On May 10, 1869, Leland Stanford participated in the ceremonial driving of the last railroad spike, a gold spike, that made the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad possible. The Stanford Historical Society examined this legacy in a year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. In addition to a film series, an event at the Stanford Mansion in Sacramento, a talk on the building of the railroad, and a presentation on the history of the American West, the society sponsored The Transcontinental Railroad Symposium on April 6, 2019. The presentations included:
The Big Four
Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Stanford
Impacting Cultures: The Chinese and Native Americans
Hilton Obenzinger, Associate Director, Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University
C. Matthew Snipp, Senior Associate Vice Provost of Faculty Development and Diversity; Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford
Celestial Railroad Revisited: The Railroad in 19th Century American History and Culture
James Campbell, Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States History, Stanford
Stanford University’s Railroad Legacy
Laura Jones, Director, Heritage Services and University Archaeologist, Stanford
