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.