William Barclay Parsons served on the board of the New York Public Library from 1911 until his death in 1932. Parsons was also the chief engineer of the New York City subway system for many years, and collected hundreds of volumes related to civil engineering projects and transportation engineering, which he later donated to the library. This digital collection brings together books and photographs from the 16th to the 20th century, including the 1786 Scottish work "An Account of Five Aerial Voyages in Scotland" (by balloon, of course) and the 1848 tome "A sketch of the origin and progress of steam navigation from authentic documents." There are fourteen additional documents to peruse here, and anyone with an interest in the history of engineering, bridges, and other key elements of civil engineering will find the site quite engaging.