Iron Muse: Photographing the Transcontinental RailroadThe construction of the transcontinental railroad (1865–1869) marked a milestone in United States history, symbolizing both the joining of the country’s two coasts and the taming of its frontier wilderness by modern technology. But it was through the power of images—and especially the photograph—that the railroad attained its iconic status. Iron Muse provides a unique look at the production, distribution, and publication of images of the transcontinental railroad: from their use as an official record by the railroad corporations, to their reproduction in the illustrated press and travel guides, and finally to their adaptation to direct sales and albums in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Tracing the complex relationships and occasional conflicts between photographer, publisher, and curator as they crafted the photographs’ different meanings over time, Willumson provides a comprehensive portrayal of the creation and evolution of an important slice of American visual culture. The construction of the transcontinental railroad (1865–1869) marked a milestone in United States history, symbolizing both the joining of the country’s two coasts and the taming of its frontier wilderness by modern technology. But it was through the powe |
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A. J. Russell advertising album Albumen stereograph Alfred Hart American Art American West Andrew Russell Beinecke Rare Book California camera celebration Central Pacific Railroad Central Pacific stereographs Civil Collection of Western Collis Huntington Crocker Art Museum Crofutt Donner Lake E. B. Crocker East excursion foreground Hands at Laying Harper's Weekly Hart’s Hayden History Illustrated London images inches John Carbutt landscape Lawrence and Houseworth Laying Last Rail Leslie's Illustrated locomotive Manuscript Library miles from Sacramento Mormon Nebraska negatives O. C. Smith Omaha Pacific photographic Pacific's painting photographic archive printed progress Promontory published railroad photographs River route Russell's photographs Sacramento Salt Lake City San Francisco Sedgwick Sierra Nevada Stanford stereoscopic story Summit Thomas Houseworth track train Trans-Continental Railroad Guide transcontinental railroad travel guides Truckee River Union Pacific Railroad University Utah viewer views visual wagon West Illustrated West Shaking Hands Western Americana wood engravings Yale Collection York