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  • | Newspaper

    After the Riot

    This July 24, 1877 article from the Pittsburgh Daily Post chronicles the efforts of militia, the police, and citizens to put down the railroad strike.

  • | Speech

    Albany, NY Speech, 1896-08-25

    Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

  • | Illustration

    Alfred R. Waud, "A Guerrilla", 1862

    When guerrillas attacked Union forces, the northern public was outraged. Confederate guerrillas and partisan rangers attacked the railroad and telegraph systems, opening up the war to civilians and exposing the remorseless nature of the national conflict. Their activities played a central role in the war.

  • | Illustration

    Alfred R. Waud, "Ruins of the Bridge over the Shenandoah River, Loudon Heights Beyond", 1864

    The partisan war in Loudon County, Virginia, turned especially violent in the fall of 1864. Confederate forces under John S. Mosby captured and killed Union soldiers in retaliation for the burning of civilian homes, and Union general George A. Custer responded by hanging seven of Mosby?s men. Then, on November 6, 1864, Mosby executed several more Union soldiers in response. The fighting took place along the Manassas Gap Railroad line and its bridges.

  • | Speech

    Alliance, OH Speech, 1896-08-10

    Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

  • | Book

    American Notes for General Consideration

    Dicken's American Notes came from his 1842 trip to the United States. The author visited prisons, politicians, and toured primarily in New England and the Great Lakes region. In this excerpt, he describes American train travel in its early period, segregated railcars, and the distinctions between gentlemen's and ladies' cars.

  • | Newspaper

    Among the Ruins

    This article from the July 25, 1877 issue of the Pittsburgh Daily Post notes the railroad strike's extensive destruction and details public and private efforts to keep it under control.

  • | Illustration

    An "After Donkey Engine"

    This image from the August 11, 1860 issue of Harper's Weekly offers a cartoonist's rendering of the misleading term "AfterDonkey Engine."

  • | Law

    An Act to Require Railroad Companies to Provide Separate Cars for White and Colored Passengers

    Virginia's separate coach law, approved in January of 1900 and enacted July 1900.

  • | Newspaper

    An Alarm Of Fire

    This article from the July 21, 1877 issue of the Baltimore American describes the mob setting fire to railroad passenger cars and an engine.

  • | Illustration

    An Armed Mob Marching To The Scene of Action In Pittsburgh.

    Note the imagery that is slightly reminscient of Archibald Willard's famous painting The Spirit of '76.

  • | Photograph

    An Army of Clerks

    This image from The Modern Railroad (1911), depicts a room full of freight department clerks.

  • | Newspaper

    An Artistic Job of Train Robbing

    Bryan's World Herald puts the tariff issue at the center of the 1894 campaign and argues that the tariff is a tax on working people because it results in higher prices for all goods and commodities. The newspaper also editorializes about a recent train robbery, arguing that the Wells Fargo men did not demonstrate enough manliness in the confrontation.

  • | Photograph

    An Early Locomotive

    This image from The Modern Railroad, published in 1911, shows one of the earliest locomotives built for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.

  • | Illustration

    An Engineer Lifted From His Train By A Mob At Newark, July 20th.

    The worst agitation in Ohio occured at Newark, an important Baltimore and Ohio Railroad depot.

  • | Newspaper

    An Explanation by Captain Charles J. Faulkner, Jr.

    This letter to the editor by Captain Charles J. Faulkner, printed in the July 19, 1877 edition of the Baltimore Sun defends his decision to leave the railroad yard at Martinsburg, West Virginia. Faulkner's letter comes in response to newspaper editors who suggested that his company left too soon.

  • | Speech

    Anderson, IN Speech, 1896-10-22

    Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

  • | Photograph

    Anna Bates, Great-Granddaughter of Samuel B. Reed, After the Unveiling of the Samuel B. Reed Monument in Joliet, Illinois, October 10, 1922

    This is a photograph of Anna Bates, the great-granddaughter of Samuel B. Reed, just after 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."

  • | Illustration

    Anno Domini MMMM.DCCC.LIX

    The artist envisions the lasting legacy of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

  • | Annual report

    Annual Report to the President and Directors of the Board of Public Works, 1850

    When proposed and the first efforts made in 1850, the Blue Ridge Tunnel was to be the longest tunnel in North America. Claudius Crozet, as chief engineer, warns his Board of Public Works against comparing its progress with other tunnels. The condition of the rock and the scale of the project were different and unprecedented, respectively. Crozet tries to educate the Board on the nature of the project.