American Canal Society Archives - The American Canal Society

Canal Index Project

The Canal Index project was begun in the in the early days of the American Canal Society. It is kind of a wonky title, but the goal was to create a file or index of all the remaining canal structures, or to document the traces of canals that were disappearing under construction projects.

To learn more about it I went back into the ACS archives. In American Canals issue number 3, dated November 1972, the leadership of the society introduced the idea of a Canal Index Committee, where canals and structures would be inventoried and recorded on 5 by 8 index cards. In the next issue of American Canals a blank form was included with the hopes that the membership would be willing to contribute to the project. The article states that “in coordinating the vast amount of work done by individuals and canal societies throughout North America, it will serve, in published form, as basis for further research (archaeological or otherwise), for restoration/preservation activities, or simply as a form of brief guide for an enthusiast on a days outing.” You can tell that the founders were engineers.

The committee did create hundreds of records. In issue 14, they reported that the group had indexed all the submissions received so far on IBM keypunch cards and that they could generate a list nearly six feet in length. The next mention I could find was in issue 54, August 1985, where committee-chair Terry Woods notes that most of the Ohio and Pennsylvania canals had been surveyed and recorded, but New York and New Jersey had not.

The records that were generated are all available on the ACS website as pdf files. Look under the By States, and Other Countries drop down tabs. Although little has been done with the sheets since the late 80s, they do provide a remarkable record of what was there at the time. Over the years many of these sites have degraded or been lost.

It has been almost fifty years since the project was started and certainly there have been changes. I have long thought that it would be a nice project to add to the files and update what we have. We have a fillable-pdf form to make the recording of information a bit easier, and you can find this under the By State tab. So if you enjoy researching old canal structures, think about recording some information about them so that canal historians in the future can benefit from your explorations and discoveries.

The 1830 Map of North American Canals

The other day I was transcribing some old newspaper articles which may or may not be used as space filler in the American Canals newsletter, and I ran across a mention of the Conewango canal. According to the newspaper, it was supposedly connected to Seneca Lake in New York. As I had never heard of this canal, I did what everyone does and Googled it, and thus I happened upon George Armroyd’s 1830 book; A Connected View of the Whole Internal Navigation of the United State; Natural and Artificial, Present and Prospective, with A Sheet Map.

Since the book is no longer copyright protected, I will allow the author to explain a bit about his book;

“This work was undertaken in the summer of 1825, and has since been added to, as new matter from time to time has occurred for insertion. The immediate object of it is, to present as clear and distinct a view as possible, of the past progress, and present state, of a particular class of improvements, whereof an enumeration at large, with detail of circumstances, is here at tempted to be given; and, by inference, the present state and prospects of the country viewed in relation to that class of improvements, and their advancement towards a state of perfection in the internal intercourse of the whole nation.”

Or in short, the 1830 edition is an update of the 1825 edition. What follows is a 600 page listing of the state of canals in North America in 1830. There is information about every canal in the country, be it real, or possibly someone’s dream.

The book is available as a pdf download (click on the title above), and it is certainly worth doing so as I have found that books sometimes disappear as free downloads and show up as pay for print copies. There is also a mention of a map, and since Google Books doesn’t take the time to unfold and scan maps and prints, I went looking for Armroyd’s map. At first, I tried to find a copy of his book, but the internet only offers reprints. However, I was able to find a copy on the David Rumsey Map Collection. And delightfully, you can download a version of the map which I have included here.

As you can see, it is an fantastic record of canals and navigation’s in 1830. The author explained;

“The connection is designated in the map of the United States, by coloured lines, traced from point to point of one river to another, where such canals of connection already exist, or are in contemplation ; exhibiting, in consequence, (with the aid of some of the great river courses themselves,) one continuous, uninterrupted Inland Navigation, from sea to sea —from the ports of outlet and inlet on the Atlantic, through the country, and by a variety of routes, to the ports of the Gulf of Mexico.

“The Red coloured lines represent those canal works that are already finished, or well advanced ; the Yellow lines, those that are either not yet commenced, or, if commenced, not as yet actively prosecuted. All which is attempted to be explained at the proper heads of the subject in this book.

“The letters N, A, M, prefixed, one or other, at each of the articles, signify Natural, Artificial, or Mixed, in reference to the kind of navigation comprised in that article.

“The articles of canal works are numbered consecutively throughout, beginning at New-England, and ending at Florida, from No. 1 to No. 159.

“At the end of each division, into which the United States is here reduced, a summary is given of the Navigation, natural and artificial, comprised within the same, and at the end of the whole description, is given, a recapitulation, and grand summary, for the whole United States.”

This map is a nice companion to the 1905 Whitford map that I have shared prior. With Armroyd, you get all of what was possible in the mind of man, and with Whitford, you see what was actually accomplished.

Canal Index Sheets and Site Updates

One of the great strengths of this website is the amount of information that has been made available. The American Canal Society doesn’t have a physical archives space, in fact that was a major issue when David Barber passed away was that his widow had to determine what would happen to his extensive collection of canal materials. Over the years, David had uploaded thousands of pages of information, mostly useful to the canal historian and researcher. When we moved the website, much of this material was lost as the links no longer worked. So I have been reloading these links as I find the non-functioning pages.

If you have never taken the time to check your states index sheets, go look and if you see something missing, consider adding to the collection. They are listed by state in the By State or Other Countries drop down menus.

I have also added more boat rides and I continue to work on the canal parks. There is so much out there to explore. Let me know if you see something that I have missed.