The transcontinental railroad at 150 in pictures | Art and design
The transcontinental railroad at 150 – in pictures
In a new travelling exhibition, the significance of the transcontinental railroad, finished in 1869, will be celebrated in a series of images capturing its arduous construction through to its triumphant completion. The Race to Promontory: The Transcontinental Railroad and the American West exhibition is now at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City
Main image: East and West Shaking Hands at Laying of Last Rail, 1869. Photograph: Andrew J Russell/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad MuseumWed 6 Feb 2019 07.00 GMT Last modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 14.30 GMT
Promontory Trestle Work and Engine No. 2, 1869
The Race to Promontory: The Transcontinental Railroad and the American West is at Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah from 1 February to 26 May 2019. The exhibition is organised by the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, IowaPhotograph: Andrew J Russell/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterSupply Trains, 1868
From east to west, the Union Pacific line was photographed by Andrew J Russell, and west to east by Alfred A Hart, for the Central PacificPhotograph: Andrew J Russell/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterLocomotive on Trestle, near American River, California, 1865
In the decade following the civil war, Russell and Hart benefited from an unprecedented wave of government and corporate patronage that supported a legion of photographers working in the American westPhotograph: Alfred A Hart/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterHanging Rock, Foot of Echo Cañon, 1868
Their images also helped to define the unfamiliar landscapes beyond the Missouri river, capturing not only the engineering triumphs of the railroad, but the vast resources available for an expanding nation, as well as its pictorial beautyPhotograph: Andrew J Russell/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterDevil’s Slide, Union Pacific Railroad, Utah, after 1874
The exhibition also includes a selection of works from the 19th-century Utah photographer Charles Savage from the University’s J Willard Marriott Library Special CollectionsPhotograph: Charles R Savage/J Willard Marriott Library, Special Collections
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterRounding Cape Horn, California. Road to Iowa Hill from the river, in the distance, c 1866 (half of a stereograph)
Photograph: Alfred A Hart/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterThe Wind Mill at Laramie, 1868
Photograph: Andrew J Russell/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterPiute Indians at Reno, 1868 (half of a stereograph)
Photograph: Alfred A Hart/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterLocomotive, on Turntable, 1865 (half of a stereograph)
Photograph: Alfred A Hart/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterChinese Camp, at End of Track, 1868 (half of a stereograph)
Chinese and Irish immigrants made up the workforce for the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines, respectivelyPhotograph: Alfred A Hart/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterCamping Out, Early Morning, c 1870–1875
Photograph: Charles R Savage/J Willard Marriott Library, Special Collections
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterScene near Deeth. Mount Halleck in Distance, c 1869, (half of a stereograph)
Forty-six months after they began construction, the two railroads came together and officially ‘united’ the United StatesPhotograph: Alfred A Hart/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterEast and West Shaking Hands at Laying of Last Rail, 1869
Western Union offered coverage direct from the scene, the first major news event carried ‘live’ from coast-to-coast. Telegraph wires were attached to one of the ceremonial spikes and as it was gently tapped with a silver maul, the ‘strokes’ were heard across the countryPhotograph: Andrew J Russell/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterShoshone Indians Looking at Locomotives on Desert, 1868
The transcontinental railroad had opened the heart of the continent, and, within days of its completion, the country was transformed. Travel from New York to San Francisco was reduced from six months to 10 days, and at 10% of the costPhotograph: Alfred A Hart/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum
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