Transportation is a big issue for many Connecticut citizens. Whether stuck in traffic jams on I91 or I95, or stranded at Bradley Airport with a ticket to a cancelled flight, today’s travelers are apt to dream a bit about the days when the railroads worked well and went everywhere. Few realize that just 100 years ago you could take a train to almost every city and town in Connecticut. Starting in the 1830’s, various railroad companies began building rail lines through southern New England and by1872, through consolidation and mergers, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad had become one of the major railroad empires in the United States. The corporate records of this railroad, commonly known as the New Haven Railroad, are now held at the Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut. They are the nucleus of one of the largest railroad history collections in the Northeast.
The New Haven Railroad records span over 2100 linear feet and deal largely with the administrative, financial, legal, and real estate transaction files of the company. Though the records do not include the personnel files many genealogists search for, they do include many corporate records of predecessor and subsidiary lines such as the Central New England Railway, the Providence and Fishkill Railroad, the Housatonic Railroad, and others. The New Haven Railroad remained in business until 1969 when mismanagement and competition from the airplane and automobile led to its failure.
This huge collection of corporate records became accessible to researchers at the University of Connecticut in 1989 and then became a part of the Dodd Center in 1996. As often happens with the establishment of such an important core collection, the New Haven Railroad archives attracts donations of collections from many private collectors, railroad enthusiasts, and researchers. Among the most important of these collections is the Property Valuation Maps created in 1915 by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Railroad Stations and Structures collection. The maps and drawings provide detailed information on the real estate and architecture that were a part of the rail lines at that time. Of particular interest are drawings of many of the stations, freight houses and other structures in the New Haven Railroad.
Photographs make up a particularly valuable and accessible part of the Railroad History Collections. There are approximately 50,000 photos and postcards, with many scenes of stations, locomotives, bridges, and rail scenery. Charles B. Gunn, the official photographer of the New Haven Railroad during the 1950’s, documented the devastation of the 1955 floods. The papers of Harry E. Brown, an electrical engineer with the company, include many photos of the New Haven Railroad’s railroad electrification project. The New Haven Railroad is renowned as the first mainline railroad in the United States to use alternating current electricity that it generated from its own power station at Cos Cob, Connecticut, to power its trains that traveled from New Haven into New York City. Besides the popular photograph collections, other resources include annual reports, leases and other real estate information, ledgers, stock certificates and timetables.
Laura Katz Smith is the curator of the Dodd Center’s Railroad History Collections. Laura sees a variety of researchers, including railroad enthusiasts, hobbyists, modelers, graduate students, genealogists, local history researchers, and Department of Transportation employees. Lawyers handling property disputes, landowners, land surveyors, and rails to trails people are particularly interested in the Property Valuation Maps. Architects and town officials are often interested in the station and rail building photographs and drawings. Laura emphasizes that though she has an interest in and appreciation for railroad history, she approaches the subject first as an archivist and librarian. Most reference questions are unique and require a unique response. Many serious research visits require careful preparation beforehand. Laura does as much as she can in helping people who can’t come in person for a visit.
Railroad enthusiasts can be a passionate group of researchers, but they aren’t the only ones passionate about historical accuracy. Laura says that more than one novelist has contacted her for information on old train timetables. Often the novelist will want to place their character in a historically accurate setting and will want to know where a train went and when, how long the journey took, and how much it cost.
Laura is involved in several projects to bring some of the collection’s materials to the Internet. First, the Railroad History Archive (http://railroads.uconn.edu/ ) is the gateway site to general information about the Railroad History Collections. The UConn Libraries “Digital Mosaic” site ( http://images.lib.uconn.edu/ ) includes digital images of “Steam and Electric Locomotives of the New Haven Railroad, “ part of the Fred Otto Makowsky Papers, and 900 Connecticut maps from the “New Haven Railroad Valuation Maps.” There are 2600 maps in this collection and more maps are being digitized now. Many photographs of Connecticut railroad stations are available on Connecticut History Online ( http://www.cthistoryonline.org/ ). More information on the New Haven Railroad’s railroad electrification project is available at http://railroads.uconn.edu/locomotives/electrification.htm.
For more information on the Dodd Center, see http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/
An edited version of this article appeared previously in Connecticut Libraries.
