Collections
The Child Passenger Safety Online Museum & Archive holds a range of materials. These include newsletters from grassroots organizations such as SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A. (which began as the L.A. Area Child Passenger Safety Association), child seats from the 1970s to the present day, patents and government documents, newspaper clippings relating to advocacy events and legislation, as well as photographs and other materials. Digital versions of these materials will be available via a searchable catalog in late 2025. Until then, please email info@cpsoma.org to inquire about our historic materials.
Beginning largely as a grassroots issue, child passenger safety awareness took time to proliferate across news media. CPSOMA contains digitized versions of early newsletters, often written by local clubs and groups.
These newsletters and pamphlets contain a wide range of information on legislative efforts, educational materials, funding and grant awards, information on safety seat designs, recalls, and other topics.
Newsletters & Pamphlets
The design and knowledge of the technology of child safety restraints has changed significantly from the early 1960s to the present day. Early designs were basic but the shortcomings soon gathered the attention of engineers who began to consider not just safety but features which made them more user-friendly.
The CPSOMA collections include physical and digital versions of a range of innovative and significant child safety restraints covering almost five decades from tubular frame models, rotomolded designs, and specialist safety restraints such as safety vests.
Safety Restraints & User Guides
While child passenger safety was not a widely covered issue until the late 1970s, the increasing amount of laws and products made for wider and more in-depth coverage beginning in the early 1980s. Once awareness and concern of the issues grew, local and national newspapers across the United States (and in other countries) would often cover stories relating to child passenger safety efforts. Many of these stories—from the shortest of clippings to in-depth coverage—are available through CPSOMA in digitized form.
Newspaper & Press Clippings
CPSOMA has copies of public speeches, presidential addresses, and other documents pertaining to efforts and laws to improve child passenger safety. These include campaign materials such as brochures, posters, and informational leaflets.
Additionally, prior to the formation of the concept of child passenger safety as a public health movement, ideas and products relating to the transportation safety of child passengers were being designed. CPSOMA has digitized versions of many patents which cover a wide range of applications from family vehicles to school buses, emergency vehicles, and commercial aircraft.
Patents & Documents
The Child Passenger Safety Online Museum & Archive has copies of some informational and educational videos. These cover topics such as awareness campaigns, instructional videos, news stories, product instructions and videos, and others.
Additionally, some of the oral histories conducted by Safe Ride News are full length interview videos complete with keyword searchable transcripts.
Audio & Visual Media
While CPSOMA is centered and focused on materials which can be digitized, there are many significant items which, for various reasons including size, condition, and accessibility among others, cannot be easily converted into a digital format.
Nonetheless, the whereabouts of the items is known and should there be an interest in researching and using these items, CPSOMA is able to help. We can work with our partners, endorsees, and supporters to enable access and research of such items. For more information on these items which include objects such as test sleds and crash-tested restraints, please email info@cpsoma.org.