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  • | Book

    Walden

    An excerpt from Henry David Thoreau's Walden. The progress represented by the railroad presents a mixed legacy to the rural life Thoreau treasures.

  • | Newspaper

    Want Better Mail Service

    The quality, availability, and cost of railroad service in a local community often became a contentious political issue pitting locals against non-locals and spilling into local political contests. The Omaha Bee, an enemy of railroad power of any sort, emphasizes the local community's "right" to equal service.

  • | Newspaper

    Washington

    This July 25, 1877 article from the Pittsburgh Daily Post notes the response of the federal government to the strikes and describes where military personnel will be stationed.

  • | Newspaper

    Washington

    This article from the July 27, 1877 issue of the Pittsburgh Daily Post notes the debate in Washington on how to settle the problems with the railroads.

  • | Newspaper

    Washington

    This article from the July 28, 1877 issue of the Pittsburgh Daily Post notes the actions of the federal government in response to the strike at this point, including instructions to military commanders and the president's policy.

  • | Speech

    Washington, DC Speech, 1896-09-19

    Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

  • | Speech

    Washington, MO Speech, 1896-07-16

    Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

  • | Illustration

    Weber Canon And River

    This image from the October 30, 1869 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the Union Pacific Railroad in Weber Canyon. Just months after the driving of the "golden spike," the transcontinental railroad was in operation ferrying passengers through some of the most sublime, dramatic landscapes of the west.

  • | Speech

    Weeping Water, NE Speech, 1896-08-08

    Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

  • | Map

    Western Railroad Lines, 1880 and 1930

    These two maps from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States depict the extent of western railroads in 1880 and 1930. They illustrate the tremendous growth of the railroad in the western United States during this fifty-year period.

  • | Newspaper

    What Shall We Do To Be Saved

    Republican editor Edward Rosewater offers to receive and publish the public's comments on the problem of railroad corruption in politics.

  • Wheeling

    This is an image of Wheeling, Ohio, the original terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in The Book of the Great Railway Celebrations of 1857.

  • | Speech

    Wheeling, WV Speech, 1896-10-01

    Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

  • | Artwork

    White Stone Junction (Buffalo & Shenandoah Railroad, No. 23)

  • | Letter

    William M. Sclater's Affidavit, October 28, 1854

    When two slaves were killed on the Blue Ridge Tunnel project, the Board of Public Works attorneys sought sworn affidavits from white men who knew the enslaved men to determine their value for compensation to the slaveholders. The legal process regularized and the practice of industrial slavery on the railroads.

  • | Letter

    William M. Sclater's Proposal to the Board of Public Works, November 1, 1854

    When labor shortages slowed the Blue Ridge Tunnel project, Claudius Crozet solicited proposals from local contracting agents to supply slave labor.

  • | Letter

    William P. Jarman's Affidavit, October 27, 1854

    When two slaves were killed on the Blue Ridge Tunnel project, the Board of Public Works attorneys sought sworn affidavits from white men who knew the enslaved men to determine their value for compensation to the slaveholders. The legal process regularized and the practice of industrial slavery on the railroads.

  • | Speech

    Wilmington, DE Speech 1, 1896-09-21

    Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

  • | Book

    Woman's Work in the Civil War:

    Published to celebrate the work of women during the Civil War, Woman's Work in the Civil War features the efforts of nurses, reformers, fund-raisers, and wives and mothers. In the section excerpted below, Miss Brayton of Ohio vividly describes the interior of a hospital train and recounts her experiences on one.

  • | Illustration

    Women Leading a Mob in Baltimore

    Railroad detective Allan Pinkerton's history of the strike emphasized the unruliness of the mob and the threat of foreign, anarchist, and communist influences on American labor. He also emphasized the role of women in inciting the conflict. Here, his illustration shows women leading a mob against the police during the 1877 railroad strike in Baltimore.