Transcript
of a manuscript letter bound in with the Cornell University copy of
Whitford’s History of the Canal System of the State of New York.
Syracuse, Jan 16, 1941
Mrs. A.M. Goodman, Forest Home Drive, Ithaca, NY
Dear
Madam:
Your
letter of Dec. 13 reached me promptly, although it lacked definite
address, but it caught me at a time when I was working night and day
to finish a certain task before Christmas…(The duration of this
paragraph and the next explain his delay in getting the letter to
Mrs. Goodman.)
I am
sorry I cannot tell you where you can get a copy of the history of
the New York canals. It is nearly 14 years since I left the State
Engineering Department (circa 1928) and, as I remember, the supply of
these volumes had been exhausted for a considerable time then. A few
years ago, when I happened to visit the department, I was told about
somebody who wanted the history, and of course had failed to get one
from the State, and later had found a copy through a second-hand book
dealer. It was said he had paid ten dollars for it- whether for one
or both volumes I do not know. While the supply lasted the State had
sent the books out free of charge. (reprints are selling for over
$100 and original copies are well over $400)
In
writing this history I had to work largely in the State Library in
Albany. I learned there, better than I had known before, the
importance of placing any such work of general interest in libraries.
Accordingly, when it came to distributing the volumes, since the
edition was ample and I had sufficient authority to do it, I saw to
it that a goodly number of the books went to the libraries in the
State. There they are available for those who wish to see them, but I
doubt whether any library would sell these books. Here in Syracuse
the public library keeps this history, along with other irreplaceable
books, in a locked case, where it can be consulted only through the
librarian. Probably, however, there are many individuals who would be
willing to sell their copies. Such person, I think, will have to be
found through book dealers. The edition consisted of 3500 of each
volume. The State printer seemed to see the wisdom of a larger
edition and kept the type standing for a year or more, but the
Legislature failed to make an appropriation for its printing.
You
say that mine has been recommended to you as the best history of the
State canals. I think I can agree with this opinion, and with due
modesty, since there is no other history with which it has to
compete, for it is the only canal history which has any claim to be
considered at all comprehensive in the treatment of its subject.
Before its appearance there were two publications which with some
propriety may be called canal histories. In 1825, a little before the
completion of the first two State canals, the Erie and the Champlain,
there was printed a volume known as Canal Laws. This recorded
the facts concerning the canals and in its way was entirely complete,
being documentary in its character and consisting of a compilation of
canal laws up to that time and official reports of surveys which had
been made and construction work which had been done. In 1863 there
was published as a part of the State Engineer’s annual report a
“Documentary Sketch of the New York State Canals”, which
was compiled by Sylvanus H Sweet, who in 1874 and 75 was State
Engineer. It occupied 390 pages. I doubt whether this history had
very wide reading beyond those persons who had something to do with
canals. I understand that only three months were spent in its
preparation. It had no literary style to make it appealing to the
public, and perhaps most unfortunate of all for its use as a work of
reference it had no index. (This is interesting as the review of
Whitford also made this claim about Whitford)
In
comparison, especially with Sweet’s history, it may be said that
three years were spent in writing our 1905 history and at times I had
from three or four to a dozen assistants helping me. The volume of
the material available for its writing may be judged from the
bibliography included in the second volume. It is printed in small
type, which a printer call six point, and it occupies nearly 200
pages, listing simply the books then in the State Library on the
subject.
Let
me go a little into detail in telling what was put in this history.
Sufficient time was spent to write quite complete stories of all the
canals- 18 main canals, or 28, if branches and extensions and
navigable feeders are counted, and there had to be included accounts
of a enlargements of several of them. Then there were three chapters
on the canals as a whole- one dealing with the abandonment of several
lateral canals, one on the “Canals as a School of Engineering,”
and one a supreme interest, a chapter of nearly a hundred and fifty
pages, which dealt thoroughly with its very important subject, “The
Influence of the Erie Canal,” and was undertaken in order to
ascertain how well founded were the many early attestations of this
influence. There were included also statistical tables and diagrams,
giving facts concerning lengths, dimensions, costs, channel
cross-section, tonnage carried, tolls collected and like information,
including tables quite in detail of the nearly sixteen hundred
structures on the canals. Then there was a chronological resume of
laws and events which were important but not important enough to
receive extended comment. Also there was the bibliography, of which I
have spoken already, and several other features of less importance.
All this might have been considered enough to complete our work, but
to make it more useful there were added brief histories of all the
canals of the United States and Canada, accompanied by large
statistical tables of the nearly 250 of them counting branches and
enlargements.
After
the publication of this history there appeared in 1908, as a Buffalo
Historical Society Publication, a volume, entitled, “Waterways
and Canal Construction in New York State,” by Henry W. Hill.
Senator Hill was long in the State Legislature and always was an
ardent supported of canals. Then in 1909 A. Barton Hepburn published
a volume called “Artificial Waterways and Commercial
Development.” This book stressed the commercial aspect. Mr.
Hepburn, I think, was a banker. The five histories I have mentioned
thus far, with one I shall speak of presently, may be considered as
the chief general histories of the New York canals.
Besides
our 1905 history there have been other State canal publications which
are of interest to the engineer. Let me tell about them. Before our
history was printed and ready for distribution the State Engineer’s
Department was well along in its new and perhaps its greatest work,
the Barge Canal. Rather early in that work the State Engineer,
following the lead of a Panama Canal publication, began issuing
monthly what was call “The Barge Canal Bulletin.” This ran
for eleven years. While it dealt largely with current affairs there
was always at least one article in each number of general engineering
interest. At the completion of the Barge Canal a history of that
project was written. This is the sixth history I spoke of a moment
ago. While this volume does not have the wealth of material that is
contained in the 1905 history, which has been used as a book of
reference by several State departments ever since it was issued, the
Barge Canal History has a much better claim to literary merit
than the earlier history and also to being what a real history should
be. By that time I had learned better how to write such a book. Both
this history and the monthly bulletin fell to my lot. This history I
had to do all by myself and I was given only a year to do it- only a
year because the man who had been State Engineer longest during Barge
Canal construction, 10 years, and who had directed me to write this
history wanted it printed before his term of office should end.
Fortunately I had been so closely in touch with the whole project
that I could do this, and the book was ready for distributing a month
ahead of time, and in that month the edition of 2000 was virtually
exhausted, a lot, however, going to libraries.
There
is one other volume, published during Barge Canal construction, which
I want to speak of. It is a “Book of Barge Canal Plans” and
unlike the other books I have mentioned it is entirely technical. It
contains 156 plates of structural plans on sheets 12 ½ by 18 ½
inches in size, together with eight pages devoted to tilte, index and
a little reading matter. Every kind of structure used on the canal is
included in these plans and sufficient details are shown to give an
engineer a true and workable understanding of the structure. An
edition of 1000 copies was printed and as one may easily imagine the
cost was large. The printer’s bill alone was $5,000. This volume,
of course, was sought chiefly by engineers and the State sent them
out freely as well as free of charge and in addition paid the postage
of nearly a dollar a copy. After I left the Department an edition of
500 more copies was printed and when I last knew several years ago,
these copies were still available.
I
think Mr. Goodman may like to have a copy of this Book of Plans. Also
I can recommend the Barge Canal History as an interesting book to
anybody who is at all interested in canal affairs. Perhaps there are
parts of it which you would enjoy reading. Incidentally these two
books are excellent examples of good printing. In the case of the
history that is apparent on its face, but concerning the plans one
has to be told that, because the sheets were printed from line cuts
fastened on large wooden blocks, most careful inspection throughout
the whole process was necessary to insure the printing of every least
portion of each plate. It took the pressman a day to do what is
called “making ready” on the press each form of some eight
plates. And when the form was ready I had to hold myself in readiness
to inspect it, night or day, before the printing began.
Two
other publications should be mentioned. The report of the preliminary
Barge Canal survey, accompanied by a large case of plans, became a
classic of its kind. During Barge Canal construction the project was
made more complete by the addition of terminals at the cities along
the route and at many of the villages. The report of the commission
appointed to investigate this subject is such as to be of interest to
engineers. Then there were two reports prior to the beginning of
construction which are of interest. One is that of a Committee on
Canals, the body appointed by the Governor which formulated the canal
policy that resulted in the Barge Canal. The other is the request of
a Commerce Commission, also appointed by the Governor, to study the
canal problem.
These
several publications, which I have mentioned somewhat at length,
constitute the chief books concerning the New York canals. Of course
there have been printed many other books which have to do with
canals. The State Engineer’s annual reports alone, from the first
one, that of 1850, to the last, that of 1926, are full of matters of
considerable interest to engineers. From the eighteen-eighties on,
these reports were usually quite voluminous, from 500 to 1000 pages,
and often they contained reports on studies of the numerous problems
involved in canal building and maintenance. The first two decades of
the present century constituted a period in which much of engineering
interest was published by the State. Several departments contributed-
the State Engineer, the Superintendent of Public Works, the
Conservation Commission, the Highway Commission, the Health
Commission, the Water Supply Commission, the State Architect, and
others. In 1927 a new policy seems to have been adopted by the Public
Works Department, which had absorbed most the State engineering
activities. Perhaps it is heresy to say it, but it has seemed to me
that indifference to the public prompted this policy rather than any
desire to economize printing. Of course this policy made life easier
for the persons concerned. During the years while I was publishing
the Bulletin and writing the histories I had to take on also the work
of editing and publishing whatever was issued by the Department and
this amounted to publishing some fifty volumes. And editing and
publishing, if it is carefully done, it accuracy in maintained and
good printing is secured, is a very exacting job.
And
now, since I have written so much, more than I intended at first, I
want to say a little more- something prompted no doubt by
professional pride. To one who is not the wife of an engineer I might
not say it. Although I have done all these things which strictly are
not engineering, I am proud to say I am one of a family of engineers.
I can number an even dozen engineers or members of allied professions
in my family relationships. My father had 61 years of active
engineering experience, 57 of them on the State canals. His brother,
a graduate of Union, was both a civil and mining engineer with
considerable experience in Mexico and South America as well as many
parts of the United State, some on our New York canals. My sister
graduated from Syracuse in architecture, but mostly taught
mathematics here in high school. My brother after graduating from
Syracuse, studied three years in the School of Mines in Freiberg,
Saxony, and worked in Mexico. My son and my son in law are both
Massachusetts Tech men, one now with a large power company and the
other as air-conditioning expert with the Federal Government, my
son-in-law being the son of Geo. L. Hosmer, who until his death was
an M.I.T. professor. Mr. Goodman may know of his text books,
published under the names of Breed and Hosmer. I and four cousins
make up the dozen. Two cousins of my father’s father (one of whom
came very close to being one of the early State Engineers), one
cousin of my mother, and his son, one of my own generation, with whom
I have worked.
But
enough of this. May I just add that I am not sorry I was force into
this work. All of it should have been done. All I wrote needed to be
told to the public, and quite a lot of it might never have been told
or known otherwise. I think a better appreciation of the canals and
what they did for the State has come out of my writing and will
always continue to come out of it. One good feature of what I did
seems very apparent to me. Proceeding the Barge Canal by some four or
five years there was a canal project known as the Nine-Million-
Dollar Improvement. It blew up in a big scandal. The Barge Canal, the
largest job the State had ever undertaken up to that time, was built
without a breath of scandal. I went through both jobs and they were
equally clean. I am sure the publicity gained through the Barge Canal
Bulletin made the difference.
Then
recently I have been able to make another important contribution. In
1933 the New York State Historical Association began publication of a
10-volume history of New York State. This probably is the best
history of the State ever written. In a foreword the President of the
Association says of it, “None heretofore has covered the whole
stretch of time, none even in a particular era has covered the whole
range of human interests.” When this work was begun it became
apparent, as the editor, Dr. Alexander C. Flick, then State
Historian, says, that such a history could not be prepared by any
single individual. Consequently about a hundred persons of recognized
authority were invited to accept the responsibility for the
preparation of the various portions of the work. I had the honor of
being asked to write the chapter on “The Canal System and Its
Influences.” This gave a chance to put such facts as people should
know into a book which for untold years will be read and considered
authoritative by perhaps millions of persons. If you care to read
this you will find it as Chapter IX of Volume V. Since this volume is
called “Conquering the Wilderness,” I was not supposed to go
beyond the first half of the 19th Century in what I wrote,
but I had to trespass a little.
Just
a word in conclusion. Before the State Engineer, back in 1903 or
1904, directed me to write a history of the canals, writing was
farthest from my mind, and I had no idea I could do it. Much to my
surprise I found that I could write, and could do it in a fairly
forceful and interest-compelling way. This knowledge now has become a
real blessing to me. With engineering jobs passing me by in favor of
younger men, I find great interest in writing, greater, I think, than
I ever found in engineering, although I always delighted in that. I
have found some subjects big enough to call out the best there is in
me and I am hoping I may produce something well worthwhile. Perhaps
engineering studies would have done the same for me, but I doubt it.
Certain subject have gripped me so strongly that seldom can I tear
myself away from my office before eleven or midnight.
If I
have written too profusely, kindly pardon it. If I have written too
intimately, please forgive it. Somehow I felt moved to try to justify
my action in not sticking strictly to engineering for I used often to
feel that my associates in the Department were looking down on me as
one who was doing work inferior to theirs, something beneath serious
consideration, even though previously I had held some important
engineering positions.
Sincerely,
Nobel
E. Whitford
Office Address, 36 Wood Bldg, 201 E. Jefferson St,. Syracuse, NY
The
above is a transcript of a manuscript letter bound in with the
Cornell University’s copy of the History of the Canal System of the
State of New York. The transcription was done by Dr. John Crosby
Freeman, Watkins Glen, NY.
