Mannen bij een spoorlijn bij Burning Rock Cut, Green River, Wyoming 1868

William Henry Jackson took this stereoscopic image of men by a railway near Burning Rock Cut, Green River, Wyoming, in the nineteenth century. It is a photograph, but it also functions as a symbol of the changing cultural landscape of the United States. Look at the way the image creates meaning through visual codes, cultural references, and historical associations. The building of the railway transformed the landscape. It also connected the east and west coasts, facilitating the movement of people and goods, but also accelerating the displacement of indigenous people. Jackson's photograph presents the railway as a feat of engineering, but, as historians, it is important for us to ask, for whose benefit was this technology implemented? The answer to that question can be found in census records, land deeds, and other documents from the period.