Canals
Found in 7 Collections and/or Records:
John Watson engineering notebooks
John Watson (1774-1864), a Quaker, worked as a land surveyor in Pennsylvania during the early nineteenth century. The collection consists of five volumes relating to the construction of the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal.
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company letterbooks
The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was a major anthracite mining and transporting firm in eastern Pennsylvania between 1822 and 1954. This collection consists of one outbound letterpress copybook dating from 1844 to 1848 of Edwin A. Douglas (1805-1859), Chief Engineer & Superintendent; three outbound letterbooks of William Reed, Chief Clerk at Mauch Chunk, dating from 1852 to 1859; thirteen outbound letterbooks of George Ruddle (1828-1904), Chief Clerk, Treasurer, and Real Estate Agent, dating from 1860 to 1878; and four inbound letterbooks of George Ruddle dating from 1870 to 1874. The letterbooks contain the correspondence of some of the chief field officers at Mauch Chunk, much of it regular exchanges with the officers at the Philadelphia headquarters.
Reading Company records
Chartered in 1871, Reading Company was the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled by the predecessor Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company between 1833 and 1896. The collection consists of the corporate records of the Reading Company (1871-1976), the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company (1833-1896), the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company (1896-1923), and 159 predecessors and subsidiaries.
Schuykill Navigation Company subscription list for loans
The Schuylkill Navigation Company constructed a canal along the Schuylkill River from Philadelphia to the anthracite coal field near Pottsville between 1815 and 1825. The item is a small notebook with subscriptions to the company's loans in 1823 and 1824.
Survey of canal route through William Young's property
William Young (1755-1829) was a Philadelphia bookseller and later a manufacturer at Rockland, Delaware. Three surveyor's plats marking the route of canal through White-Hall estate, William Young's property in Philadelphia.
William E. Morris engineer's notebook
William E. Morris (1812-1875) was a civil engineer and railroad executive. The notebook contains fourteen separate specifications for canal and railroad work copied in longhand and a fifteenth in the form of an inserted printed handbill. They offer a good snapshot of early civil engineering practice and construction techniques. Evidence points to Morris as the notebook's author.
Wurts family papers
The Wurts family were involved in the anthracite coal industry. In 1823 four brothers: Maurice Wurts (1783-1854), William Wurts (1788-1858), Charles Stewart Wurts (1790–1859), and John Wurts (1792-1861) founded the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company originally to mine anthracite coal and transport the resource to New York. The company built the Delaware and Hudson Canal and later became the Delaware and Hudson Railway. The Wurts family papers were collected by John Sparhawk Wurts (1876-1958) and reflect both family papers and business records.
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