Smithsonian National Museum of American History

The National Museum of American History is one of the Smithsonian Institution museums located on The Mall in Washington DC. It is a rich repository of the nation’s treasures. Its America on the Move exhibition examines how transportation—from 1876 to 1999—has shaped our American identity from a mostly rural nation into a major economic power, forged a sense of national unity, delivered consumer abundance, and encouraged a degree of social and economic mobility unlike that of any other nation of the world.

Its America on the Move exhibition was one of the first exhibitions focusing on the social history of the automobile and other transport methods.  Arranged chronologically and through 19 sections, historical settings include the coming of the railroad to a California town in 1876, the role of the streetcar and the automobile in creating suburbs outside of cities, and the transformation of a U.S. port with the introduction of containerized shipping in the 1960s.