Exhibitions

Forgotten Workers: Chinese Migrants and the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad

May 10, 2019 – March 13, 2020

National Museum of American History
1300 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC

1st Floor, West, New Perspectives Case in American Enterprise

See on Map Floor Plan

Marking the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, a critical episode in the development of the American West, Hidden Workers focuses on the forgotten Chinese workers who built the western leg of the railroad across the Sierra Nevada Mountains. A large floor graphic maps the United States so that visitors can walk the Transcontinental Railroad route. A display describes how the railroad was a catalyst for positive change but displaced Native Americans and caused the near extinction of the American buffalo.