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Streetcars : Primary Sources: Archives & Records

Manuscripts

Twin City Rapid Transit Company Corporate Records.
Records of the company that operated the streetcar and local bus system in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area from 1891 until 1970. Included are minute books, annual reports, employment records, valuation reports, comptroller's files, construction records, mechanical and architectural drawings, maps, and employee retirement plan and pension records. There is information about company finances, payrolls, and rate increases; streetcars, stations, and shops; the construction and maintenance of streetcar lines; predecessor horsecar lines; bus purchases; and the conversion from streetcars to buses.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

An Historical Account of the Street Railways of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
An account by Edson Newton Tuckey of the development of the Twin Cities streetcar network (1850s-1890s), providing data on the organization and consolidation of several early companies, construction and extension of the consolidated system, financial investment and employee relations within the St. Paul City Railway Company and the Minneapolis Street Railway Company, the financial condition (1898) of the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company, and municipal ownership possibilities. 
MNHS call number: See the finding aid in the library (FHE4491/.T98T8).

Russell L. Olson Street Railway Research Files.
Research notes, background information, compilations of statistical and financial data, and other material pertaining to the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) and to more than 25 other street railway systems in Minnesota and adjacent states. Also includes maps, mechanical drawings, clippings, timetables, photographs, advertising literature, and some correspondence. There is information about company finances and operations; streetcars, horsecars, and other equipment; steamboats operated by the TCRT; a monorail system in South Saint Paul, Minnesota; buses; and streetcars in foreign countries.
MNHS call number: See the finding aid in the library (Olson, Russell L).

Photographs & Drawings

Como-Harriet Streetcar Drawing
Crayon on paper art original by Vernon Howe Bailey.
MNHS call number: AV1985.294

Twin City Rapid Transit Company Photograph Collection.
Views of streetcars and work equipment operated by the company, most dated from 1915-1940. Includes exterior and interior views of cars, company shops and yards, Lake Minnetonka express boats, and Wildwood Park.
MNHS call number:  I.196 Visual Collections

Film & Video

Duluth Street Traffic, by Monroe P. Killy.
4-minute 16 mm. black-and-white film, user copy VHS
Film footage, 1937, of traffic congested streets in Duluth in the winter. Includes automobiles, trucks, streetcars, pedestrians, and an accident scene.
MNHS call number: Film no. D-88

Laying Railroad Track, Northern Pacific Locomotive, and Views of Stillwater, photographed by John Runk.
30-minute 16 mm. color film, user copy VHS
Views, ca. 1956, of streetcars in Minneapolis and Stillwater, and a Northern Pacific passenger train at Stillwater.
MNHS call number: Film no. C-14 

Minnesota State Fair and Twin Cities Streetcars, photographed by John Runk.
30-minute 16 mm. color film, user copy VHS
Views, 1953, of a streetcar and the bus stop near the state fairgrounds, the state fairgrounds and grandstand shows, and streetcars in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.
MNHS call number: Film no. C-6 

Minnesota Vignettes, by Monroe P. Killy.
30-minute 16 mm. black-and-white film, user copy VHS
Includes "End of an Era, Streetcars, 1953."
MNHS call number: Film no. B-82

Phillips Community Television Presents History of the Phillips Neighborhood: Transportation.
29-minute videocassette
Program examines how the development of transportation corridors for the railroad, streetcars, buses, and automobiles has affected the growth and development of an inner city neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis.
MNHS call number: Videotape no. 649 

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