New book: "The Inside Man: The Life and Times of Mark Hopkins ... " by Salvador A. Ramirez

New book:

The Inside Man: The Life and Times of Mark Hopkins of New York, Michigan, and California, by Salvador A. Ramirez, 2 Volumes, The Tentacled Press, 2010.

Corrections regarding Chinese workers on the Central Pacific Railroad

Can you find inaccuracies on the web page,
Idioms: The Chinese Strike Against the Railroad?

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Addendum: Professor Janet Fowler explains that the dialogs on the above linked website are fictional, and that the source of the "stories" about the Chinese workers on the railroad is the book for English as a second language students by Myrtis Mixon called Stories from American History.

Muybridge Website Details

From: "Alexandra Reynolds" ku44106@kingston.ac.uk, ku45282@kingston.ac.uk, eadweardmuybridge@kingston.ac.uk, muybridgewebmaster@kingston.ac.uk

I just wanted to send you ... details of our completed Muybridge website which is due to launch tomorrow at the British Film Institute! ...

—Alex Reynolds

Hannah Strobridge and Small Pox

From: KyleKWyatt@gmail.com

I've seen the following report that Hannah Strobridge contracted small pox while nursing others ill with the disease during the January 1869 (note year) outbreak.

Hannah Strobridge – SmallPox

Anna [sic] Strobridge, wife of James Harvey Strobridge, Construction Foreman, nursed the workers in the pest cars – she contracted small pox while nursing the workers in Nevada. Photos of her, from 1868 on, show the effects of the disease on her face.

Can anyone supply contemporary documentation that she was nursing others in the pest cars when she came down with it? Documentation that she contracted small pox at that time, and recovered (after being nursed in her own car by the other two women there), appears stronger, but information about her nursing ill workers in the pest cars (presumably including Chinese) seems pretty sparse.

—Kyle

Train wreck involving Southern Pacific engine 2677

From: "Danni Ackerman" danni@udderlygoodstuff.com

I acquired several photos printed from original negatives depicting a train wreck involving Southern Pacific engine 2677 and I also see a car or engine with C R or C P 2652 – on the back the person has handwritten:
Early Day Verdi, Nevada Train Wreck

Printed 8/8/86 from 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" negatives for Paul Elcano Reno, Nevada

I can find no such train wreck listed anywhere – closest I came was Truckee in 1907 – and the clothing in the photos is definitely 1800's – to early 1900's. ...

—Danni Ackerman

Coverdale and Colpitts

From: "Anthony Holloway" anthony-holloway@hotmail.co.uk

Greetings. I am in England and have looked through your website with much interest. What a wonderful educational facility!

Unfortunately, there seems to be very little knowledge of American trains this side of the Atlantic.

I was particularly intrigued by vintage trains of the Coverdale and Colpitts collection as I have one in my own collection, but have no information on it at all. If you could spare the time to assist with any information, please, I would be very grateful. For example, do you know if they were reprints of earlier designs or specially drawn for the company? It would be interesting to know too when and why they were printed – if you should happen to know.

—Anthony Holloway

Southern Pacific Railroad Hospital in 1907

"Train wreck victims received care in SLO" by Dan Krieger, © The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, May 2, 2010. (News Article)

"... The 450-bed Southern Pacific [Railroad] Hospital, at Fell and Baker streets in San Francisco, was built by the Southern Pacific Railroad and used as the major medical center for its seriously ill or injured employees from all over the West. The elegant building is a landmark in Golden Gate Park’s “Panhandle” district. Sold by the railroad in 1968, it now serves as Mercy Terrace Senior Housing Center. The hospital was being built in 1907, replacing the burnt and dynamited shell of the Southern Pacific Company Hospital on the southwest corner of Fourteenth and Mission streets. Railroad-owned hospitals were first created by the Central Pacific Railroad as it began constructing the transcontinental railroad east from Sacramento in 1863. Separate facilities were used for Chinese and non-Chinese patients. We know the names of the surgeons who practiced in these facilities, but little else. Historians have every reason to believe that they were little different from the hospitals treating the wounded during the Civil War. Amputations were frequent and death from infection was common. This began to change in 1882, when Dr. Thomas W. Huntington, a graduate of the University of Vermont and Harvard Medical College, arrived at the Sacramento hospital. Dr. Huntington was a convert to Dr. Joseph Lister’s principles of “antiseptic surgery.” ... " [More]

[Courtesy Google Alerts.]

What were the five transcontinental railroads names?

What were the five transcontinental rail roads' names?

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