Transport History Collections
The IHR Wohl library collects published editions of primary sources and guides to sources. On this page you can find examples covering transport history from across our collections.
Introduction
The IHR library collects published editions of primary sources, covering western Europe and its colonial history. It also holds supplementary material including bibliographies, guides to sources, historiography and periodicals. Below are some examples covering transport history from across our collections.
Highlights from the Collections
- A bibliography of British railway history | British local collection
- Britain's historic railway buildings : an Oxford gazetteer of structures and sites | British collection
- Transport on Merseyside : guide to archive sources | British local collection
- Railway records : a guide to sources | British collection
- Was your grandfather a railwayman? : a directory of records relating to staff employed by railways in the following countries... : United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Eire, India, New Zealand, South Africa, United States of America | British collection
- A chronology of the construction of Britain's railways 1778-1855 | British Local collection
- Companion to British road haulage history | British collection
- The Oxford companion to British railway history : from 1602 to the 1990s | British Local collection
- How to trace the history of your car : a guide to motor vehicle registration records in the British Isles | British collection
- A guide to sources in the history of the cycle and motor industries in Coventry, 1880-1939 | British collection
A range of sources of this type give useful insights into transport history including travellers' accounts, and diaries of engineers and transport pioneers, such as the Sandford Fleming diaries and Alexander Fothergill and the Richmond to Lancaster Turnpike Road. The Memoirs of Thaddeus S.C. Lowe give an account of ballooning in nineteenth century America.
The phone conversation between Richard Nixon and the Apollo 11 Astronauts is recorded in his public papers. Public papers of the Presidents of the United States. Richard Nixon : containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the President, 1969 to August 9, 1974, Vol. 1, p.530.
A range of information can be gleaned from the Parliamentary and State records, such as the example of thirteenth century towns petitioning the Crown for the right to collect Pavage, a toll for funding street paving. This is recorded in the Patent Rolls and Parliament Rolls among other sources.
A separate Act of Parliament was passed for each new railway and these are recorded in the Journals and editions of the Acts of Parliament. We also hold Acts for road building, such as An Act.. for repairing and amending the highways leading from Seven Oaks to Woods Gate, and Tunbridge-Wells, ... in Kent, etc. [11 Geo.I c.15] in a bound volume of Acts of Parliament for Kent, and a compilation of Turnpike Acts The General turnpike road acts : with notes, forms, and an index.
The Parliamentary Debates cover discussions of transport issues, such as the Beeching Report in 1963: "But.. why is it then that... in 1963 it has occasioned anger—anger cutting across Party barriers; anger deeper and more widespread, in my opinion, throughout the country than almost any domestic issue during the last twenty years? In fact, the only pleasant comment I have heard on the Plan is the advice to use Dr. Beeching's face cream because it removes all lines" (Lord Stonham in House of Lords Debates 02 May 1963 vol 249 c331).
See also UK Parliamentary history collection guide.
We hold a range of maps and atlases covering a variety of periods and places. Examples include the Grote atlas van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Dutch United East India Company) and Map of the railways proposed by the bills of the session of 1863 in the [London] metropolis & its vicinity. The collection also includes some topographical drawings which often have illustrations of bridges, boats and other transport features. There are also some bound atlases, such as:
- Jowett's railway atlas of Great Britain and Ireland : from pre-grouping to the present day
- The Routledge historical atlas of the American railroads
- Complete British railways maps and gazetteer : from 1830-1981
- North Eastern Railway : historical maps
- Bowles's new four-sheet map of England and Wales with the roads
- Reynolds's travelling atlas of England : with all the railways and stations accurately laid down...
- Atlas zur Verkehrsgeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins im 19. Jahrhundert
- Phillips' inland navigation Reprint of the 1805 edition
See also map collection guide.
Trade directories contain transport information in the form of advertisements, descriptions of localities and listings of coaching routes, ship times etc. We hold a range covering London and the British regions with particularly strong holdings for the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Bradshaw's canals and navigable rivers of England and Wales 1904
- Priestley's navigable rivers and canals, first published in 1831, reprint with a new introduction.
- Bradshaw's Railway Manual, shareholder' guide and directory 1869, Bradshaw's Railway Guide 1887, 1910, 1938, 1955
- A new and accurate description of all the direct and principal cross roads in England and Wales 1778 and 1789, Paterson's British itinerary 1800 and Paterson's Roads 1800, 1822, 1824, 1832 (see also 'Paterson's roads' : Daniel Paterson, his maps and itineraries 1738-1825)
- Directory of stage coach services 1836 Listings of stage coach and royal mail coach services compiled in 1969.
- A gazetteer of the railway contractors and engineers of Australia | Colonial collection
- The traveller's pocket-book : or, Ogilby and Morgan's book of the roads improved and amended.. 1752
- The directory of British tramways : every passenger-carrying tramway, past and present, an edited compilation
- Whishaw's railways of Great Britain and Ireland, 1842
- The directory of railway stations : details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present
- La guide des chemins de France de 1553
- Zedig onderzoek over het maken van een canael of haven, 1721
- The English travellers companion: or a ready and sure guide from London to any of the principal cities and towns in England and Wales (1676)
- The imperial guide with picturesque plans of the great post roads..(1802)
Yearbooks such as Whitaker's almanack (held from 1870 onwards) and The Annual Register (1758 onwards) contain a contemporary digest of the year's events. They include, for example, summaries of railway openings, description of the Titanic shipping disaster and the subsequent inquiries (Annual Register, 1912, p.85) and a discussion of the Beeching Report (Annual Register, 1963, p.12-3). Although these are the longest runs held, we also have miscellaneous other editions of almanacs covering for example India.
Online newspaper collections (onsite only) - both fully searchable:
Nineteenth century periodicals:
Tourist Travel to Yellowstone National Park in the 1880s
A letter appeared in The Times of 1884 from the European Agent of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, stating that as there was possibility of delay to the opening of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, the company 'have placed sleeping cars and a dining car at the end of the Park Branch, for the use of those tourists who do not care to camp in the park'. (The Times, Wednesday, Jul 02, 1884; pg. 6; Issue 31175; col D, from The Times online).
- Inland navigation and economic development in nineteenth-century Europe | General collection
- A fighting trade : rail transport in Tyne coal 1600-1800 | British local collection
- The turnpike road system in England, 1663-1840 | British local collection
- The Midland Railway : a chronology | British local collection
- Chronology of the railways of Lancashire and Cheshire | British local collection
- A chronology of the construction of Britain's railways 1778-1855 | British local collection
A full list of our online resources is available. Below are a few examples of resources that could be useful for this subject (most are available onsite in the IHR or via subscription only):
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Bibliography of British and Irish History
- The Times
- British History Online
- National Archives (various guides under Transport and Maritime history)
- National Railway Museum and Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History
- London Transport Museum
- Coventry Transport Museum
- National Tramway Museum
- Wikipedia list of transport museums
Contact us if you would like help on finding or using our collections, or if you have any comments or suggestions about the content of this guide. We are happy to help.
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