INTRODUCTION WHERE TO LOOK FOR EVIDENCE We can learn about our past in many different ways We can listen to oral stories told by older generations We can read written accounts from individuals journalists or governments We can interview people who lived through past events or examine old paintings photographs and sculptures We can read books on a subject to gather more information or gain a new perspective Each piece of information adds details and insights to help us understand the reasons an event happened or why a person acted the way they did To begin a search to learn about our past we can look in museums libraries or private collections We can also ask a historian A historian is someone who researches studies and writes about the past He or she is often an expert in one area event or time period Jack Simmons 1915 2000 was an English historian who specialized in railroad history Stephen Ambrose 1936 2002 was another historian who focused on American history and wrote about the building of the Pacific Railroad This book uses their research Depending on the time and place when an event happened it can be easy or hard to find information For example very old events may have happened before cameras were invented so there may not be any photographs Wartime could mean all T D Judah Co civil engineers railroad contractors are prepared to execute and furnish surveys plans and estimates to contract for and to build and equip railroads in the state of California on the most favorable terms Advertisement in Placer Herald from Auburn California July 21 1860 6 UNCOVERING THE PAST
documents in a museum were burned or bombed There might be a lot of information on a celebrity because of media attention Because the building of the transcontinental railroads in both Canada and the United States were sanctioned by the governments there is much evidence Official records reports laws and acts were based on the idea of connecting regions of the countries by rail Photography was new but was still able to capture many important moments during the construction Because much of the land to be crossed was mostly unexplored maps were drawn to help the railroads find the best routes The Pacific Railroad Act signed by President Lincoln on July 1 1862 allowed the construction of a rail and telegraph line from the Missouri River in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west This cartoon of May 1869 celebrated the completion of the transcontinental railroad in the United States PERSPECTIVES Take a close look at the illustration of the locomotives How does the illustrator portray Native Americans Do you think he shows a bias or unfair opinion What clues in the picture back up your answer TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROADS 7
Chinese laborers of the Central Pacific Railroad CPRR helped build snow sheds These wooden structures kept snow off the tracks by letting avalanches slide right over top HISTORICAL SOURCES TYPES OF EVIDENCE The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice U S author Mark Twain 1897 Evidence about an event a person or a place is called source material Sources are anything that has been left behind by the past They are the building blocks of our understanding Source material can be created by companies artists or ordinary people It can be the result of someone’s work or hobby or it can be created by accident Sometimes source material is well known Important artifacts are often on display in museums for everyone to see Libraries allow everyone to borrow historic materials and study them Ruins or monuments are out in the open and can be visited by everyone Sometimes source material is controversial It might remain hidden because its existence could be dangerous to the people who own it During World War II 1939 1945 Germans who had papers or photographs of Jewish people might be accused of helping them and be punished themselves by the Nazi government At other times source material is preserved by accident Old newspapers might be used to pack china in an attic Letters or reports might be lost during a move and found later in an unexpected spot The cargos of ancient ships might be sealed in a shipwreck deep in the ocean Paintings might be hidden in a cave for protection Source material for the transcontinental railroads is usually easy to find Government and company reports maps and records are available for the public to read They are kept in museums or libraries Photographs maps engineering drawings newspaper articles and magazine articles can be viewed online as well as in actual archives 8 UNCOVERING THE PAST
ANALYZE THIS Reread the quotation by Mark Twain at the top of page 8 What do you think he means In what ways was source material about the building of the transcontinental railroads written with prejudice TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROADSS 9
