Chinese Railroad Workers Project exhibit honored by California Preservation Foundation

A traveling historical and photographic exhibit sponsored by the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford, “Chinese Workers and the Railroad Traveling Exhibit,” has won two awards from the California Preservation Foundation: the 2019 Preservation Design Award in the Interpretive Exhibits category and a Trustees Award for Excellence.

The exhibit commemorated the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, a 1,912-mile track that connected the eastern United States with the Pacific Coast. The railroad’s western section was built almost entirely by thousands of Chinese laborers who, according to Stanford historian and project co-director GORDON H. CHANG, earned less than their white counterparts and undertook more dangerous work.

Until recently, this period of history has been largely left out of historical storytelling. The exhibit offers a new understanding to a pivotal period of American and Californian history, according to project co-director and English Professor SHELLEY FISHER FISHKIN.

In addition, the exhibit is designed to bring that narrative into schools, libraries, community centers, museums and other venues that might not be able to produce such a display on their own, said Fishkin, who is also the director of Stanford’s American Studies Program.