The West the Railroads Made:Research

Collections

Researching the Railroads

Because the building of the transcontinental railroad and numerous smaller lines changed the face of Washington, railroad images, maps, ephemera, and artifacts have come to represent a significant part of the WSHS collection.

Wrapped into the railroad story is that of the Chinese Expulsion. By luck and foresight, many of the anti-Chinese posters and ephemeral items posted around Tacoma were collected and placed in WSHS's care, making ours one of the country's most significant ephemera collections on the subject.

Following are some of the key images and ephemera from the WSHS collection that are featured in the traveling exhibition "The West the Railroads Made" as well as the book of the same name. Additional objects, images, and ephemera pertaining to western railroads can be found (and searched for) in the various collections presented on our Online Collections page.

Spotlight Images

Where Fortune Waits

Was Washington "the land of sunny skies, where fortune waits to help the man who tills the soil, trims the tree and trains the vine?" So said the Northern Pacific Railway in 1911.

Timber Billions

Logging was one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest industries in the 20th century. The railroad hoped to promote investment in timber to increase the freight business.

Uniforms of the Northern Pacific

The Northern Pacific Railway displayed a "passion for precision" not only in the running of the trains but also in the uniforms worn by its employees.

From the Car Window

This brochure, produced by the Great Northern Railway in 1933, emphasizes the beauty of the Pacific Northwest as seen from the window of a passenger car.

Pullman Porters

Popular music celebrated the culture of the railroads, from songs about train travel to this 1913 tune about the porters who worked on Pullman cars.

Fort Benton

Before the advent of the locomotive, steamboats traveled the rivers to deliver goods. This lithograph by Gustav Sohon depicts Fort Benton and the Missouri River during the steamboat era.

Artificial Limb Catalog

Railroading was dangerous work as evidenced by this turn-of-the-century catalog claiming that hundreds of men used limbs designed by the Winkley Artificial Limb Company.

The Old Timer and the Homeseeker

An "old timer" talks to a homeseeker about opportunities in the Yakima Valley in this 1911 pamphlet.

Northern Pacific Railroad Traverses

"Preserve this map – it is profitable to read about the Great Northern Pacific Country…" proclaimed this Northern Pacific route map. Gold, silver, wheat, and cattle were some of the resources named in this piece of ephemera.

Uncle Sam and Aunt Columbia

"Aunt Columbia" is one of the figures who discusses the 42nd state of Washington in this 1889 commemorative pamphlet.