Sub-series 4.5: Commuter Railroads

The Lonto-Watson Collection contains albums, scrapbooks, photographs, negatives, documents, and books related to various transportation topics such as horse cars, cable cars, trolleys, elevated railroads, and subways. The collection also houses photographs and other materials on other transportation systems both domestic and foreign, as well as New York City architecture. Highlights of the collection include over 16,000 images of Brooklyn trolleys, over 2,000 Postcards, 1620 photographs and 15 clippings scrapbooks of New York City street scenes and architecture.

The collection is comprised of both original and copied material gathered by both Arthur Lonto and Edward Watson. Some materials in the collection were duplicated from other institutions and private collectors, therefore, these materials may have restrictions for access. Note that the majority of images from the 1800s through the early 1900s are copy images and not originals (this includes album photographs). Photographs from the early 1920s – 1940s are a mixture of original and copy, and almost all from the 1950s on are original.