By Land, Sea, and Air: Historic Works from the Transportation History Collection

The University of Michigan's Library's Transportation History Collection now includes thousands of rare and important books and periodicals on railroads (including several thousand volumes on railroad annual reports and other official documents), early air navigation, ships, carriages, automobiles (particularly early 20th century luxury models), and the planning and building of highways, as well as manuscripts and archives, printed ephemera, and a rich collection of prints, drawings, and photographs on these topics. One thing that becomes evident is the deep roots of this collection within an engineering and technological framework. Although many of the items in "By Land, Sea and Air" have great beauty, their importance is most often measured by what they can tell us about technological achievements in transportation.