Skip to main content
Main Content

George Michener Hart was born in Doylestown, PA in 1919. He attended the Buckingham Friends School and the George School, graduating in 1937. Hart was an educator, museum director, railroad executive, and historian.

Hart attended the University of Pennsylvania and briefly taught history as a member of the George School History Department. In 1941, he became Assistant Business Manager and Treasurer at the George School and held that position for twenty-three years. The location of the George School, adjacent to the Reading Railroad's Newtown branch, gave Hart the opportunity to further his interest in railroad history and train photography. Hart often photographed the freight and passenger trains on the Newtown Line as they passed by the school. Hart's interest in Pennsylvania railroad history led him to collect materials items related to Moncure Robinson for biography of the railroad pioneer that was never completed.

In 1964, Hart left the George School and founded Rail Tours, Inc, which operated weekend steam-powered excursions on leased portions of the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1969, he was appointed as the Director of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, the first state-operated railroad museum in the United States. He left the museum as Director Emeritus in 1983 and continued his railroading interests as President and General Manager of the Stewartstown Railroad, a quaint 7-mile short line in York County, Pa. which hauled freight and passengers.
Hart died in 2008.

 

Want to find out more?

To search for further material, visit the Special Collections Research Center's Search Tool List for other resources to help you find materials of interest.

Questions? Have ideas or updates for articles you'd like to see? Contact the Special Collections Research Center at spcoll@wm.edu or 757-221-3090.

A note about the contents of this site

This website contains the best available information from known sources at the time it was written. Unfortunately, many of the early original records of William & Mary were destroyed by fires, military occupation, and the normal effects of time. The information in this website is not complete, and it changes as we continue to research and uncover new sources.