ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern is donating the archives of predecessor Southern Railway to the Atlanta History Center as NS prepares to mark the opening of its new Atlanta headquarters.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports the archives include hundreds of thousands of pages of correspondence, more than 20,000 photographs, reports, plans, and minute books. The donation will be officially announced today, and will include a $500,000 grant to help the history center catalog, organize, and digitize the materials.
Some of the material has already been delivered to the center and the rest will arrive by the end of the year.
“This puts us on the map as a museum with a quintessential railroad collection,” Sheffield Hale, president and CEO of the center, told the newspaper. “It gives us that piece of Atlanta history, and regional history, with such granular detail and so many stories we wouldn’t otherwise have.”
Norfolk Southern CEO Jim Squires said in a statement that the “treasure trove of material belongs in Atlanta, and there’s no better home than the Atlanta History Center.”
NS is scheduled to open its new Atlanta headquarters building next month. The railroad closed the museum at its Norfolk headquarters in June and deaccessioned some items at that time.
— Updated at 9:05 a.m. CDT to note closure of NS museum in Norfolk.
what happened to the dining car china and silver that I donated to them a few years ago?
Left out was that the Samuel Spencer statue paid for by Southern employees won’t be at their new Atlanta HQ, but is in storage. Sam had the ‘unfortunate’ history of serving in the Confederate Calvary which now renders him incorrect and not worthy of mention in these enlightened times.
That statute should be put on display