California Preservation Service (CAPS)
Thomas Hill's large oil painting (157-1/4 x 85-1/4 in.) of ""The Driving of the Last Spike"" is on display at the California State Railroad Museum. It is an imagined recreation of the ceremony held May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah, to celebrate the completion of the transcontinental railroad, when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroad tracks were joined. Hill began the painting in 1877 at the request of Leland Stanford, who later refused to pay for the commission.
Thomas Hill's large oil painting (157-1/4 x 85-1/4 in.) of ""The Driving of the Last Spike"" is on display at the California State Railroad Museum. It is an imagined recreation of the ceremony held May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah, to celebrate the completion of the transcontinental railroad, when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroad tracks were joined. Hill began the painting in 1877 at the request of Leland Stanford, who later refused to pay for the commission.