Exploring Transportation Over Three Centuries
in the Rare Collections of the State Library of Pennsylvania
On November 24, 2013, Governor Corbett signed a new transportation funding bill into law.
The bill will generate $1.6 to $1.8 billion after the fifth year for the much needed repair and
rehabilitation of Pennsylvania’s bridges and highways. It is also expected to provide stable funding
for public transportation over the next 10 years. Given the Governor’s recent transportation
initiative, let’s consider how Pennsylvania’s
transportation system has shaped the development of
the state and also changed the very map we recognize
as our own. The State Library has fascinating rare
books, maps, and documents that show how critical
the transportation arteries have been in connecting our
communities.
Did you know that many of our modern highways began as Indian trails, cutting through the
wilderness of Penn’s woods? These paths, that followed the ridges and valleys, morphed into roads
over which Conestoga wagons carried freight. Later came a canal system, railway lines, a National
Road for the first automobiles, and our modern Pennsylvania Turnpike, which celebrates its 73rd
anniversary this year.
This article will highlight a number of items in the Rare Collections of the State Library that
document the history of transportation in Pennsylvania from the 18th through the 21st centuries.
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The Library has a number of 19th century maps of Pennsylvania’s Indian trails and early roads. One
of the best is an 1895 Map of Hannastown, Pennsylvania on Forbes Road. Once the county seat of
Westmoreland County, Hannastown was destroyed in 1782 by the British 8th Regiment and their
Indian allies.
Before the American Revolution, Pennsylvania Native American
tribes, principally the Delaware, were dominated by the Six Nations
or Iroquois Confederation of New York. The Library owns an 1848
edition of David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six
Nations. Cusick was a Tuscarora Indian artist, who published an
account of Native American history and mythology in 1828.
Cornplanter
The most vivid portrayals of important chieftains of the Six Nations
can be found in Thomas Loraine McKenney’s History of Indian Tribes of North America . The
Library owns 1836 and 1842 editions of the work. One of the best known of these chiefs is
Cornplanter (ca. 1750s-1836), the Seneca war chief and diplomat, who was granted a tract of land in
northwestern Pennsylvania on the Allegheny River in 1796.
In the beginning of the 19th century, industrialization
revolutionized transportation in Pennsylvania, producing the canal
and railroad eras in quick succession. The earliest publication in
the Rare Collections to describe the planning of the canals in
Pennsylvania is a set of published Extracts of the Stockholders of
the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal, dating from January 25, 1802.
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An interesting publication that illustrates a unique relationship between the canal and the railway is
an 1836 Account of the Portage Railroad Over the Allegheny Mountain in Pennsylvania by the
Principal Assistant Engineer S.W. Roberts. Among the Library’s most interesting artifacts, that
documents mid-19th century railway travel, is a Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger and Freight
Schedule from January 1, 1850. A trip by rail between
Elizabeth T[own] and Harrisburg lasted a mere hour and
fifteen minutes! Pennsylvanians of the era, traveling by rail,
doubtless, found Tanner’s Travelling Map of Penna. and New
Jersey (1846) an indispensable aid. The State Library owns a
well-thumbed copy!
The first major “improved” highway built with Federal funds was the National (or Cumberland)
Road, begun in 1811 in Cumberland, Maryland. It crossed the Allegheny Mountains in
southwestern Pennsylvania and terminated in Wheeling, Virginia. It was the first macadam road in
America.
The first transcontinental highway in America was the Lincoln Highway (Route 30), conceived in
1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher. Among the many books the Library owns describing
this coast-to-coast highway is Effie Price Gladdings’ Across the Continent by the Lincoln Highway.
This illustrated volume, complete with maps and photographs, was published in 1915 and dedicated
to “Lovers of the Open Road”.
After the Second World War, Pennsylvania built “The Dream Highway,”
the 470-mile Pennsylvania Turnpike. Pennsylvania’s Turnpike was financed by the sale of bonds
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and run like a business by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. A 1970
illustrated brochure among the State Library’s Pennsylvania Documents
recommends travel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike “For any season; for any
reason.”
The Rare Collections Library is open to students and researchers by appointment, Monday-Friday,
between the hours of 9:00 am and 12:00 noon, and 1:00 pm-4:00 pm. To make an appointment,
contact Dr. Iren Snavely by telephone at 717.783.5982, or by email at: irsnavely@pa.gov. The Rare
Books reading room is also open periodically for tours to the general public and to Pennsylvania
Commonwealth employees.
Resources
Books:
Paul A.W. Wallace. Indian Paths of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and
Museum Commission, 1965.
Susan Q. Stanahan. Susquehanna. River of Dreams. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1993.
Robert J. McClellan. The Delaware Canal. A Picture Story. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 1967.
Pennsylvania Canal Society. Guide to Pennsylvania Canals. West Chester, PA: Pennsylvania
Canal Society, [2000].
Thomas B. Searight. The Old Pike. An Illustrated Narrative of the National Road. Orange, VA:
Green Tree Press, 1971.
Kevin Kutz. Lincoln Highway. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 2006.
Bert Pennypacker. Trackside Around Philadelphia 1946-1969. Scotch Plains, NJ: Morning Sun
Books, Inc., 2000.
Robert C. Post. Urban Mass Transit. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
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Periodicals:
Canal Currents. Pennsylvania Canal Society, Easton, PA.
Organizations:
Pennsylvania Canal Society, c/o Emerick Technology Center, 2750 Hugh Moore Park Road,
Easton, PA 18042. Email: administrator@pacanalsociety.org.
Museums:
Peter Herdic Transportation Museum, 810 Nichols Place, Williamsport, PA 17701.
Tel.:
(570) 601-2500. Summer hours (June-August) Tuesday-Saturday. 10am-3pm; September-May,
10am-3pm, or by appointment.
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Strasburg,
PA. Tel.: (717) 687-8628. Hours: January, February, March, November, December—TuesdaySaturday, 9am-5pm; Sunday, 12 noon-5pm. April-October-- Tuesday-Saturday, 9am-5pm; Sunday,
12 noon-5pm.
Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Museum. 161 Museum Drive, Hershey, PA
17033. Tel.: (717) 566-7300. Hours: Open daily 9am-5pm.
Lincoln Highway Roadside Museum. 3435 State Route 30 East, Latrobe, PA 15650. Tel: (724)
879-4241. Hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm.
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