William G. Thomas--The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America (Yale University Press, 2011)

The following sources were developed for the Railroads and the Making of Modern America digital history project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Because of copyright restrictions and other limitations, not all sources used in The Iron Way can be included here. The diaries and letters of Ephraim C. Dawes, for example, are held at the Newberry Library in Chicago and have not been reproduced for the digital project. However, wherever possible, we have tried to make available original sources for wider use and inquiry.

Browse Railroad Index: For all documents indexed by railroad company name, using the Library of Congress authority names for railroad companies.
Historical Railroad Employees Database: This data set includes extant payrolls from the period before 1870 in an attempt to recover the names and occupations of the first generation of railroad employees in the U.S.
Slaveholding Railroad Company and Directors: This database is a partial effort to compile in one place the scattered information about railroad directors and slaveholding, and it will be continually updated as new information is discovered.

The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America (Yale University Press, 2011)

by William G. Thomas

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