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William Riley McKeen Jr. Papers: Finding Aid
mssMcKeen
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Title: William Riley McKeen Jr.
Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1871-1928
Bulk dates: 1895-1915
Collection Number: mssMcKeen
Creator:
McKeen, William R.,
Jr., 1869-1946
Extent:
12 boxes (7.5 linear ft.)
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains the personal and professional papers
of American railroad mechanical engineer and innovator William Riley McKeen Jr.
(1869-1946), who developed some of the first gasoline-powered railroad motor cars,
beginning in 1905 for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1908, he became president of
the McKeen Motor Car Company, which built over 150 of the pioneering motor cars
through 1917. The materials are primarily focused on the McKeen motor cars and the
history of their promotion and production, 1905-1917. Materials include promotional
booklets and ephemera, news clippings, scrapbooks, operating manuals, McKeen’s
personal notebooks and over 300 photographs.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item], William Riley McKeen Jr. Papers, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of the Los Angeles Railroad Heritage Foundation, September 1, 2008.
Custodial History
This collection was previously owned by Donald Duke and forms a subset of the
Huntington's Donald Duke Collection of Railroad Photographs and Ephemera. Duke
received the papers from William R. McKeen Jr. in 1946, when Duke was 18 years
old. In his acknowledgements in
RDC: The Budd Rail Diesel Car by
Donald Duke and Edmund Keilty (Golden West Books, 1990), Duke wrote: “My
interest in railcars goes back to my high school days where I developed an
interest in the McKeen Motor Car. I found out William R. McKeen, Jr. was still
alive and living in Santa Barbara. I visited him several times. On his death, he
left his personal files and illustrations to my custody.”
Processing/Project Information
This collection came with an inventory created approximately 1999, indicating
several oversize blueprints of car and part drawings and technical data tables,
which did not come with the rest of the collection. The whereabouts of these
items are unknown. A copy of this original inventory is kept in the collection
file.
Biographical and Historical Note
American railroad mechanical engineer and innovator William Riley McKeen Jr.
(1869-1946) was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1869. His father, William Riley
McKeen (1829-1913), was a banker and president of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis
Railroad. McKeen Jr. graduated from Rose Polytechnic Institute and Johns Hopkins
University, then studied at a technical university in Berlin, 1890-1891. In 1892, he
apprenticed in the mechanical shops of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St.
Louis Railway in Columbus, Ohio. The next year, he began work as master car builder
for the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad in Indiana. In 1898, he joined Union
Pacific Railroad as district foreman at North Platte, Nebraska, a position he held
until May 1901, when he became master mechanic of the Wyoming division of Union
Pacific. In 1902, he was promoted to Superintendent of Motor Power and Machinery for
Union Pacific in Omaha, Nebraska.
At the behest of Union Pacific head E. H. Harriman, McKeen led a team of company
engineers to design an economical gasoline-powered rail car with an internal
combustion engine, a technology still in its infancy. The first motor car was
created in March 1905 and was soon put into service carrying passengers. By 1908,
demand for the distinctively designed motor cars with porthole windows and other
advanced features led to the formation of the McKeen Motor Car Company, with McKeen
as president. The company was created as a Union Pacific subsidiary and operated out
of Union Pacific shop buildings in Omaha, Nebraska. By 1912, fewer new cars were
being ordered, and in 1917 the last cars were built. In 1920, Union Pacific took
control of the company’s assets. In the 12 years of production, over 150 McKeen
motor cars were built, operating on several railroads in the United States, with
exports to Canada, Cuba, Australia and Mexico.
McKeen retired to Santa Barbara, California around 1923, where he died in 1946.
McKeen was survived by his third wife, Carmen T. McKeen. His first two marriages, to
Elizabeth New in 1893, and Mary L. Hull in 1911, ended in divorce.
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of American railroad
mechanical engineer and innovator William Riley McKeen Jr. (1869-1946) who developed
some of the first gasoline-powered railroad motor cars, beginning in 1905 for the
Union Pacific Railroad. In 1908, he became president of the McKeen Motor Car
Company, which built over 150 of the pioneering motor cars through 1917. The
materials are primarily focused on the McKeen motor cars and the history of their
promotion and production, 1905-1917. Materials include promotional booklets and
ephemera, news clippings, scrapbooks, operating manuals, McKeen’s personal notebooks
and over 300 photographs.
Series 1 begins with McKeen’s youth and schooling, with examples of some of his
engineering notes and workbooks. There are also notes on designing his house, a
genealogy of the McKeen family, and his father’s estate settlement papers, which
include correspondence between McKeen and his siblings. McKeen’s professional work
and concerns are reflected in several notebooks he kept during his career, with
detailed notes related to employees, design issues and other work in the railroad
mechanical shops. There are only a few letters of business correspondence, and just
one copy of a letter from E. H. Harriman (no original).
Among the personal papers is a file of documents related to a 1912 lawsuit brought
against McKeen and his second wife, Mary, by Mary's former husband, Charles Hull, in
Omaha, Nebraska. This file contains documents that would be of interest to medical
and social history researchers: a detective’s transcript of observations of
prostitutes and activities at brothels (collected to disparage Mr. Hull).
Series 2 contains McKeen motor car materials, primarily promotional brochures and
ephemera (including a package of custom cigarettes), operating manuals, production
statistics, news clippings and articles. See also Series 3 and 4 for clippings and
photographs of McKeen motor cars.
Series 3 contains three scrapbooks: A) a personal ledger, with clippings; B) a
scrapbook of over 100 clippings about the McKeen Motor Car Company, 1907 – 1920; and
C) a scrapbook of photographs and clippings about McKeen motor cars in Australia,
1911-1912.
Series 4 contains photographs, including a set of Union Pacific company photographs
of McKeen motor cars over the years 1905-1911. McKeen appears in some photographs,
and there are some views of employees, Omaha shop buildings, engines and production
views. Other photographs show McKeen motor cars on various railroads, some wrecks,
engine parts, and views of the McKeen Highway Coach, a passenger vehicle introduced
in 1915.
Related materials in the Huntington Library
- Donald Duke Collection of Railroad Photographs and Ephemera (Call number: 645950)
The collection is arranged in the following 4 series:
- Series 1. Personal and professional papers, 1871-1922
- Series 2. McKeen motor cars: promotional and operating materials,
1905-1919
- Subseries A. McKeen motor cars on Union Pacific Railroad
- Subseries B. McKeen Motor Car Company
- Series 3. Scrapbooks
- Subseries A. Ledger and scrapbook, 1895-1928
- Subseries B. McKeen Motor Cars scrapbook, 1906-1920
- Subseries C. McKeen motor cars in Australia scrapbook, 1911-1912
- Series 4. Photographs
- Subseries A. Union Pacific Railroad photographs of McKeen motor cars, 1905-1911
- Subseries B. McKeen motor cars and other railroad views, approximately 1905- 1915
- Subseries C. Views of trucks and parts, United Motor Truck Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1915. Two views of McKeen Highway Coach vehicle.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
McKeen, William R.,
Jr., 1869-1946 -- Archives.
McKeen Motor Car
Co.
Terre Haute &
Indianapolis Railroad Company -– History.
United Motors
Company.
Union Pacific Railroad
Company -– History.
Electricity -- Study and teaching.
Internal combustion engines --
History.
Railroad engineering.
Railroad cars -- Design and
construction.
Railroad motorcars.
Railroad passenger cars.
Railroads – Australia.
Railroads -- United States.
Prostitution -- United States -- History
-- 20th century.
Ephemera.
Letters (correspondence).
Manuscripts.
Notebooks.
Photographs.
Promotional materials.
Scrapbooks.
Workbooks.
Duke, Donald, 1929-2010, former
owner.
Hawkins, Omar F. (Omar Finlay),
1890-1967, photographer.
Reichert, Albert A., 1876-1963,
photographer.
James Bayne Co.,
photographer.
McKeen Motor Car Co.