Streetcars of America (Shire Library)

The handsome multi-colored streetcar is a nostalgic icon of the some of the most romantic and heritage-rich locales in America, including San Francisco, New Orleans and Chicago, immortalized on stage and screen in classics including Meet Me In St. Louis and A Streetcar Named Desire. Streetcars of America chronicles these vehicles from the earliest animal-drawn carriages to the height of their popularity in the 1920s, when there were more than 1,200 street railways, to the turning of the tide in the mid-twentieth century when congestion and attacks from the automobile industry eventually removed streetcars from most urban landscapes. It also looks at the recent efforts to revive vintage streetcars as hip and environmentally-friendly daily commuter service, as well as tourist attractions, in more than thirty cities including Memphis and Washington, D.C.