History
The origin of the National Railroad Museum dates to 1956, when local residents advanced the concept of a national museum dedicated to American railroad history. Two years later, a joint resolution of Congress recognized the museum as the National Railroad Museum. Since then, the museum has operated as a privately funded 501(c)(3) educational organization with a mission to foster an understanding of railroading and its significance to American Life. What began as an effort to acquire a single steam locomotive for a city park has grown into one of the largest railroad museums in the nation. It now serves over 75,000 visitors annually. Today, a professional staff of 12 and more than 100 unpaid staff members welcome visitors from all over the world.
Read more about this topic: National Railroad Museum
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“the future is simply nothing at all. Nothing has happened to the present by becoming past except that fresh slices of existence have been added to the total history of the world. The past is thus as real as the present.”
—Charlie Dunbar Broad (1887–1971)