About the Library
ATHS preserves and provides access to one of the most significant collections documenting the history of the American trucking industry. The collection includes thousands of historic truck photographs, trade publications and industry magazines, technical manuals and engineering materials, company records and promotional materials, and other historic documents related to transportation and logistics development. These materials provide insight into the technological innovations, economic forces, and working lives that shaped the trucking industry throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The library serves as a research resource for historians, transportation scholars, journalists, educators, students, and others interested in understanding how trucking shaped the development of modern supply chains and commercial transportation.
ATHS is actively working to expand access to these collections through ongoing digitization efforts that will make historically significant materials available online. The ATHS Digital Archive is an initiative to expand public access to the historical collections preserved by the American Truck Historical Society. This project focuses on digitizing historically significant materials from the ATHS Library and making them accessible to researchers, educators, students, journalists, and the general public through an online research platform. By expanding digital access to these materials, ATHS is helping preserve and share the historical record of an industry that has played a critical role in shaping modern supply chains and the movement of goods across North America. The development of the ATHS Digital Archive represents an important step toward ensuring that the documentary history of trucking remains accessible for research, education, and public understanding for generations to come.
However you choose to explore, the ATHS Library is designed to meet you where you are. Begin by searching the collection, submitting a research request, or contributing to the preservation of trucking history through an artifact donation.