David Steinberg
Chattanooga streetcar and train enthusiast, historian, and author David Steinberg, donated the last of his large and valuable collection of transportation materials to the Chattanooga Public Library.
Included in this donation are draft copies of his publications and correspondence with other experts on railroad history.
The collection contains the charter book of Chattanooga Railway and Light Company and railroad tokens, maps, schedules, badges, tie clips, pins, tape cassettes, and a ticket puncher. Included in the collection are books and articles that Mr. Steinberg had collected in his research.
Also in this donation are his last photo albums of electric streetcars, buses, and trains in Chattanooga. Many of these have been published in his works, but there are others that are awaiting processing that have not been seen, said Suzette Raney, who is in charge of local history collections.
She said, "When the collection is available for public use, there will be several worthy additions to Chattanooga’s transportation and pictorial history."
Mary Helms, manager of the Local History and Genealogy Department, stated, “We have been anticipating receiving these photos for years. They are the greatest treasures in the collection of David Steinberg.”
Ms. Helms added, "Mr. Steinberg said he did not trust a trucking company to bring the photos, negatives and scrapbooks that are irreplaceable. On a trip to New York, local assistant district attorney and historian David Schmidt rendered a great service by picking up the many albums of photos to bring them home to Chattanooga."
Mr. Steinberg, who moved many years ago from North Chattanooga to New York City, said, “Although I am sad to have to part with it, I am happy in that I know it will be in good hands and be available for future serious historians.”
He said the last group he gave the library included 2,000 streetcar and train photos.
Mr. Steinberg said, "Some few years ago I gave the library the bulk of my transportation collection which amounted to some 177 linear feet of material from all over the world. I kept the photos and other major items I still had in hand. Except for the Chattanooga photos, an additional 10 boxes of material got to the library via UPS just recently. I decided it was time to relinquish the pictures and donate them to the same collection.
"I was reluctant to send them via FEDEX, UPS or the postal service because if lost, they would have been irreplaceable. I wanted to personally bring them back to Chattanooga but I realized I was not going to be able to get back to town so soon, so I spoke to Ms. Helms in the local history section and she suggested that I contact Assistant District Attorney David Schmidt who had reason to be in New York and could be counted on to bring the photo collection to the library. That’s what I did and that’s basically the whole story."
Mr. Steinberg was the first person to operate the trolley car at the Chattanooga Choo Choo when it began service on May 30, 1973. He ran the trolley for some 11 years.
In 1975, he published "To Think It Only Cost A Nickel" - a condensed history of the development of Chattanoga's street railway lines, inclines and steam dummy operations in and about Chattanooga. The following year, he put out a booklet on the city's railroad stations.
He notes, "While I was the trolley operator at the Choo Choo, I became extremely interested in the history of the old Terminal Station and its construction." He recently put together a 148-page detailed history of the station with photos, maps, etc to complement the text.
A book on Chattanooga's Transportation Heritage by David Steinberg was published as well.