Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Henry Dean Quinby III Collection of Photographs and Correspondence, ca. 1933-1957
NS4270  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography: H. D. Quinby: A Life in Transit
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Related Collections

  • Descriptive Summary

    Collection Title: Henry Dean Quinby III Collection of Photographs and Correspondence,
    Date: ca. 1933-1957
    Collection Number: NS4270
    Creator: Quinby, Henry Dean III, 1925-1978
    Extent: ca. 4 linear ft. (5 document boxes, 4 print boxes)
    Repository: University of California, Berkeley. Institute of Transportation Studies. Library.
    Berkeley, California 94720-1720
    Physical location: This collection is stored off-campus at NRLF. Please contact ITS Library staff for access to the materials.
    Languages Represented: Collection materials are chiefly in English, with some correspondence and ephemera in German.
    Abstract: Photographs of street-railroads (cars and tracks) taken by or collected by Henry Dean Quinby III. The collection also includes postcards of street-cars, paper ephemera associated with street-railroads, and correspondence from other street-car enthusiasts.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to the Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library. All requests for permission to reproduce photographs or publish manuscript materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of the Library. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Henry Dean Quinby III Collection of Photographs and Correspondence, NS4270, Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

    Provenance

    Donated to the Institute of Transportation Studies Library by Mrs. Elaine E. Quinby in the 1980s. The collection was formerly housed at the Quinby residence in Piedmont, California.

    Biography: H. D. Quinby: A Life in Transit

    Henry Dean Quinby III was a street-car enthusiast who traveled in the Americas and Europe and corresponded with other enthusiasts around the world. His activities took place during the middle of the 20th century -- the hey-day of the street-railroad. Professionally, Quinby was interested in the developments in post-World War II European cities, especially in West Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden, to upgrade and rebuild their street-car transit systems. He hoped their efforts would serve as models for North American transit projects.
    Quinby was born in 1925, in Rochester, New York, the son of Alice Hamilton Onderdonk of Boston and Henry Dean Quinby Jr. of Rochester. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and graduated from Yale University in 1949. He was in the U.S. Navy from 1944-1946. At various points in his life he lived in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. In March 1951, Quinby joined the engineering firm Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Hall & Macdonald (later Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas) in San Francisco, California. There he worked as an assistant engineer and later as a principal transportation engineer. His projects included the design of the BART system for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. In 1956, Quinby took a leave of absence to study and observe transportation planning and transit operations in twenty European countries. While at Parsons, he consulted on transportation projects in Chicago, Dayton (Ohio), and Hamilton (Ontario). Quinby worked for Parsons for 23 years ending on September 6, 1974. After he resigned from Parsons, he worked as Deputy General Manager for Operations and Administration of the San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI) until 1977 when he established his own consulting practice. Quinby was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Traffic Engineers, and was Assistant Head of ITE Department 6 in 1974. He also lectured for the Institute of Transportation Studies at U.C. Berkeley. Quinby bequeathed his professional library to the ITS Library at U.C. Berkeley.
    On September 23, 1961, Quinby married Elaine English of Salt Lake City, in the Chapel of Grace at Grace Protestant Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco. They lived in Piedmont, California, and had two children, a son and daughter. Quinby died in the San Francisco Bay area on December 16, 1978.

    Administrative Information

    Biographical sources

    "Alice Onderdonk a Bride. Special to The New York Times," New York Times , 20 June 1924, p. 19.
    "Elaine English, Henry D. Quinby Marry on Coast. Special to The New York Times," New York Times, 24 September 1961, p. 93.
    "Henry Dean Quinby, Rochester Ex-Aide" [Obituary], New York Times , 19 December 1949, p. 27.
    "Maud E. Ewert Bride of H. Dean Quinby Jr.," New York Times , 22 October 1947, p. 34.
    "Miss Young is a Bride. Miss Onderdonk to Wed," New York Times , 21 May 1924, p. 19.
    Quinby, Henry D. [Correspondence, memos, reports, working papers]. 1954-1974. UC Berkeley Trans HE4207 .Q5
    Quinby, Henry D. "Major Urban Corridor Facilities: a New Concept," Traffic Quarterly 16, no. 2 (April 1962): 242-259.
    "Quinby, Henry D." [Obituary], San Francisco Chronicle, 18 December 1978, p. 32.
    "Quinby Leaves Collection," ITS Review 3, no. 1 (November 1979): 3.
    Thompson, Gregory L. "Defining an Alternative Future: Birth of the Light Rail Movement in North America," in 9th National Light Rail Transit Conference: experience, economics, and evolution : from starter lines to growing systems: November 16-18, 2003, Hilton Portland Hotel, Portland, Oregon (Transportation research e-circular; no. E-C058) (Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board, 2003), 25-36.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    This collection is comprised of approximately 2076 photographic prints, 64 negatives, 102 postcards, 83 Super Pak Snaps spiral-bound albums of approximately 928 photographic prints, plus several items of paper ephemera.
    The collection includes H.D. Quinby's own photographs as well as photographs and correspondence from Walter P. Khazoyan, F.S. Bennett, Sturman F. Dyson, Jr., Morley J. Kelsey, J.J. Hanlon, R.L. Alson, L.Y. Tripp, Bill Van Buskerk, W.E. Harmon, J.C. MacManaway, Steve Meyers, George Layton, E.J. [Edwin Jenyss] Quinby, John G. Woodbury, A.C. van Haeften, C. Schnabel, Alan A. Jackson, H.B. Priestly, Ernie Plant, S.M. Ramsay, J.C. Gillham, M. van Notten Jr., G.L. Gundry, J.H. Price, Karl Matern, Werner Klein, S.E. Harrison, M. J. O'Connor, John Bavid, Donald Harnish, Emil Konrad, and others. The collections from John G. Woodbury (North America) and Emil Konrad (chiefly Europe) are particularly extensive. While the collection is significant for the historic photographs of street-cars it is also a fascinating look at how street-car enthusiasts interacted in the mid-twentieth century.
    The photographs are of street-railroad cars and tracks (also known as street-cars, trolley cars, tramways, light rail) as well as some heavy rail, chiefly from the United States, Europe, Canada, and Mexico, with a few from Asia and Africa. Settings are both urban and rural. Of the photographs that are dated, the coverage is from 1933 to 1957. There are negatives for a few of the photographs, and these are presumed to be photographs taken by Quinby himself. Additionally, there is some transit ephemera and a collection of postcards. The postcard collection consists of scenes of railroads, street-cars, and other transit, chiefly in urban settings.
    The collection was originally housed in miscellaneous boxes in no order. Some of the photographs and albums were numbered by Quinby, and this arrangement has been retained. Otherwise the photographs have been organized geographically and, if known, by correspondent. If originally associated with photographs, correspondence and other ephemera have been kept with the photographs. Postcards have been organized geographically. Other materials have been organized by type.
    The geographic arrangement of the photographs of sites in the United States is west to east based on Library of Congress Subject Headings for geographic regions: West (U.S.), Middle West, Southern States, Northeastern States. Additionally, there are folders for the Great Lakes Region and United States (assorted). A separate box contains photographs from John G. Woodbury.
    European photographs are arranged in 2 subseries. The first consists of folders with photographs from one European country per folder, organized alphabetically by country, with folders containing items from known correspondents first. The second subseries consists of folders with photographs from multiple countries per folder from a single correspondent. These are organized alphabetically by country within the folder, then arranged alphabetically by the first country in the folder.
    For all folders, after the description of the photographs is a number in parenthesis which indicates the number of photographs with that description.
    While great care has been taken to identify the locations and transit companies depicted in the photographs, knowledgeable patrons are invited to correct these identifications.

    Series Description

    • Series 1: Photographs: may be sorted geographically, by correspondent, and/or chronologically, depending on information available. [Boxes 1-5]
    • Subseries: United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, World, unknown locations
    • Series 2: Paper ephemera [Box 5]
    • Series 3: Postcards [Box 5]
    • Series 4: Super Pak Snaps spiral-bound albums: numbered [Boxes 6-9]

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Quinby, Henry Dean III, 1925-1978.
    Street-railroads -- Photographs.
    Trolley cars -- Photographs.
    Railroads -- Photographs.
    Photographs.

    Related Collections

    Quinby, Henry D. [Correspondence, memos, reports, working papers]. 1954-1974. UC Berkeley Trans HE4207 .Q5