Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Ross Winans Letterbook

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0155
Creators:
Winans, Ross, 1796-1877 (railroad equipment supplier)
Dates:
1850-1851.
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.15 Cubic feet
1 volume
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Letterbook contains copies of 417 business letters, arranged chronologically, relating to the manufacture and sale of railroad equipment including locomotive engines, tenders, and car wheels. These letters were replicated in a process similar to carbon copies in an almost perfectly uniform handwriting.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Winans was an inventor, mechanic, and builder of locomotives and railroad machinery, including wheels, axels, bearings trucks and carriages. In 1828 he developed a friction wheel with outside bearings which established a "distinctive pattern for railroad wheels for the next one hundred years or so. In the late 1820s also he became associated with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, eventually entering their service as an engineer. He retired from the locomotive business in 1860. When Winans died he left an estate worth over twenty million dollars.

Administration

Author
NMAH Staff
Processing Information
Collection processed by NMAH Staff, undated
Custodial History
Collection transferred to the Archives Center from the Division of Transportation (now Division of Work and Industry), 1979.

Digital Content

More …

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation
Ross Winans Letterbook, 1850-1851, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Railroad equipment industry Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Railroads Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Letter books Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Maryland Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Transportation Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Archives Center, National Museum of American History
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Suite 1100, MRC 601
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
archivescenter@si.edu