At 1 p.m., Saturday, April 20, Shirley Burman will speak about the history of women in the railroad industry. This event is sponsored and hosted by the SCC Railroad Club and will be held in the Sacramento City College Student Center.
Burman is a documentary photographer and historian who received the Fred A. and Jane R. Stindt Photograph Award for her “‘accomplishments as a railroad photographer, especially the documentation of women’s contributions to railroading’” in 2012.
In 2013, she received the Hall of Fame Award at Winterail. She is the first woman to receive this award in the organization’s 35 years.
About the award, she said that she hadn’t been thinking about the award because she was busy thinking about her lecture and slide presentation, “Donner’s Journey,” documenting trips to Donner Pass after the 1983 blizzards with her future husband, Richard Steinheimer.
Since 1991, Burman has presented talks and programs at the Smithsonian, the California State Railroad Museum and the Oakland Museum. Her work has been published in “Journal of the West,” “Diesels over Donner,” “Mountain Soul of the Southern Pacific,” “Whistles Across the Land” and in the “Encyclopedia of North American Railroading.” Additionally, she co-wrote a children’s book, “She’s Been Working on the Railroad.”
This event is free and open to the public.
