THE TRANSPORTATION HISTORY COLLECTION

The Transportation History Collection is an important body of cataloged and uncataloged materials on travel and transportation. The collection was begun in 1923 by John S. Worley, the University of Michigan's first Professor of Transportation and Railroad Engineering. In 1964 the collection was placed in the Engineering Library, and in 1991 the historical materials were transferred to the Special Collections Library. The collection contains over 70,000 items, including pamphlets, monographs, serials, prints, photographs, manuscripts, brochures, timetables, maps, guidebooks, and realia. The earliest items date from the 16th century, and the bulk of the collection is from the 19th and 20th centuries. The majority of the items deal with transportation in the United States but there is also a significant amount of British, Canadian, Mexican, Russian and European material.

The collections consists of four major subcollections.

• Railroads: which consists of materials on early experimental railroads, steam and diesel railroads, and horse car, cable, and electric urban and interurban lines, and the infrastructure of railroads.
• Highways: which consists of items relating to bicycles, early road travel, carriages and coaches, automobiles, and all aspects of modern highway transportation, including infrastructure.
• Waterways: which includes materials on ocean, Great Lakes, river, and canal transportation, as well as documents on bridges (including covered bridges) and all aspects of the infrastructure of the canals and rivers.
• Air Transportation: which includes items on lighter than air machines, (balloons and dirigibles), and heavier than air machines (airplanes). The collection is particularly strong in early experimental air transportation.