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Celebrating the Golden Spike 150th

The Center for Railroad Photography and Art with the Indiana University Press has just published the 320-page book After Promontory. With 250 historic photos it tells the story of all the Union Pacific-Central Pacific and the other transcontinentals that followed it.

There is also multiple After Promontory traveling exhibits. Here is their itinerary:

March 29-October 5 Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
March 30-July 28 Durham Museum, Omaha
May 1-August 1 Denver Public Library
May 10-May 1, 2021 San Mateo County Historical Museum, Redwood, California
September 19-March 15, 2020 Hastings Museum, Hastings, Nebraska
September 24-January 4, 2020 Carnegie Arts Center, Alliance, Nebraska

The 150th anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad has spawned quite a few events, programs and publications. This list was just published in the Center’s magazine Railroad Heritage.

California

  • Mark Ruwedel: Westward the Course of Empire, California Historical Society in San Francisco, March 24 to September 8, 2019
  • Overland to California: Commemorating the Transcontinental Railroad, California Historical Society in

San Francisco, March 24 to September 8, 2019

  • Judah Map on Public Display, California State
    Railroad Museum in Sacramento,

April 15 to May 31, 2019

  • The Chinese Workers’ Experience, California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, spring 2019
  • Gold Spike Exhibit Redesign, California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, spring 2019
  • Free Community Sesquicentennial Event, California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, May 8, 2019
  • Pushing West: The Photography of Andrew J. Russell, Oakland Museum of California in Oakland, May 4 to September 1, 2019
  • The Race to Promontory: The Transcontinental Railroad and the American West, Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, June 23 to September 29, 2019

Hlinois

  • The Chinese Helped Build the RailroadThe Railroad
    Helped Build America, Chinese Railroad Workers
    Descendants Association, Chinese-American
    Museum of Chicago, March 2019 to March 2020

Utah

  • A World Transformed: The Transcontinental Railroad
    and Utah,
    Utah State Capitol Building in Salt Lake
    City, January 24 to June 26, 2019, Tooele Junior
    High in Tooele, .March 13 to April 15, 2019; and
    the Western Mining and Railroad Museum in
    Helper, April 25 to May 30, 2019
  • The Race to Promontory: The Transcontinental Railroad and the American West, Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City, February 1 to May 26, 2019
  • Tracing the Path: Chinese Railroad Workers and the First Transcontinental Railroad, Salt Lake City Main Library, February 17 to March 29, 2019
  • The Spike at 150: Myths and Realities, Brigham City Museum of Art & History in Brigham City, March 23 to June 15,2019
  • Spike 50: The 1919 Parade in Ogden, Weber State University Special Collections in Ogden, May 1 to May 31, 2019
  • The Chinese Helped Build the RailroadThe Railroad Helped Build America, Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association, Park City Library in Park City May 1 to May 31,2019
  • Chinese Migrants and the Transcontinental Railroad, Weber State University Special Collections in Ogden, May 7, 2019
  • Working on the Railroad: Chinese Workers & America’s First Transcontinental Line \ Gordon H. Chang, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, May 8, 2019
  • Annual Convention, National Railway Historical Society Salt Lake City, May 7 to May 11, 2019
  • Annual Convention, Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Ogden, May 8 to May 12, 2019
  • Spike 150 Celebration Festival, Golden Spike National Historic Site, Promontory Summit, May 10-12, 2019
  • Multi-state
  • Journey to Promontory, Trains magazine and Special
    Interest Tours, Sacramento, California, to
    Council Bluffs, Iowa, May 5-14, 2019