Railroad Archives
The collecting of large corporate archives at the Newberry was initiated in 1943 by Librarian Stanley Pargellis, who advocated the acquisition of records of Midwestern enterprises that contained materials for social and intellectual history as well as business history. Pargellis’s vision was realized with the deposit of several large and important archives of Midwestern railroad companies: the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and the Pullman Company. Smaller railroad-related collections have also been added.
To find books on Railroads in our Collections, you can search by Subject in our Primo VE catalog using the “Advanced Search” function to the right of the search bar. Select “Subject” in the drop-down menu of search features in place of “Any field,” then copy-and-paste one of the following subject headings:
Railroads
Railroads—History
Railroads—Illinois
Railroads—Maps
Railroads—United States
Results can be filtered by Material Type, Language, Date, Author, Title, etc. prior to searching by using the drop-down menus in the search panel. If your search produces too many options, you can also narrow results using the faceted options on the left-hand side, under the heading “Refine your results.” Clicking on one of these filter terms or the box to their left will limit results to only those that fit this criterion, while clicking on the red box to the right of the term will exclude those results. For more information about searching in our online catalog, please see our Guide to Primo VE.
Association of American Railroads. Bibliography of railway history. Washington, D.C. : The Association, 1940. Call Number: lower case folio h 66 .053
Barger, Ralph. A Century of Pullman Cars Volumes I and II. Sykesville, Md. : Greenberg Pub. Co., c1988-c1990. Call number: Case Ref TF 459.B37 1988
Hansen, Holly T. The directory of North American railroads, associations, societies, archives, libraries, museums and their collections. Croydon, Utah : H.T. Hansen, 1999. Call Number: Ref HE2741 .H36 1999
Middleton, William D., George M. Smerk, and Roberta L. Diehl, eds. Encyclopedia of North American railroads. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2007. Call Number: Ref TF22 .E53 2007
Briggs, Martha and Cynthia H. Peters. Guide to the Pullman Company Archives. Chicago: The Newberry Library, 1995. Call number: Ref Z 6621 N663 E5 1997a
Jackson, Elizabeth Coleman and Carolyn Curtis, comps. Guide to the Burlington Archives in the Newberry Library, 1851901. Chicago: Newberry Library, 1949. Call number: Ref HE 2791 C6425, in checklist area.
Mohr, Carolyn Curtis, comp. Guide to the Illinois Central Archives in the Newberry Library, 1851906. Chicago: Newberry Library, 1951. Call number: Ref H 668 .434, in checklist area.
A list of additional publications about the Newberry Railroad Collections is located here.
Beberdick, Frank H. (Frank Harry), 1927-. Frank H. Beberdick Pullman Collection, 1881- 2001.
4.3 linear feet (2 boxes and 2 oversize boxes)
Miscellaneous materials relating to the historic Pullman company town and Pullman Manufacturing Company, 1881-2001, collected by Pullman (IL) resident and archivist Frank Beberdick.
Call Number: Midwest MS Beberdick Pullman
Chicago Union Station Company. Chicago Union Station Company Records, 1920-1958.
0.1 linear feet (2 folders)
Documents relating to the company’s issue Series “C” Bonds (printed volume, 1920), together with a file containing letters, memoranda, and other documents relating to vacations with pay authorized for war veterans returning from service with the armed forces, 1945-1958. Also an “m” Series sinking fund bond.
Call Number: Midwest MS 110
Railroad photograph collection, ca. 1868-1914.
0.1 linear feet (2 folders).
Two groups of railroad photographs, including 15 reproductions related to the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, ca. 1868-1869, and 34 snapshots and postal cards of railroad men, engines, cars, stations and wrecks apparently taken in Wisconsin, ca. 1913-1914.
Call Number: Midwest MS 145
Online gallery of images by subject entitled CB&Q: Building an Empire
Digital collection of images entitled Daily Life Along the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad
CB&Q processing blog: Everywhere West
The Pullman Digital Collection features 1,299 drawings of heavyweight and lightweight cars.
The online exhibit Pullman: Labor, Race, and the Urban Landscape in a Company Town features many images from the Pullman collection.
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