923) and merged wholly owned railroad companies into an operating company. Acquired Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad 1963, went bankrupt in early 1970s, and conveyed portions of its lines to Conrail (1976). The reorganized Reading Company retains real estate and other non-rail holdings
- Summary
- Primarily outgoing correspondence from the Engineering Department of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, the remainder being engineering reports and other miscellaneous papers
- SERIES 1: 219 letterpress copybook volumes from various engineers, each with own index (1865-1892): were generated by Chief Engineer, Assistant Chief Engineer, various resident engineers, other lower-level engineers, and the Chief Road-Master. Bulk of copybooks created by William H. Bines and Henry K. Nichols during long careers with the Philadelphia & Reading. Other volumes contain letters and reports by Charles W. Buckholz, Charles E. Byers, William Lorenz, and others. Correspondence covers all aspects of the engineering operations of the railroad, much of it at highest levels, being addressed to the Presidents of the Reading. Also includes one letterbook from John E. Wooten (1865), Superintendent
- SERIES 2: Reports of Chief Engineer to Auditor, 1908-1910; structural design calculation notebooks, 1901-1935; right of way deeds, 1903; and tracings of assorted machine parts
- Cite as
- Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1863
- 1863-1936
- 1930-1950
- creator
- Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co
- collector
- Transportation, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Engineering and Industry, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Subject
- Bines, William H
- Boggs, George B
- Buckholz, Charles W
- Byers, Charles E
- Chamberlain, E.C
- Davis, N.M
- Gowen, Franklin B
- Jamison, Robert
- Keim, George DeB
- Lorenz, William
- Manning, Charles P
- Nichols, Henry K
- Rice, George
- Royers, John H
- Steele, J. Dutton
- Thompson, J.W
- Richardson, F.E
- Whitney, E.S
- Wilson, H.T
- Wootten, John E
- Yarington, T.O
- Zacharias, H.C
- Atlantic City Railroad
- Mine Hill & Schuylkill Haven Railroad
- Reading Belt Railroad
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH