See America First: Travel Histories in the United States

Originally coined around 1906 the phrase "See America First" was meant to inspire Americans to travel the nation before boating and later jetting off to Europe. Seeing America first became a slogan for some rail lines that intentionally located stops outside of the emerging National Parks at the end of the 19th century. Moving into the 20th century with the advent of the car, the classic American road trip was born; though not all Americans are able to fully enjoy this new form of recreation as the realities of a segregated nation. This list collects titles that highlight some of that evolution in American recreational life and other tales from the American road. Also included are links to historic national parks brochures and New York Public Library's digitzed collection of Green Books

Updated June 4, 2025
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Fond du Lac Public Library
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Railroaded : the transcontinentals and the making of modern America
White, Richard
Paper Book
The transcontinental railroads of the late nineteenth century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the U.S. economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms...
Driving while black : African American travel and the road to civil rights
Sorin, Gretchen Sullivan
Paper Book
The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford's assembly line. Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by...
Ansel Adams in the national parks : photographs from America's wild places
Adams, Ansel
Paper Book
For many people images of the major national parks in th US exist in the mind's eye as Ansel Adams photographs. A dedicated environmentalist as well as renowned artist, he was one of the 20th century's most ardent champions of the parks system. Through his photos, essays and letter-writing campaigns...
Overground railroad : the Green Book and the roots of Black travel in America
Taylor, Candacy A.
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book, Overground Railroad is the first book to explore the historical role and residual impact of the Green Book, a travel guide for Black motorists used for decades when traveling through segregated America. ...
Traveling Black : a story of race and resistance
Bay, Mia
Paper Book
A New York Times Critics' Top Book of the Year "This extraordinary book is a powerful addition to the history of travel segregation. Traveling Black reveals how travel discrimination transformed over time from segregated trains to buses and Uber rides. Mia Bay...
The national parks : America's best idea : an illustrated history
Duncan, Dayton.
Paper Book
The companion volume to the twelve-hour PBS series from the acclaimed filmmaker behind The Civil War, Baseball, and The War. America's national parks spring from an idea as radical as the Declaration of Independence: that the nation's most magnificent and sacred...
The national parks America's best idea
Burns, Ken
DVD
On the road
Kerouac, Jack
Paper Book
This bible of the Beat Generation is a modern classic of the unforgettable exuberance, poignancy, and passion of the 1950s. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of "On the Road" comes Keroacs original scroll version, published in a standard book format.
A week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers ; Walden, or, Life in the woods ; The Maine woods ; Cape Cod
Thoreau, Henry David
Paper Book
This Library of America edition collects for the first time in one volume the four full-length works in which Henry David Thoreau combined his poetic sensibility, classical learning, philosophical austerity, and Yankee love of practical detail into literary masterpieces on humanity's communion with...
The High Sierra : a love story
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Paper Book
A "sublime" and "radically original" exploration of the Sierra Nevadas, the best mountains on Earth for hiking and camping, from New York Times bestselling novelist Kim Stanley Robinson (Bill McKibben, Gary Snyder). Kim Stanley Robinson first ventured into the Sierra Nevada...
Dust tracks on a road : an autobiography
Hurston, Zora Neale
Audiobook
"Warm, witty, imaginative.... This is a rich and winning book."--The New Yorker Dust Tracks on a Road is the bold, poignant, and funny autobiography of novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, one of American literature's most compelling and influential authors. Hurston...
Travels with Foxfire : stories of people, passions, and practices from Southern Appalachia
Hudgins, Phil
Paper Book
Since 1972, the Foxfire books have preserved and celebrated the culture of Southern Appalachia for hundreds of thousands of readers. In Travels with Foxfire, native son Phil Hudgins and Foxfire student Jessica Phillips travel from Georgia to the Carolinas, Tennessee to Kentucky, collecting...
Empire express : building the first transcontinental railroad
Bain, David Haward.
Paper Book
-- A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club -- A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Awards -- Appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle and Wordstock bestseller lists
Ghosts of Gold Mountain : the epic story of the Chinese who built the transcontinental railroad
Chang, Gordon H.
Paper Book
"Gripping... Chang has accomplished the seemingly impossible... he has written a remarkably rich, human and compelling story of the railroad Chinese."--Peter Cozzens, Wall Street Journal WINNER OF THE ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN LIBRARIANS AWARD FOR LITERATURE 
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/9ea5d5b0-1117-0132-7932-58d385a7b928

New York Public Library\'s collection of the Motorists Greenbook. The Green Book was a travel guide that aimed to provide African Americans information about reliable businesses around the country between 1936 and 1967.

NYPL\'s Digital Collections is a living database featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, video, and more unique research materials.

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/brochures/index.htm

A digital collection of brochures from the National Parks Service with travel information going back to 1912 for the National Parks in the United States. Collection not fully online. More complete digital coverage for guides dating to the 1920s and 1940s.


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