RICHMOND, Va. — Norfolk Southern has donated its complete collection of documents and archives from predecessor Norfolk & Western Railway to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, NS announced on Wednesday.
Along with the collection, which dates to the 1840s, the company will donate $750,000 in support digitization, cataloging and preservation of the materials. NS has created a special funds to allow the Richmond museum to hire interns from underrepresented communities for the next five years.
The collection includes photographs, glass plate negatives, business records, blueprints, plans, advertisements and portraits, as well as other physical artifacts.
“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 CEO Jim Squires said in a press release. “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.”
Museum CEO Jamie Boskey said, “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.”
Wednesday’s announcement follows a similar move last year donating Southern Railway materials to the Atlanta History Center [see “Norfolk Southern to donate Southern Railway archives,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 25, 2021].
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