Research Links: Research Collections

The Baker Old Class collection is a particularly valuable resource for tracing the development and growth of American business and industry, particularly railroads in the United States and abroad, from the late nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. The rich holdings include long runs of trade publications such as the British Railway Gazette and the American Railway Locomotives and Cars; reports and documents of the major government and corporate governing bodies such as the United States Railroad Administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Association of American Railroads; railroad company publications such as histories and house organs; and investment manuals such as Poor's Manual of Railroads. The collection covers a wide range of topics, including railroads and the state, law and legislation, mergers, management, finance, construction, equipment and supplies, rates and fares, and safety measures, along with railroad equipment manufacture.

The Kress Collection of Business and Economics is recognized as one of the premier rare book collections in the world for the study of business practice and economic thought from the fifteenth through the nineteenth century. Among the collection’s strengths is transportation, particularly the early development of railroads in Europe and the United States. Researchers will find not only the great classics such as Dionysius Lardner’s Railway Economy, reports by civil engineers Robert and George Stevenson, and works by railroad historian Joseph Ritter von Baader, but also an extensive selection of pamphlets, broadsides, maps, prospectuses, annual reports, prints, and engravings that provide a historical context for the growth of railroads.

The Historic Corporate Reports Collection consists of selected original company documents dating from 1820 to the present. Included in the collection are annual reports, prospectuses, proxies, registration statements, and miscellaneous items such as pamphlets and corporate histories. The holdings span the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and document over 2,300 railroads, primarily in the United States. Noted companies include the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., Boston and Albany Railroad Co., New York Central Railroad Co., Northern Pacific Railway Co., Pennsylvania Railroad Co., and Union Pacific Railroad Co.