The Big Chair...

Sometimes you get an opportunity that you just can't say no to. Hi, this is Nick writing again. First, please accept my apologies for the dearth of posts this year. Once you read further you may understand why things slowed down.

In June of 2011, Gregg Ames, the curator of the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, retired. The library began a search for the next curator (the 6th for you Dr. Who types.) In August an announcement appeared on the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society's chat group and this announcement was forwarded to me.

Honestly I was torn about applying. The job, if I got it, would involve a considerable move away from my family and friends. However, after passing on an announcement for an archivist at Norfolk Southern, and being told by several folks that "this is the perfect job for you," I decided to give it a go.

Applications were due by the end of September and in early October I received an email from the search committee asking for a phone interview. After the phone interview some time passed and then I got another email asking if I could come out to St. Louis for an in person interview. Now things were getting serious.

The in-person interview was actually a series of interviews with multiple communities of librarians at UMSL and was followed up by another phone interview with members of the Barriger Library's Board. This was my first experience with an academic interview process and I have to say, even if I hadn't gotten the job, the experience alone would have been worth the effort of applying.

A couple of weeks later, I got a call and was offered the job.

I said yes almost immediately.

I've told people it's like being offered the Captain's Chair on the Enterprise. Who'd dare say no?

So, starting in February 2012 I'll be in the thick of one of the best railroad research libraries in the world. I expect this blog will be moving with me, probably to a Barriger page.

Expect more posts, more research oriented work and perhaps notifications of publications and articles coming out. I've got a backlog of them still gestating in my office. I think I'll be pushing them out into the wide wide world soon.

Why you should be thinking about state and municipal archives

Many researchers of railroad history, particularly if they are new to the field of historical research may neglect certain resources that are available to them that could greatly enhance their work. Some of those resources are contained in the various state and municipal archives throughout the nation.

For the "pioneering railroads" public financing was critical to their construction. As part of the "Era of Good Feeling" under President Monroe, the United States Government began pushing resources and expertise, in most cases engineering expertise from the young United States Army Corps of Engineers, to various national and regional transportation improvement projects.

At the state and municipal level, this translated to more tangible financial investment in these transportation projects. For the purposes of this blog, we'll use the example of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The B&O Railroad, while a public corporation, received a substantial amount of money from the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore when it was created. Later more funds were provided by the State of Virginia when it was decided to use that State's shore of the Potomac River to go west.

The funds committed to purchase B&O bonds were not insubstantial and in some cases the stock also purchased gave certain governments the ability to put directors on the company's board. This in turn led to the creation of a paper trail for the city and state governments about the railroad's finances, decisions made by the board and the views of those who represented the public monies invested in these companies.

In Maryland, these documents can be accessed via the Maryland State Archives and the Baltimore City Archives. In Virginia, one can find these items at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.

Pennsylvania invested heavily in its "Main Line" of State Works that was a canal-railroad hybrid from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. The project was funded entirely out of state funds and was eventually sold outright to the newly chartered Pennsylvania Railroad. The state's papers are held at the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg.

Railroad History and Digital History

Professor William G. Thomas is running a really neat operation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln titled "Railroads and the Making of Modern America." The project presents the impact of railroads on American society with a focus on western settlement, social history and labor history. It's a nice place to see what younger scholars and students are writing about railroads and may be helpful in focusing your own research inquiries or developing your ideas for a research project.