America's history rides the rails
The Freedom Train goes coast to coast.
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1947-1949
Between 1947 and 1949, America's most treasured documents crisscrossed the length and breadth of the nation, on board a train — the "Freedom Train."The idea for the remarkable train had come to William Coblenz of the Public Information division of the Department of Justice, during his lunch hour. Perusing an exhibition at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., Coblenz was saddened that most Americans would never see the great documents of American history.Inspired, he proposed a traveling exhibition to the archivist of the United States, Solon Buck, who ran it up the flagpole all the way to President Harry S. Truman. Truman said yes.
A campaign to sell America to Americans. - THOMAS D'ARCHY BROPHY, ADVERTISING COUNCIL, 1947
And so the Freedom Train, painted red, white and blue, set off. “The Spirit of 1776” locomotive pulled seven cars loaded with some of the most important artifacts of American history: the newly iconic flag from Joe Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima photograph; the Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address; a letter from Christopher Columbus; George Washington’s original copy of the Constitution; the Declaration of Independence itself. The train even carried an original of the Magna Carta of 1215.The train was guarded by an elite detachment of Marines. Covering 37,160 miles between September 1947 and January 1949, it visited all 48 states, displaying its contents to more than 3.5 million visitors across 326 cities and towns.Wait times could be up to six hours. During a stop in Brooklyn, New York, excited schoolgirls amused themselves by planting kisses on the train’s engine. After 4,000 or so of these kisses, the white stripe on the side of the engine was completely hidden beneath a layer of red lipstick.The city of Birmingham, Alabama, planned to hold separate viewings of the train for white and black visitors. The American Heritage Foundation asserted that there should be integrated viewings, or none at all.
Our segregation law is for the protection of the white and black races in the city, and for the prevention of disorders. It is not a mantle to be set aside at the instance of this or that visitor to the city. - BULL CONNOR, BIRMINGHAM PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSIONER, 1947
Hollywood, chiefly, is putting up the capital for this exhibit. - ARCHIVIST ELIZABETH HAMER, 1947
There is need today for a dramatic reminder to our people of the American heritage which they enjoy. - PRESIDENT TRUMAN, LETTER TO AMERICAN HERITAGE FOUNDATION, MAY 10, 1947
At the end of the train's tour, the engine and carriages were returned to their original livery and brought back into normal use. The engine itself, "The Spirit of 1776," was finally retired in 1960, and scrapped.
