NS Donating Norfolk & Western Archives
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
The NS-donated archives document the history of Norfolk & Western, which originated as a nine-mile single-track line in 1838 to connect Petersburg and City Point (now Hopewell), Va., and helped to create NS through a merger with Southern Railway in 1982. Pictured: Locomotive No. 600 leaving the Roanoke Shops.
Norfolk Southern (NS) is donating its collection of historical documents and archives from predecessor Norfolk & Western Railway to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
The archives document the history of Norfolk & Western, which originated as a nine-mile single-track line in 1838 to connect Petersburg and City Point (now Hopewell), Va., and helped to create NS through a merger with Southern Railway in 1982.
The collection, NS said, dates to the 1840s and includes thousands of photographs and glass plate negatives, as well as business records, annual reports, blueprints, plans, bridge drawings, advertisements, portraits, and three-dimensional artifacts from predecessor railroads. Other historic materials include publicity materials (radio program scripts and posters), timetables, and rolling stock records, as well as contracts and construction plans for rail stations and yards.
NS is also providing a $750,000 grant that will allow the Virginia Museum of History & Culture to digitize, catalog and preserve the collection. The Class I railroad has created a special fund, as part of the donation, to allow the museum to hire interns from underrepresented communities to support its work annually for the next five years, beginning this coming fall academic semester.
“The commonwealth of Virginia has played a pivotal role in our history, and we are incredibly proud of the contributions it has made to our success,” NS Chairman and CEO Jim Squires said. “This important piece of history belongs in Virginia, and we’re confident that our archives will be in excellent hands with the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.”
“Railroads have played a critical role in the expansion of both passenger travel and commercial transportation in the United States,” said Jamie Bosket, President and CEO of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, which is owned and operated by the Virginia Historical Society. “With the addition of the Norfolk and Western collection, the VMHC now houses one of the most significant railroad archives in the U.S. We’re thrilled to preserve this iconic history and to make it publicly available to students and teachers, researchers, and railroad enthusiasts.”
