December 18, 1898 | Newspaper
North Carolina plans for Jim Crow cars draw attention.
August 4, 1900 | Newspaper
The restrictions of Jim Crow laws are tested by Virginia's Pamunkey Indians.
1901 | Pamphlet
Meant as a primer for African American voters, this short volume includes a brief interview with William Jennings Bryan, followed by a comment on Jim Crow cars.
N.D. | Photograph
This is a digital photograph of an image of the Union Pacific Railroad's Brigham Young Construction camp in Echo Canyon, Utah.
N.D. | Photograph
This is a photograph of the grading camp for the Union Pacific Railroad in the Rocky Mountains.
1850 | Photograph
Few original images remain of railroad workers in the 1850s, especially of construction crews, whether free labor or enslaved. Northern railroad companies employed thousands of men on their payrolls in a dizzying array of occupations.
1858 | Photograph
Following its 1857 grand banquet, the B & O hosted an artists? excursion in 1858 to show off its dramatic vistas and massive tunnels. The men and women took turns riding precariously on the cowcatcher, Harper?s Weekly reported, to get a "better view of the grand scenes which were opening before and around them . . . such was the confidence felt in the steadiness and docility of the mighty steed."
1861 | Photograph
Construction corps at work on the Aquia Creek and Fredericksburg Railroad.
1861 | Photograph
A trestle railroad bridge built by the United States Military Railroad Construction Corps.
1861 | Photograph
1861 | Photograph
A Matthew Brady image of the roundhouse at Alexandria, Virginia during the Civil War.
1861 | Photograph
1861 | Photograph
1861 | Photograph
A Matthew Brady image of the slave pen of Price, Birch & Co., Alexandria, Virginia.
1862 | Photograph
African American laborers, free and contraband, worked for the Union Army to build and repair rail lines across the South. Note the bent and broken rails scattered in the background, signs of earlier destruction.
March 28, 1863 | Photograph
1864 | Photograph
July 25, 1864 | Photograph
1868 | Photograph
This is a photograph of a Union Pacific Railroad engineering camp in Weber Canyon, Utah in 1868.
October 10, 1922 | Photograph
This is a photograph of the unveiling of the Samuel B. Reed monument in Joliet, Illinois on October 10, 1922. The monument is still located on the grounds of the Joliet, Illinois Will County Court House, approximately 75 feet from the northeast corner of the building. It reads: "On this spot in 1850 Samuel Benedict Reed, Civil Engineer, pioneer railroad builder, citizen of Joliet, began the survey for the present Chicago Rock Island and Pacific, the first railroad to reach and bridge the Mississippi River. The first train into Joliet reached this initial point October 10, 1852. As Chief Engineer of Construction he directed the building of the Union Pacific, the first trans-continental railroad, the completion of which in 1869 realized the dream of Columbus: a westward trade route to the Indies. This rock from the summit of the Continental Divide on the line of the Union Pacific was placed here through the cooperation of these two railroads and dedicated October 10, 1922."