Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford Research Files, 2011-2019

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Summary

Title:
Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford Research Files
Dates:
2011-2019
Creators:
Chang, Gordon H., Fishkin, Shelley Fisher, Obenzinger, Hilton, Hsu, Roland, Steiner, Erik, Voss, Barbara, Fong, Barre, Yu, Connie Y., Hessel, Teri, Hsu, Kevin, Hu-Dehart, Evelyn, and Shao, Dongfang
Extent:
6 Linear Feet
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[identification of item] Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University Research Files (SC1579). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the research files for The Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University. Included are the following: email correspondence, flyers, pamphlets, brochures, images, book chapter and essay drafts, National Endowment for the Humanities grant materials, exhibit and event information, participant lists and resumes, and letters.

Biographical / historical:

The Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford began in 2012 as the first comprehensive effort to recover and interpret the work of the Chinese railroad workers who built the first transcontinental railroad across the United States and other rail lines throughout North America in the 1860s, with the objective of recapturing the lived experience of the Chinese workers themselves. This endeavor to locate and examine primary source materials ended on September 1, 2020, and was a multi-faceted collaboration from over one hundred scholars in North America and Asia who represented a variety of disciplines ranging from history to archaeology, American studies, cultural and literary studies, and heritage studies, becoming the largest effort to study nineteenth-century Chinese American history to date.

The Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford was originally convened by Gordon H. Chang, Shelley Fishkin, and the following individuals:

Evelyn Hu-Dehart, Professor of History and Ethnic Studies, and Director, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University; and Dongfang Shao, Chief of the Asian Division at the U.S. Library of Congress.

The Project Team consisted of the following members:

Gordon H. Chang, Co-Director Professor of History, Olive H. Palmer Professor in Humanities, Stanford University

Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Co-Director Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities, Professor of English, and Director of American Studies, Stanford University

Hilton Obenzinger, Associate Director Lecturer, American Studies and English, Stanford University

Roland Hsu, Director of Research

Erik Steiner, Digital Media Creative Director Co-Director, Spatial History Project, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA), Stanford University

Barbara Voss, Director of Archaeology Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University

Barre Fong, Independent Filmmaker and Graphic Designer

Connie Young Yu, Independent Scholar

Teri Hessel, Project Researcher

Kevin Hsu, Digital Media Researcher

The Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford yielded numerous research publications, including The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad edited by Gordon H. Chang and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, and Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Gordon H. Chang. The project also developed resources such as: oral histories from the descendents of the railroad workers, an exhaustive bibliography of more than 850 references to a wide range of primary- and secondary- source materials, a digital repository and online exhibit featuring archival and research materials, and educational resources for K-12 teachers.

Acquisition information:
Administrative transfer, 2021.
Physical location:
Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 48 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/spc.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Hanna Ahn, Devin Chuyi Moua, Christian Guallpa
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2022-11-01 13:18:57 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Materials are open for research use.

Terms of access:

While University Archives is the owner of the physical and/or digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.

Preferred citation:

[identification of item] Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University Research Files (SC1579). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Location of this collection:
Stanford University Archives, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064, US
Contact:
(650) 725-1022
specialcollections@stanford.edu
Website