Transportation: Change and Continuity
Inquiry Question 1: What is transportation?
Inquiry Question 2: How have methods of transportation changed over time?
Inquiry Question 3: In what ways has transportation changed Boston's streets over time?
Source Set
In 1801, James Brown Marston, of Salem, MA, painted this picture showing the eastward side of the Old State House, just a few years after the "new" State House on Beacon Hill became the seat of Massachusetts state government. The open square, a place of social and commercial activity, was the scene of many memorable events, including the Boston Massacre on 5 March 1770.
Students may notice many forms of transportation, including the dirt roads, coaches and horses, people walking and pulling carts. Some people are transporting goods, some are transporting other people, and some are transporting themselves.
Citation: State Street, 1801, Oil on canvas by James Brown Marston, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/42.
Taken circa the 1920s, this black-and-white photograph depicts Tremont Street, looking northeast from the corner of Boylston St. in Boston, MA. The photograph clearly depicts the boom in car ownership during the decade.
Students can compare this image to a November 2020 Google street view of the same location.
Citation: View of Tremont Street, looking north-east from the corner of Boylston Street, Boston, Lantern slide possibly taken by Arthur A. Shurcliff, circa 1920s, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/4411.
This 1917 photograph, taken in front of Old South Church on Dartmouth St., depicts the last horse-drawn street car in Boston. You may also want to show students another example of a horse-drawn car from circa 1890.
Horse cars ran on railroad tracks. The first horse car line in Boston began running in 1856, but by the end of the 19th century, streets were clogged with traffic, horses frequently were injured from pulling heavy loads, and it became clear that Boston needed a new public transportation system. In 1888 the first electric streetcar line began operation.
This photograph is also a reminder that new and old technologies have periods of overlap before the old is replaced completely.
Citation: Last horse-drawn streetcar in Boston, 1917, photograph, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/330.
This photograph, taken at the corner of Tremont and Park Streets in Boston, gives a view of a subway entrance. Boston’s subway system, the nation’s first, began operation in 1897.
The photo also shows a car, people walking, and boys selling newspapers.
Citation: View of subway entrances at corner of Tremont and Park Streets, Boston, Lantern slide possibly taken by Arthur A. Shurcliff, circa 1910s, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/4479.
Although some version of the bicycle -- velocipedes -- had existed since the early 1800s, pedal powered cycles only became popular after the Civil War. During the 1870s, high-wheel bicycles (sometimes known as “Ordinary” bicycles) became popular. Riders, mainly men, chose how large they wanted their front wheel to be. The largest front wheels went fastest. High-wheel bicycles, however, were dangerous. The rider could fly over the handlebars headfirst if they braked too quickly, or if their front wheel hit an object in the (bumpy) road.
To see boys on and beside their high-wheel bicycles in West Newton, MA in 1886, look at this photo.
Citation: Bicycle Song / Words and Music by Thomas Keith, Boston: Oliver Ditson and Company, 1879, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/6489.
This image comes from page four in the 1899 catalog of the Overman Wheel Company. Internationally known, the Overman Wheel Company marketed to both men and women with their Victor and Victoria “safety” bicycles.
The introduction of the so-called "safety bicycle” in the 1890s revolutionized the industry. Easily recognizable as modern bikes, safety bicycles were safer and easier to ride than the high-wheelers that had come before them. Safety bicycles opened cycling to all who could afford the initially high price. By 1890, about 150,000 Americans -- men, women, and children -- owned bicycles. By 1900, millions of Americans owned bicycles.
Citation: Victor Bicycles, MDCCCXCIX, Catalog of the Overman Wheel Co., designed by Will Bradley, Cambridge: University Press, 1899, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/728.
In October 1903, the engineer Octave Chanute took a series of photographs of the Wright brothers' glider experiments at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. The Wrights’ 1902 glider was the first fully controllable aircraft. Two people–each holding onto a different end–ran alongside the glider to help launch it. Lying atop the glider, the pilot used a rudder to steer. The glider remained in the air for only a short time. This is how the glider looked in the air from the side.
On December 17, 1903, only a few weeks after these photos were taken, the Wright brothers flew the first ever engine-powered, heavier-than-air airplane, aptly named the Wright Flyer.
Citation: One of the Wright brothers (unidentified) flying the Wright glider, Outer Banks, North Carolina, 1903, Photograph by Octave Chanute, October 1903, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/162.
Margaret Hall, a Massachusetts woman and member of the American Red Cross during WWI, took this photograph in Colombey les Belles, a town located in northeastern France, on May 30, 1919. Colombey les Belles was the site of the main aircraft depot and support facility for the U.S. Army air service on the Western Front. By the spring of 1919, U.S. aviation units were being deactivated and sent back to the U.S. from this depot.
The two biplanes seen in the photo appear to be Salmson 2 A.2s, two-seater reconnaissance (designed to carry a camera and take pictures of the ground below) aircraft built by Salmson, a French aircraft engine manufacturer. American aircraft during WWI were known to be dangerous and unreliable. The Salmson 2 A.2s were likely some of the best aircraft that Americans flew during the war.