The Northern Pacific Railway Company was chartered by Congress on July 2, 1864, it was formed with the goal of connecting the Great Lakes with Puget Sound on the Pacific, opening vast new lands for farming, ranching, lumbering and mining, and linking Washington and Oregon to the rest of the country. It was granted some 47 million acres (190,000 km˛) of land in exchange for building rail transportation to an undeveloped territory.

The History of the Northern pacific is a collection of {8} eight publications relating to this historic railroad.

A publication of note in this library is the Official Northern Pacific Railroad Guide for the use of tourists and travelers over the lines of the Northern Pacific Railroad and its branches, with descriptions of states, cities, towns and scenery along the routes of these allied systems of transportation, and embracing facts relating to the history, resources, population, industries, products and natural features of the great Northwest, providing a first hand account from over 100 years ago!

Libray includes the following volumes:

:: Instructions to station agents, October (1881)

:: History of the Northern Pacific Railroad (1883)

:: Northern Pacific (1884)

:: Christmas menu (1889)

:: Northern Pacific RR Guide {1894}

:: The history of a trade-mark (1901)

:: On the wings of the wind - Northern Pacific train service (1910)

:: Train rules, block signal rules, interlocking rules, signal indications and aspects, general regulations (1919)