Sesquicentennial Celebration of the Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad featuring the 66-foot-long Judah Map | Talks by Richard White and Hilton Obenzinger

On March 4, 2019, The David Rumsey Map Center will host a pop-up exhibit of the Judah Map and talks by Richard White and Hilton Obenzinger. Created by Theodore D. Judah in 1861, this manuscript map titled: Central Pacific Railroad Proposed Alignment Map (aka the Judah Map) measures 2.5 feet wide by 66 feet long. The map is on loan from the California State Archives for digitization at Stanford Libraries. We will begin the event with a pop-up exhibit of the actual map and the digital companion image. The map is composed of four maps in one continuous roll titled Barmore Station to Clipper Gap, Rattlesnake Bluffs to the summit of the Sierra Nevada; from the summit to the Truckee River; and Dutch Flat to Rattlesnake Bluffs respectively.  Each map includes a table of alignments and Judah's proposed route, part of which were not built on this alignment. 

The pop-up exhibit will be followed by talks with Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford and author of Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America and followed by a talk with Hilton Oberzinger, Associate Director of the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford.

Tentative Schedule:

Doors open: 2 pm

Pop Up Exhibit:  2 - 3 pm

Richard White Talk: 3.15 pm

Hilton Obenzinger Talk: 4 pm

Center Closes: 4.45 pm