David H. Steinberg Papers, 1917-1978.
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Arranged chronologically.

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: The materials included in this collection provide an abbreviated timeline of Nashville's transportation history from circa 1917 to the middle part of the twentieth century. This collection covers some of the major companies doing transportation-related business in Nashville such as the Nashville Railway and Light Company, the Tennessee Electric Power Company, the Tennessee Transportation Company, the Nashville Coach Company and Southern Coach Lines, Inc. These documents reveal some of the activities of those companies, such as a property lease agreement between the Nashville Railway & Light Company and the Watkins Institute in 1923 and the surrender and dissolution document of the Nashville Railway & Light Company to the State of Tennessee in the early 1930s, when the company was acquired by the Tennessee Electric Power Company. Also included are documents showing property or land rights exchanges and sales contracts, as well as copies of documents such as city council resolutions authorizing companies to provide transportation services for the city at various points in its history. An especially interesting revelation in this collection is the documentation of the city's transition away from the use of streetcars to the use of motorized buses during the 1940s.

This small collection of documents will be of primary interest to researchers of Nashville and Tennessee business history, in general, and more specifically to those interested in the history of public transportation, electric power and/or electric utility providers in the Nashville area or the southern region of the United States. Items in this collection may also be of interest to researchers of topics related to urban history, urban or city planning, environmental issues (as they relate to transportation), the banking industry and labor history.

Cite as: David H. Steinberg Papers, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library.

This material may be protected by copyright (Title 17 U.S. Code)

Gift;,David H. Steinberg;,2002;,Acc. 2002.036.

David H. Steinberg, an author, historian and avid collector of street car, railway and bus transportation history materials, grew up in Chattanooga, TN., and spent much of his life there. During the 1970s, Steinberg served as a street car conductor and later became the historian for Chattanooga's local transit system, CARTA (Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority). He resided in Chattanooga up through the early 1980s before moving to New York City. Rabbi Steinberg donated a vast collection of materials (177+ linear feet) to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library in 1994, and made several small donations of Nashville transportation history-related materials to the Nashville Public Library in the early 2000s. Among the donations to Nashville Public Library were two books he authored relating to the history of public transportation in Chattanooga: And To Think, It Only Cost A Nickel! The Development of Public Transportation in the Chattanooga Area (1975), and The Next Station Stop Will Be Chattanooga: The Development of Passenger Train Facilities in Chattanooga (1976).

In English.

Finding aid available in repository;,folder level control,https://assets.library.nashville.org/documents/finding-aids/Special_Collections_Division_Finding_Aid_David_Steinberg_Pap.pdf.

The donor acquired these papers through his work as the historian for the Chattanooga local transit system (CARTA). In correspondence to Nashville Public Library written in February 2002, he indicated that this group of papers "belong in Nashville" and stated that he was given the right to send them to Nashville Public Library as part of his work as the CARTA historian.

Processed,December 2007-January 2008;,Tracey Howerton.

The donor has not indicated whether additional materials will be donated.