Miscellaneous

A selection of miscellaneous materials preserved from the project’s early research, including photographs, manuscripts, artwork, illustrations, and multimedia.

Photographs

These photograph posts gather selected images of railroad sites, workers, camps, ceremonies, and related views. Titles and captions generally follow the language supplied by holding institutions and are retained as part of the historical record.

• “Funeral procession returning to New Chinatown in Dutch Flat”
  Courtesy of Placer County Museum.
• “Chinese celebration at Dutch Flat Railroad Station area”
  Courtesy of Placer County Museum.
• “Prospect Hill Cut”
  Shows road being cut through the mountains. Chinese workers are standing among group of horse drawn wagons. Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sa...
• “Chinamen going to work on the California and Oregon R.R.”
  Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California.
• “East Portal of Summit Tunnel and Wagon Road of Tunnel No. 1”
  Carleton E. Watkins. East Portal of Summit Tunnel and Wagon Road of Tunnel No. 1, n.d. Stereocard. Watkins New Series of Pacific Coast Views. View of railroad tunnel at summit u...
• “Chinese Camp, Brown’s Station”
  Carleton E. Watkins. Chinese Camp, Brown’s Station, n.d. Stereocard. Watkins New Series of Pacific Coast Views. View of Chinese camp at Brown’s Station. Courtesy of the Californ...
• “Filling in Secret Town Tressle, C.P.P.R., Cal.”
  Carleton E. Watkins. Filling in Secret Town Tressle, C.P.P.R., Cal., n.d. Stereocard. Watkins New Series of Pacific Coast Views. View of railroad bridge and trestle, Secret Town...
• “Track Repairers, Empire City, Nevada”
  Carleton E. Watkins. Track Repairers, Empire City, Nev., n.d. Stereocard. Watkins New Series of Pacific Coast Views, #4077. Chas. B. Turrill Coll. The Society of California Pion...
• “Water Train, opposite Humboldt Lake”
  Carleton E. Watkins. Water Train, opposite Humboldt Lake, n.d. Stereocard. Watkins New Series of Pacific Coast Views. View of water train in foreground. Chinese workers and rail...
• “Cement Ridge near Crystal Ridge”
  Lawrence & Houseworth Albums. Cement Ridge near Crystal Lake, c. 1860-70. Gift of Florence V. Flinn. The Society of California Pioneers.
• “Wood Train and Chinaman in Bloomer Cut”
  Lawrence & Houseworth Albums. Wood Train and Chinaman in Bloomer Cut, c. 1860-70. Gift of Florence V. Flinn. The Society of California Pioneers.

Manuscripts and Documents

These manuscript and document posts include letters, advertisements, and other printed or handwritten materials gathered from libraries and archives.

• Advertisement for shipping freight by Central Pacific Railroad directed towards Chinese
  Supplied title. Handwritten (UC): Jan[uar]y 3, 1870, Received by mail from A. R.; LC): This advertisement tells Chinamen to ship freight by C.P.R.R. and how much per ton they ch...
• Utah Northern Rail Road Advertisement in The Oriental, June 10, 1876
  Courtesy of San Francisco Public Library.
• Ackerson Letter 1873
  John C. Ainsworth papers 1858-1911 Box 11 Folder 4 Ackerson, John W. Plight of destitute Chinese in Tacoma December 4, 1873, Courtesy of University of Oregon Libraries.
• Stanford Letter to Hopkins, 1868
  Union Pacific getting Chinese laborers 1868 Oct. 21 Leland Stanford Papers, Box 1, Folder 12 Hopkins, Mark June 1868-Nov. 1868 Department of Special Collections and University A...
• Stanford Letter to Ives, 1869
  Leland Stanford Letter to Butler Ives (SCM0262). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Handwritten letter, J...

Artwork

These artwork and illustration posts include historic graphics, postcards, murals, and contemporary art connected to the history and memory of Chinese railroad workers.

• Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper
  Courtesy of The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. BANC PIC 1963.002:0504–C
• “John Chinaman on the rail road [graphic]: Union Pacific Rail Road”
  Several Chinese workers on a railroad hand car in an arid landscape, ca. 1867. Courtesy of Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
• Breaking ground at Sacramento, Calif., Jan. 1863, for first Transcontinental Railway Southern Pacific Lines
  Photographic postcard of mural. Courtesy of California Historical Society, FN-17664/CHS2013.1180
• “Jiu Jin Shan (Old Gold Mountain) (1994)”
  Jiu Jin Shan (Old Gold Mountain) (1994), an installation by Hung Liu, was on display in the Mills College Art Museum in Oakland, CA from January 23 through March 17, 2013. Recog...
• “Invisible and Unwelcomed People”
  “Golden Spike Celebrations – Chinese workers’ vintage point of Andrew J. Russell’s ‘Champagne Photo’ site”, 2008, Chinese ink on paper, 48” x 108” Zhi Lin’s series titled “Invis...
• Laning Mural at Ogden Union Station, Ogden, UT
  Mr. Edward Laning (1906-1981), now recognized as one of America’s foremost muralists, was commissioned during the Roosevelt Administration, in 1935, to depict the “Wedding of th...

Multimedia

These multimedia posts collect selected audio and video materials related to Chinese railroad workers and their representation in public culture.

• August 2015: “American Railroad Project Peers Into Chinese Past” (ABC)
  ABC video segment on efforts to tell the story of Chinese railroad workers.
• Dogpatch Ranch: The Origins of a Chinese American Family
  A film by Glenn Robert Lym about railroad worker Lim Lip Hong and his family.
• The Dance and the Railroad
  A selected set of materials from Signature Theatre’s 2013 production, including a trailer, an interview with David Henry Hwang, and actor information.
• Men of Iron
  An original song writen by Black Irish Band member Patrick Michael Karnahan in honor of the Chinese Americans that built the Central Pacific Railroad. Band member James Nelson s...
• Seven Wonders of the Industrial World: The Line
  “The Line” is a segment of Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a documentary/docudrama produced by BBC and originally aired in 2003-04. Narrated by Robert Lindsay and produce...