Thursday, July 30, 2009

I'm going to continue my discussion about books available in our Gift Shop. The Arcadia Publishing books are really wonderful photographic histories of times gone by. They are by far our most popular books.

Many of the so-called trolley books also have pictures of the later buses that came onto the lines--so don't let the titles fool you--there are many good pictures in these books.

The book I am highlighting today is called Lost Trolley of Queens and Long Island by Stephen L. Meyers with, of course, Long Island being near and dear to my heart! The NY books are VERY popular in our gift shop and in the next few days, I'll be writing about several of the others that we carry.

An amazing assortment of electric trolley lines once traversed the towns and villages of Queens and Long Island. With names like Jamaica Central, Northport Traction, Ocean Electric, and the Steinway lines, some meandered across meadows and hills while others sped over elevated tracks. There was even one line that had streetcars but no tracks. In the end, all of them helped stitch the countryside into the concentrated suburban area it is today—with barely a trace of the trolleys left anywhere.

This book sells for $19.99 in the gift shop and can be purchased online by using PayPal (http://www.paypal.com/) and using our email address (thebusmuseum@yahoo.com). Please be sure you note the title of the book you want and include $4.00 for media shipping (for a total of $23.99).

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

As I am sure you are all aware, our Museum is located in Hershey, PA--which is not only noted for the located of our Museum and the AACA Automobile Museum but is famous in its own right as the home of Hershey Chocolate.

Another Arcadia Publishing book carried in our Gift Shop highlights the development of the town of Hershey. It is entitled Hershey and is by Mary Davidoff Houts and Pamela Cassidy Whitenack. Authors Mary Davidoff Houts, associate director of the Hershey Museum, and Pamela Cassidy Whitenack, archivist of the Hershey Community Archives, have been researching and teaching about Hershey for many years. They have compiled a fascinating history of this important man, town, company, and legend.

In 1903, successful candy maker Milton Hershey began a new enterprise that many people thought was doomed. He planned to build the biggest chocolate factory in the world, and a town to house its employees. The location he chose, near his birthplace in rural Derry Township, Pennsylvania, was most unlike the traditional urban factory settings of the era. Hershey is the pictorial history of what happened next. Through period photographs, many of them in print for the first time, and engaging narrative, Hershey reveals how the place, the people, the industrial age, and Milton Hershey himself contributed to the success of his scheme. Hershey includes an introduction to the history of Derry Township, tracing it from Milton Hershey’s birth in 1857 to his return in the early 1900s. The book follows the intertwining stories of Milton Hershey’s life, the growth of his chocolate company, the development of the school for needy boys that he endowed with his entire fortune, and the evolution of his model company town. The transformation of Hershey into a tourist destination and its survival after the death of its founder in 1945 conclude this chronicle of an American dream come true.

This has been one of our most popular books in the Gift Shop and is on its second printing. It sells for $21.99 and can be picked up at the Gift Shop or ordered here by paying through PayPal (http://www.paypal.com/) and using our email address (thebusmuseum@yahoo.com). Please be sure you indicate the book title and include $4.00 for shipping (for a total of $25.99).

Friday, July 24, 2009

Have you seen any of the GREAT Arcadia Publishing books on the turnpikes and highways? We have a new one in the Gift Shop called "The New Jersey Turnpike" by Michael Lapolla and Thomas A. Suszka, which chronicles the history of the highway from 1949 through the present day. With vivid images, it follows the road’s progress from an ambitious vision, through construction, to opening, and into the future. Built as a utilitarian, four-lane, limited-access highway, the New Jersey Turnpike has evolved into the economic engine of New Jersey, the foundation of industrial prosperity and personal mobility. The highway traverses the entire state and is part of the Interstate 95 Corridor Coalition, which covers the East Coast from Maine to Florida. Today, more than two hundred forty million vehicles travel along the route, and many of those travelers stop at the turnpike’s twelve service areas.

The books sells for $19.99 and is available through the Gift Shop or if you would like to purchase it through the mail, it can be purchased by paying for the book through PayPal (www.paypal.com)--please indicate you would like "The New Jersey Turnpike" book - please add $4.00 shipping - for a total of $23.99. Our PayPal address would be thebusmuseum@yahoo.com. Be sure to indicate what book you are purchasing when you go to PayPal.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Have you checked out our Gift Shop page lately??? We have a nice listing of T-Shirts available--shown here is the Capital Area Transit Shirt and we also have on our webpage the newest shirt (introduced at the Spring Fling) which is the Fitzjohn onloan from Wolf Bus in York Springs, PA.

Over the next few weeks I will be adding the titles of the Arcadia Publising books we now have on sale--we have three spinner racks of them and they have become some of our best sellers. So take a minute and checkout our page.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Well, by now I'm sure you know what I will be writing about today! First on my mind is the fact that our SPRING FLING is only 3 weeks away! Actually less than three weeks since we are fortunate to be able to offer this two days this year -- Friday, June 5 and Saturday, June 6.

This is your weekly reminder--did you make your reservations at a nearby hotel so you can enjoy both days? Do you have the list of items you want to look for at the flea market?

We are very excited about this year's Spring Fling. Folk artist, Harold Sauter, while he will not have a table this year, will be a guest at the Museum's Gift Shop table with a few new buses. His work can be seen (and purchased) in the gift shop. He creates larger wooden models of all types of buses--you won't want to miss them and introduce yourself to him when you are there.

Also, on Friday, Ken Springirth, author of numerous Arcadia Publishing books, will be on hand again to sign any books you purchase. Ken's books on trolleys and buses have been our most popular Arcadia books in the gift shop. His titles include: Greater Erie Trolleys, Johnstown Trolleys and Incline, Pittsburgh Streamlined Trolleys and Suburban Philadelphia Trolleys. And don't be fooled by the titles--many of them include photographs of buses (with credits to the Museum of Bus Transportation). Ken will not be with us on Saturday because he will be signing another book (East Broad Top Railroad) at an event at the East Broad Top Railroad.

See you at the Spring Fling!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Wow - hard to believe March is halfway over--sure looking forward to the "goes out like a lamb" from the old saying as far as our weather is concerned. If you are looking for a way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon---even if you don't live close to the Museum, you can always visit out webpage (http://www.busmuseum.org) and peruse the collection, look through the pictures of past events and browse through our Gift Shop!

One of the biggest sellers in our Gift Shop are the books that we offer. So take the time to visit our Gift Shop online (http://www.busmuseum.org/GiftShop.html) and look at some of the titles. One of our more popular books is about the Flxible Company by Dr. Robert Ebert. It is pictured here. Another group of very popular books are the ones published by Arcadia Publishing--check out the ones we have listed online by author Ken Springirth (who was signing books at our last Spring Fling). If you don't already have a copy of these informative books, now is the time to get them. Enjoy your day!