PBS
Pbs: American Experience: Made in Chicago: The Refrigerated Rail Car
This brief description explains how the refrigerated rail car worked and why it was so important to the shipment of meat products from the Midewest to the east.
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery: Portraits of American Railroading: Gustavus F. Swift
Read a brief biography of Gustavus Swift, who was at the forefront of developing the refrigerato rail car that revolutionized shipment of meat from the Midwest to the East.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Biography of America: Gustavus Swift and the Refrigerator Car
This article provides an account of Gustavus Swift's development of the vertically integrated cattle industry through his use of the refrigerated rail car. From Industrial Supremacy, part of Annenberg Media's Biography of America.
Other
History Magazine: The Impact of Refrigeration
Scroll through this history of refrigeration to the sections that deal with the refrigerated rail car and how that revolutionized the shipping of meat, at first, and later other perishable products.