21638 - April 2011 Milepost.indd - Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

Photo at Right: By
creating the archives annex
in 2000, the Museum more
than doubled the space
available to accommodate
library and archival
materials. This space
originally served as the
Museum’s wood shop.
(Bradley K. Smith Photo,
Railroad Museum of
Pennsylvania, PHMC)
Photo Below: The Museum’s Union
Switch & Signal Collection includes
over 2,000 images depicting all
aspects of that company’s operations.
This photograph shows a woman
working at the company’s Swissvale
plant during World War II. (RR78.10,
MG199, Railroad Museum of
Pennsylvania, PHMC)
Curator’s Corner
ACCESSIBILITY AND THE RAILROAD
MUSEUM OF PENNSYLVANIA
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES
by Nicholas Zmijewski and Bradley K. Smith
In addItIon to a world-class collectIon oF More tHan 100 HIstorIc
locomotives and railroad cars and a collection of over 12,000 smaller artifacts,
the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania cares for one of the largest and most
important library and archival collections of railroad history in the United
States. While the library and archives have been nearly a half-century in the
making, it is only within the last several years that the Museum has begun to
fully utilize the collection for the benefi t of the public.
Origins And Growth Of The Library And Archives
In 1963, the Pennsylvania state legislature authorized the creation of a state
railroad museum and, on February 18, 1965, the Pennsylvania Historical &
Museum Commission selected Strasburg as the site for this museum. Almost
immediately thereafter, agents of the Commission began collecting books and
documents in anticipation of the yet-to-be-built Museum. 1 Since construction
of a Museum building would not commence until 1972, they temporarily
accepted and held these early donations at the William Penn Memorial Museum
and the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg.
The Museum’s fi rst director, George Hart, led a crucial initiative by
purchasing more than $27,000 of ephemera and records at the Penn Central
Auction on March 20-23, 1972. Held at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia
and publicized as the largest auction of railroad memorabilia in history, the
sale featured an incredible array of Pennsylvania Railroad materials which one
April 2011
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