Monday, September 24, 2012

Primary source info about railroad passengers

Where can I find primary source information about transcontinental railroad passengers?

4 Comments:

Blogger CPRR Discussion Group said...

Also see:

Great-grandfathers

Description of what train travel was like

Railway passenger lists of overland trains to San Francisco and the West, by Louis J Rasmussen, Ship 'n rail series, Volume 1, possible Volume 2

9/24/2012 10:47 PM  
Blogger CPRR Discussion Group said...

From: "James Mulholland" jmulhol2@bates.edu

I am a student now in the second semester of my senior year at college and am in the process of writing my Thesis which, surprisingly enough from my email, is about the transcontinental railroad. I have been able to find numerous secondary sources about the railroad and the people who were involved with it and of course have enjoyed the information in Ken Burns "The West" episode The Grandest Enterprise Under God, but I have been unable to find very much primary source material which is required at my educational institution. Do you have any recommendations on where I can find sources of this nature. Journals, newspaper articles, telegrams, anything that was written at the time pertaining to this the Construction of, and subsequent reactions would be very helpful to my undergraduate thesis. I hope to hear from you soon.

—James Mulholland, Bates College, Class of 2013

1/30/2013 8:02 PM  
Blogger CPRR Discussion Group said...

Subject: First Hand Accounts of Transcontinental Railroad

See,

Primary Sources

Collis Potter Huntington Papers

Transcontinental Railroad Construction

CPRR Biographical Notes from the Lynn D. Farrar Collection

The best modern history of the transcontinental railroad is David Bain's Empire Express which has lots of footnotes citing primary sources.

Riding the Transcontinental Rails: Overland Travel on the Pacific Railroad 1865-1881, edited by Bruce C. Cooper.
An anthology of Nineteenth century first person accounts of overland travel on the Pacific railroad between 1865 and 1881.

1/30/2013 8:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Where can I find information about transcontinental railroad primary sources?

11/20/2019 4:38 AM  

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