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Los Angeles Transportation History Archive

The Los Angeles transportation history archive is a repository of local Transportation history. The collection contains over 20,000 photographs, films, audio tapes, hundreds of video tapes, and various ephemera, books, journals, and artifacts documenting the role of public transportation back to 1873, including all of the predecessor public transportation providers/agencies that operated in the Greater Los Angeles area. It continuously seeks donations of significant historic items to preserve and enhance the understanding of the role public transportation has played in defining Los Angeles over the past 130 years. It is staffed by a published transportation historian and archivist. Some of its treasures are on display in the Research Center, others are being digitized for access via the web.

Archive Exhibits:

Archive Catalog:

Find Archive Materials:

Archive Research

Archive Partners:

LA as Subject

The L.A. as Subject Database is an on-line directory of less visible archives and collections that preserve historical materials related to the Los Angeles region. The directory provides a cross-section of the varied cultural materials held by local institutions and community groups, large and small. It is intended not only to provide a key to specific archives and collections, but also to serve as a map for locating people, places, and the contributions of individuals and communities to the region's diverse and unique cultural heritage.  LA as Subject is a joint project of the Getty Research Institute and the University of Southern California.

This Was Pacific Electric

Produced by Sky City Productions in cooperation with our archives, other local libraries and the Huntington Library, this 90 minute DVD explains the interweaving of famous Pacific Electric railway with the creation of Southern California.  It provides outstanding context to popular myths about the "Red Cars".  The story is told through historical film footage and hundreds of still pictures. It contains interviews with historians, those who worked on the railway, and those who simply remember the days when you could travel anywhere in Southern California by electric rail.

Transportation Futuristics Exhibit

Transportation Futuristics is an exhibit showcasing daring visions of transportation engineering. It will be on display from July 6 through September 30, 2004 in the Bernice Layne Brown Gallery just inside the main entrance to Doe Library on the University of California Berkeley campus. The exhibit was researched and assembled by the staff of the Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library which supports the research needs of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California campuses of Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, and Los Angeles.

Please pay a visit the accompanying virtual exhibit at:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/exhibits/futuristics/

California Highway History

You can access a variety of information related to California highways and California highway history from this site. The California Highways Site is not affiliated with or sponsored by Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation; it is however very complete, informative and entertaining. http://www.cahighways.org

For historic photos and maps of California highways: http://members.cox.net/mkpl2/hist/hist.html  

Transit and Railroad Museums

Listed below are some of the major transit museums dedicated to the preservation and history of public transit trolleys, cable cars, street railways and buses.  

Transit:

Railroads:

The history of railroading is an interesting adjunct related to public transit.  One of the important purposes of public transport was to provide the local distribution network for arriving railroad passengers.  A number of light rail systems now run on former railroad rights of way.  Some of the major and local railroad museum and railroad resource websites are: 

Bus, Rail and Transit Fan web sites: