![]() Lee, the son of a laundryman, has designated himself the “ undisputed unofficial” photographer of Asian Americans, and he has lived up to the billing by attending all manner of community events, coast to coast, since his 1975 shot of a protest march from Chinatown to City Hall in Manhattan made the cover of the New York Post tabloid. My friend Corky Lee, restages the ritual moment with a cast of Chinese Americans, as part of an annual pilgrimage to the isolated site. At least three photographers have recreated the photos of the period. The photographs were reproduced in advertising and available as magic lantern slides (the format that preceded the Kodak slide carousel).Ĭhinese have been aggrieved ever since, because there are no Chinese among the revelers - except that there may be one of the faceless men in the crowd, at least his hat, as he turns his back to the artist. His album, published in 1869, was a best seller. He made prints en route, in a wagon that had a tent inside. His work, glass-plate collodion negatives, are held by the Oakland Museum. Russell was a painter and photographer, trained by someone trained by Matthew Brady, and selected as the Army’s inaugural photographer. ![]() Russell, depicts the rail barons in the foreground with the Jupiter and No. “The United States of America” was once spoken of as a plural, as in “the United States of America are” this or that, and the subtlety of grammar, the “United States is,” indicates heartfelt unity.Īmong the most famous pictures of the American nineteenth century, taken by Andrew J. It would be difficult to overstate how the transcontinental railroad transformed everything from the delivery of food and goods to where the ambitious might move and settle to the possibilities for vacation and recreation. The images generated enthusiasm for the business and the tourism that they predicted, accurately, would follow, in measures beyond what could be calculated. The extensive documentation preceded, accompanied, and followed the toil. They had to provide proof that the speculative enterprise was likely to pay off. Professionals were hired to record the feat of engineering. Some of the politicians back then having what would be called out as conflicts of interest today, i.e., investments that would increase in value as a direct consequence of their own vote. Congress supported it with subsidies and grants of land for every mile of track that was laid. It was the most massive infrastructure project of its era. Photography is very much part of the story of the transcontinental railroad. We had boarded charter buses early in the morning for the trek to the national park, issued two bottles of water to ensure we were hydrated under the desert sun. They were among the sizable delegations at the festivities, who included railroad aficionados, public officials, and more than a few locals. They included sixth-generation Californians, some of mixed ancestries. Their descendants had invited me to speak at a conference. The event was historic, and it included the diversity of this “shining city upon a hill” as had not been done at the actual moment, nor a half century earlier, for the centennial in 1969, when actor John Wayne’s appearance led to representatives of the Chinese American community being forced off the program.Īpproximately 15,000 Chinese laborers constituted almost all of the western work crew, which also included Irish immigrants, former soldiers from the Union and Confederacy, Native Americans who were displaced from their territory, African Americans who had only recently been emancipated, and recruits from the then-new Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. ![]() I was honored to be there on May 10, 2019, for the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Point, Utah, when the line from the west and the line from the east were joined in standard gauge, an iron bond that brought together the United States as a nation, realizing Manifest Destiny. ![]() The highlight of the sesquicentennial celebration of the transcontinental railroad for me was meeting an amateur photographer toting his vintage field camera. ![]() Train detail, shot with Lumix digital camera ![]()
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