Abstract
Chinese laborers on the North American transcontinental railroads performed dangerous and labor-intensive work, and many died or were seriously injured as a result of explosions, cave-ins, and severe and unpredictable weather. These workers received meager wages and may have faced additional health risks from ethnic violence and malnutrition. Little is known about how these individuals treated their injuries and ailments and, to date, not a single document written by a Chinese railroad worker has been discovered. Analysis of medicinal artifacts, dating from 1865 to 1910, recovered from railroad sites in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Texas, and Utah, combined with research on existing documentary and archaeological sources on Chinese medicine in 19th-century North America, provide a better understanding of the healthcare practices employed by Chinese railroad workers. Lacking access to traditional doctors and herbal stores, workers relied on a system of informal “folk” medicine that involved using both European American and Chinese medicines.
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