An ongoing exhibition at the Delaware Public Archives in Dover highlights the role that railroads played in shaping the First State.
Called "Tracks, Towns & Transformation," the exhibit draws on the archives’ massive collection of documents, photographs, and other media, as well as contributions from the Greater Harrington Historical Society and the First State Model Railroad Club.
The First State’s railroad history began almost two centuries ago with the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad in 1832. That line later became the Delaware Railroad, and spurred growth up and down the state, says State Archivist Maegan Peterman.
“As the Delaware Railroad grew, going further south throughout the state, we just started connecting to other areas on the Delmarva Peninsula and beyond,” she says. “And so it grew from that to be a much bigger network.”
As that network expanded, towns and cities grew along its route.
“When the railroad came, then they started to pop up businesses and buildings throughout, and so the railroad coming to a town was really kind of the start of urbanization,” Peterman says. “People were getting jobs and then you needed other businesses to support that, and then homes kind of built up around that.”
And, she adds, while that expansion happened generations ago, the effects are still very much in the present.
“It is so interesting how towns today kind of look the way that they do in part because the railroad either came or didn't come to that town,” she says.
In addition to building the First State’s towns and cities, railroads also kept Delawareans fed and brought homegrown produce to out-of-state markets.
“It was a major transporter of agricultural goods,” Peterman says. “We have tons of photos of strawberries being shipped and watermelons and peaches.”
In addition to its own materials from and contributions from the Greater Harrington Historical Society, the Archives called on the First State Model Railroad Club to construct a layout of a special time in the state’s railroading history.
“The coolest thing about it is that it's replicated the towns of Harrington and the fairgrounds and Felton, literally from the time period that the railroad was built, the 1900s to the 1960s,” Peterman explains. “And so it looks like those towns would have looked in that time frame.”
That model railroad layout and all of the objects and papers in the exhibit are about telling a story about the state and its relationship to the trains and tracks that span it, Peterman says.
“I knew I wanted it to be more about more than just the history of the railroad,” she notes. “We really wanted it to talk about yes, the history, but also how did that thing impact the state and how did it really shape Delaware?”
"Tracks, Towns & Transformation” is on display at the Delaware Public Archives through September 2027.
