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 basis of a major PBS documentary by Gretchen Sorin and Ric Burns (first airing: October 13, 2020 at 9PM ET), this revelatory history shows how the automobile fundamentally changed African American life. It's hardly a secret that mobility has always been limited, if not impossible...
Overground Railroad The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America
Taylor, Candacy A.
Ebook
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
Duncan, Dayton.
DVD
On the road
Kerouac, Jack
Paper Book
The legendary novel of freedom and the search for authenticity that defined a generation, now in a striking new Pengiun Classics Deluxe Edition  Inspired by Jack Kerouac's adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country...
Dust tracks on a road
Hurston, Zora Neale.
Paper Book
I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows with a harp and a sword in my hands. First published in 1942 at the crest of her popularity, this is Zora Neale Hurston's unrestrained account of her rise from childhood poverty...
Rival rails : the race to build America's greatest transcontinental railroad
Borneman, Walter R.
Paper Book
From acclaimed historian Walter R. Borneman comes a dazzling account of the battle to build America's transcontinental rail lines. Rival Rails is an action-packed epic of how an empire was born--and the remarkable men who made it happen.   After the completion of the first...
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
The edge of anarchy : the railroad barons, the Gilded Age, and the greatest labor uprising in America
Kelly, Jack
Paper Book
"Timely and urgent...The core of The Edge of Anarchy is a thrilling description of the boycott of Pullman cars and equipment by Eugene Debs's fledgling American Railway Union..." --The New York Times "During the summer of 1894, the stubborn and irascible Pullman...
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 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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