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MICHAEL ALLEN JONES/mjones@sacbee.com
"The Encampment" by Mary Amanda Lewis illustrates the occupation of Sacramento by federal troops during the Pullman strike of 1894.
By Dixie Reid
dreid@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jan. 04, 2009 | Page 7EXPLORE
Mary Amanda Lewis might have seen the federal troop tents from her home, or maybe she walked toward the Capitol, easel and oil paints in tow, to document history as it lay before her.
In the summer of 1894, the Pullman strike boiled over in Sacramento because this was, and still is, an important railroad town.
"That was a nationwide strike and, really, Sacramento was one of its true ground-zero locations. It was messy here," says Paul Hammond, museum director for California State Parks' Sacramento History and Railroad sector.
Things got so bad that President Grover Cleveland sent in the National Guard, putting the city under martial law for the only time in its history.
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California State Railroad Museum Library
The first train to roll out of Sacramento after the strike derailed on the sabotaged Yolo Causeway, killing two railroad employees and three soldiers.
After the local hotels filled up with soldiers, a few hundred camped out on the Capitol's grounds, and that's the scene Lewis recorded in "The Encampment." It shows white tents on the broad lawn, soldiers marching in formation, and a woman and child taking it all in, with the Capitol in the background.
Today, "The Encampment" hangs in the Sacramento Room at Sacramento Central Library downtown, alongside a painting of the Sacramento River Delta by Wayne Thiebaud, one of California's most celebrated artists.
FULL story at link.