Duluth-Superior Transit Company records

The collection contains minutes, financial books, annual reports, publications, maps, miscellaneous correspondence, news clippings, photographs, timetables, and microfilmed scrapbooks. Financial records represent the largest portion of records, and there is a significant lack of executive records. Most of the financial books are in fair to good condition.

The collection is divided into eight groups largely representing the different transit companies that eventually became the Duluth-Superior Transit Company. The groups are: Interstate Traction Company, Lakeside Railway Company, Park Point Traction Company, Duluth Street Railway Company, Duluth-Superior Traction Company, Duluth-Superior Transit Company, Miscellaneous Records, and Microfilmed Scrapbooks.

There are relatively few records of the Interstate Traction Company (1902-1914), the Park Point Traction Company (1916-1917) and the Lakeside Railway Company (1892-1900). Only the Lakeside Railway Company records include executive minutes.  The other two groups contain miscellaneous financial volumes.

Though there are more records of the Duluth Street Railway (1882-1930) than any other group, most of the material is in the form of financial books. There are some annual reports, and minutes do exist (1896-1911).

Most of the Duluth-Superior Traction Company records (1894-1929) pertain to the Connecticut firm, though some of the minutes originate form the New Jersey company.

The Duluth-Superior Transit Company records (1934-1966) contain annual reports, and special reports and two publications, Transit Topics and the Rider's Digest. Transit Topics was an in-house publication for employees and the Digest was a leaflet distributed to transit users. The Digest contains articles promoting mass transit, notifications of fare and route changes, and related information.

Miscellaneous Records (1887-1963) contains maps, a few items of correspondence (some concerned with transit service for Park Point), newsclippings, timetables, and photographs of streetcars, buses and the Incline Railway.

Scrapbooks (1893-1941) contain two "hard copies" and a microfilm series. The two "hard copy" scrapbooks, 1889-1896,) contain advertisements and articles on the Pavilion (at the top of the Incline Railway), a company strike and other articles relating to the transit company.  The microfilm series reproduces 105 volumes of newspaper clippings, each of which contains approximately 170 pages.  The first volume (entitled "Amusement Book," 1907-1914) was kept as a "record of attractions that [affect streetcar traffic]."  It includes newspaper advertisements to a number of sports, theatrical, and civic events.  The second scrapbook (volume 1, 1914-1923) contains general news clippings on engineering projects in the Duluth area and other local civic news; it begins with an index to the clippings.  The remaining scrapbooks (volumes 2-106, 1896-1941) contain articles concerning the Duluth-Superior Transit Company, including news items on streetcar accidents, strikes, service changes, fare increases, and other local transit incidents.  Some non-local transit issues and events are also covered.  Most clippings are identified by newspaper and date.  There are no volumes 56-57.  Since there is no break in the date sequence, it is possible that the volumes were mis-numbered by the company rather than lost.