HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE APRIL 2026 ISSUE: Two hundred years ago, the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvement published Reports on Canals, Railways, Roads, and Other Subjects. In it, William Strickland summarized conclusions from his intensive eight-month stay in Great Britain, studying state-of-the-craft technologies.
It is one of the most significant documents in American business and transportation history. It also represents one of the most misunderstood, least examined and underappreciated hinge moments in the creation of modern America. Its effects were far reaching—just not in ways its sponsors anticipated.
Strickland was a gifted artist. He trained as an architect under Benjamin Latrobe (designer of the U.S. Capitol), and had extensive experience as a civil engineer. The book—51 pages of text and 72 illustrations—is impressive. Strickland’s analysis is astute, his prose crisp and detailed, and the engravings (made from his field notes and sketches) are sublime.
There were likely fewer than 500 copies produced. Lehigh University digitized its copy, which means we all can assess its significance. The book went on sale in mid-September 1826 for $10, or roughly $350-$400 in today’s dollars.
By the 1820s, we had taken the first halting steps in our version of the Industrial Revolution. We were already part of a world market, supplying raw materials (foodstuffs, cotton, timber) and importing finished goods—and slaves. That would catch up with us 40 years later.
Pennsylvania understood the need to connect tidewater at Philadelphia with Pittsburgh (meaning the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes) to assure its prosperity. The U.S. already knew much about railroads in Great Britain. It simply didn’t have the talent, technology, capital or law/business structures to follow suit.
The Society was a basic advocacy group/think tank of 40 to 50 private citizens. It used substantially all of its resources (about $250 in 1825) to send Strickland and an assistant to Great Britain. His instructions were explicit: “The first subjects to which the Agent …. was directed to give his attention, was the construction, and use, and expense of railways.” He sailed for Liverpool on March 20, 1825.
Strickland gathered data to determine what technologies might work in the Commonwealth. He sent back several tranches of reports, which the Society quickly shared widely with American engineering, political and other interested communities. The earliest report, dated June 5, 1825, and sent from Edinburgh, was prescient:
“I feel it a duty … to state distinctly my full conviction of the utility, and decided superiority, of railways over other modes as a means of conveyance …” That was after only six weeks on the ground in Great Britain. And it represented a consensus opinion among British engineers and logistics experts.
When Strickland returned in December 1825, the Society lacked funds to publish his findings. The solution was typically American. It issued a call for subscribers, and the response was swift. The book lists 252, who ordered 313 copies. They included prominent citizens, canal companies, booksellers, institutions and military officers. Some were notable. Joseph Henry was a scientist. Isaac McKim was a member of Congress and future Director of the B&O Railroad. A few years later, Jonathan Knight became the first Chief Engineer of the B&O.
Major Stephen H. Long helped plan the B&O Railroad. Major J.G. Totten later was appointed Chief Engineer of the U.S. Army, serving until his death in 1864. West Point ordered four copies. The project had the full attention of the American engineering community.
The Governor of Louisiana needed four copies, the College of South Carolina two, and DeWitt Clinton, Governor of New York, one. The largest single subscriber was the U.S. Government. The House of Representatives ordered 25 copies. The War Department bought five, the U.S. Military four, the Navy one, and the Post Office Department one. Together they represented more than 10% of the total.
It is hard to overstate what this largely forgotten, seemingly small visit accomplished. It demonstrates how and why the debate regarding the importance of internal communication was unfolding. It engaged engineers, business interests, politicians and others who understood the need for mobility. The media of the day were supportive, and Americans followed the reports closely
By late 1825, Strickland had made a convincing case for a two-track railroad across Pennsylvania. More conservative interests instead chose a mixed canal/railroad option, delaying by 20 years the effective creation of the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad.
Strickland lived to see the outlines of national railroad and inland marine networks. The Society dissolved after about a decade, never realizing its goal of an effective Commonwealth Board of Public Works.
I only wish the Society’s members, and the people they deeply influenced, had been more formally recognized for their work. We are still assessing what they accomplished, and the ways the Society, and Strickland, laid the foundations for the U.S. railroad industry. But then, isn’t that what anniversaries are for?
John Hankey is a curator and historian with more than 50 years of professional experience in railroad history and preservation. He holds a B.S. from the Johns Hopkins University, an M.A. as a Hagley Fellow at the University of Delaware and did further graduate work at the University of Chicago. His three primary research interests focus on how railroad mobility shaped America, aspects of railroad technology and culture, and addressing myths and misinterpretations of traditional railroad history. He is most proud, however, of the six years he spent in Engine Service on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and his tenure at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, where he served as Chessie Systems Historian and Archivist, and later as the museum’s Chief Curator. Also invaluable was the time he spent doing real railroad work, providing the kinds of insights and experiences unavailable by any other means. As a consultant, he has worked with Class I railroads, major museums and historic preservation projects throughout the country, the Smithsonian, National Park Service, local governments and dozens of smaller railroad heritage projects. He is the fifth (and final) generation on his father’s side to have worked for the B&O.
The post William Strickland and the Foundation of U.S. Railroading appeared first on Railway Age.