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St. Louis Car Company Collection


Historical Note

The St. Louis Car Company was formed in April of 1887, to manufacture and sell streetcars and other kinds of rolling stock of street and steam railways. In succeeding years the company built automobiles, including the American Mors, the Skelton, and the Standard Six. A division of the company produced aircraft such as the Cardinal. During the two world wars, the company manufactured gliders, trainer, Alligators, flying boats, and dirigible gondolas. Among their most sucessful products were the Birney Safety Cars and the PCC Cars. The Car Company disbanded in 1973. For more information on the history of the company, see Andrew D. Young and Eugene Provenzo, The History of the St. Louis Car Company (Howell North Books 1978)

Organization and arrangement

Finding aids are in .PDF format. Tips on opening PDF files when using FireFox.

Six series, based on type of material.

  • Series 1: Publicity materials, arranged alphabetically by subject.
  • Series 2: Specifications, arranged by type of vehicle
  • Series 3: Job books and cost data, arranged chronologically.
  • Series 4: General office files, including material on PCC cars and wholly owned subsidiaries such as the St. Louis Aircraft Company. This is by no means a complete office file of the Car Company. In addition, users should be aware that our collection contains no personnel files from the company.
  • Series 5: Photographs and negatives of cars, trucks, and other products produced by the company, arranged chronologically (by job order number).
  • Series 6: Drawings of cars produced by the company, arranged in rough chronological order

Restrictions on access

No restrictions on access

Preferred form of citation

St. Louis Car Company Collection, Washington University Archives, St. Louis Missouri.

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