About the Transportation Library
Founded in 1958, the Transportation Library supports the research and educational needs of Northwestern University students and faculty, as well as a global community of transportation researchers. Supporting the research of our students and faculty is central to our mission, activities, and the development of our collections, which number over 500,000 items, and which are curated to support cutting-edge research in all transportation modalities including air, rail, highway, water, urban transport and logistics. Our digitization efforts, online exhibits, and social media platforms are produced to connect and promote our collections to a worldwide audience.
Find us online through our website, on Instagram for transportation history from our collections, or on Twitter for library news, collection highlights, and more.
About the Site Banner
The exhibit’s banner is a detail from the publication All-America Train Fares, Edition 3 Effective July 1, 1973.
Collections in this Exhibit
William R. Hough Timetable Collection
The William R. Hough Timetable Collection consists of timetables and promotional publications, menus, and route maps, primarily published between the 1930s and1990s, with a few outliers issued between 1907 and 2016, many dating from the time when railroads were promoting their reequipped passenger trains against air and auto competition. The collection is primarily North American in scope, while also including some European and Australian content. Along with the more commonly available public timetables, the collection includes 142 employee timetables. Finally, the collections include monographs, periodicals, annual reports, photographs, postcards, and realia.
John A. Swider Timetable Collection
Gary Gelzer Transportation Collection
Ira Silverman Railroad Menu Collection
Dining service during the second half of the twentieth century is beautifully illustrated through the Ira Silverman Railroad Menu Collection, held at Northwestern University’s Transportation Library. The collection is particularly strong in its holdings of menus representing the final decade of privately operated train travel in the U.S. (1960-1971) as well as menus from the early years of Amtrak. Comprising 238 menus, it casts a broad scope that covers 35 U.S. and Canadian operators and includes menus with selections ranging from luxurious five-course dinners to simple coffee shop fare, children’s menus, and cocktail menus.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Roberto Sarmiento, Transportation Library Director, for his vision for and continued support of the library’s exhibit program, for building the library’s special collections so that exhibits like this one are possible, and for continued editorial input, collaboration, and continued good cheer and collegiality throughout the process.
Additional thanks to Northwestern University Libraries’ Copyright Librarian Liz Hamilton, as well as Clare Roccaforte, Drew Scott, and the rest of the Library Marketing & Communications team for their continued support of the Transportation Library’s exhibit program.
This exhibit in particular is testament to the works of art that are the collections assembled by our donors. These carefully curated collections tell a history of United States railroads, particularly in the second half of the twentieth century, fitting together like a puzzle – in search of just the right materials to tell a part of this story, I had many moments where I came upon the exact piece that I needed to complete a section. I want to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to our donors for their thoughtfulness in assembling these collections, their generosity in entrusting our library with these materials, and for making them available to share with the public through this exhibit.
– Rachel Cole, Transportation Library Public Services Librarian, Exhibit Curator
Online Exhibits From the Transportation Library
The 747 Takes Off: The Dawn of the Jumbo Jet Age
Longer than the Wright brothers’ first flight, wider than a boulevard, and with a tail height as tall as a six-story building, the 747 was a revolution in aviation technology and the passenger experience when it entered service on January 22, 1970. With the first flight from New York to London, Pan Am’s Clipper Young America ushered in the jet age’s second phase: the era of wide body aircraft. The 747 Takes Off brings together passenger ephemera and other materials from the collections of Northwestern University’s Transportation Library to celebrate the jumbo jet on the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of 747 passenger service.
Independence in the Air: African Aviation in the 1960s
As nations throughout Africa attained their independence in the 1960s and surrounding decades, the establishment of national airlines soon followed. These airlines served important functions in connecting regions underserved by rail and road infrastructure. Equally as important, they served as symbols of national identity, economic expansion, modernity, and technological advancement. Independence in the Air looks at the history of African airlines through materials from the collections of the Transportation Library and the Herskovits Library of African Studies.
On Board with Design: Passenger Transportation and Graphic Design in the Mid-20th Century
On Board with Design: Passenger Transportation and Graphic Design in the Mid-20th Century draws from the special and circulating collections at Northwestern University’s Transportation Library to highlight examples of branding and graphic design in the form of passenger ephemera such as menus, timetables, and ticket envelopes, as well as through the library’s extensive collection of annual reports.
Lovers of the Open Road and the Flying Wheel
In the spring of 1915, three motorists departed Iowa in a Model T for a journey to the Panama Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. This photo, taken between Woodbine and Logan on the Lincoln Highway, is the second photo in an album of over one hundred photos documenting the trip, which is in our collection and is the subject of the online exhibition Lovers of the Open Road and the Flying Wheel.
Bicycles on Paper
As it is today, the bicycle at the turn of the 20th century was a form of transportation, recreation, amusement, and a creator of community. The online exhibit Bicycles on Paper looks at bicycles in all of these forms through printed matter in the collection of Northwestern University’s Transportation Library.
O'Hare @50
Rights
Northwestern University Libraries is dedicated to the fair and ethical preservation, digitization, curation, and use of its collections. This exhibit is made available to the public under Fair Use (Section 107 of the Copyright Act) for learning and teaching purposes, as well as to promote the mission and activities of Northwestern University Libraries (ARL Code of Best Practices in Fair Use). Northwestern University Libraries does not claim the copyright of any materials in this collection. If you are the copyright holder of any item(s) in this collection or have questions, comments or concerns about this exhibit, please contact us via email at transportationlibrary@northwestern.edu.
More Information
Items in the exhibit are housed at Northwestern University’s Transportation Library. Email transportationlibrary@northwestern.edu with questions, or to schedule an appointment.