Transportation Displays, Inc. photographs and plans
Creation: 1948-1967Abstract
Transportation Displays Inc. (TDI) was an advertising sales agency targeting the commuter market. Founded in New York in 1938, the company installed and maintained placard advertising, posters, signs, and other displays aimed primarily at daily commuters, in railroad stations, passenger cars, menus, and timetables. The collection consists of photographs showing a wide variety of advertising placed and maintained by Transportation Displays, Inc. in train stations throughout the Northeastern United States. Also included are sketch plans of many of the stations, showing locations of poster frames and advertisements.
Dates
- Creation: 1948-1967
Extent
2.5 Linear Feet
Physical Description
611 photographic prints : b&w ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller, some duplicates. 568 plans ; mostly 11 x 8.5 in. 88 memoranda. 1 negative : b&w ; 4 x 5 in. 1 blueprint ; 9 x 14 in.
Historical Note
Transportation Displays Inc. (TDI) was an advertising sales agency targeting the commuter market. Founded in New York in 1938, the company installed and maintained placard advertising, posters, signs, and other displays aimed primarily at daily commuters, in railroad stations, passenger cars, menus, and timetables. The company focused on railroad stations in the Northeastern states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. The company was sold to IT&T in the early 1970s and then to Winston Network in the 1980s, renamed TDI in 1989. The business eventually merged with the billboard advertising company Outdoor Systems, Inc. in 2001 under the name Viacom Outdoor.
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of photographs showing a wide variety of advertising placed and maintained by Transportation Displays, Inc. in train stations in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Images show station exteriors, track platforms, advertisements on walls, and some waiting rooms. Also included are sketch plans of many of the stations, showing locations of poster frames and advertisements, often with accompanying memoranda providing additional details. Railroads represented in the collection include the Boston and Albany Railroad Co., Boston and Maine Railroad, Erie Railroad Company, Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, Maine Central Railroad Company, New Haven (New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company), New Jersey & New York Railroad Company, Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines, Susquehanna Railroad Company, and West Shore Railroad Company. The collection has been organized into series by Railroad. Within each series, stations are listed alphabetically by location.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Language of Materials
English
Additional Description
Provenance
The collection was a gift from the estate of a former employee of the company and presumably represents only a small portion of the original files.
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title:
- Transportation Displays, Inc. photographs and plans
- Author:
- Jon Williams
- Date:
- 1992
- Description rules:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description:
- English
- Script of description:
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2022: Encoded and revised by Angela Schad
Repository Details
Repository Details
Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository
