New York State Department of Public Works Employee History Cards

Alphabetical by last name within chronological and topical groupings.

B1418-94: Organized into three sub-series: 1) central office and highway employees, ca. 1901-1934 (6 card file boxes); 2) canal employees, ca. 1915-1937 (bulk ca. 1924-1937) (11 card file boxes); 3) highway employees, ca. 1908-1941 (bulk ca. 1924-1941) (6 card file boxes).

The series consists of card files documenting the employment history of individuals who worked in the Department of the State Engineer and Surveyor and the successor Department of Public Works, including the central offices in Albany and the Division of Canals and Waterways and Division of Highways. There are also cards for employees of the Department of Highways, which was a separate agency during the period 1908-1923. Cards change in style over the years, but typically contain the following information: name of employee; address of employee; assignment (district/region number, prior labor service); dates when appointed, reappointed, resigned, or terminated; position title or rank; and salary (by date/hour/year). Both full-time and seasonal employees are included.

Information on the printed cards is in both typescript (headers) and manuscript (cumulative entries as positions change). There are no employee signatures or dates of birth; a date of death appears very rarely, as a cause of leaving employment.

B1418-05: This accretion documents workers on the canal system in the Utica-Rome area (including the Hinckley Reservoir) during the period of Barge Canal construction, ca. 1910-1918 (1 card file box). The records consist of slips prepared when an employee was hired. The slips contain information on employee name and address, job title and wages, and reason for leaving. The slips performed a function similar to that of the employee history cards.

B1418-05: This accession resulted from a project by State Archives staff in 2005 to identify, describe, and accession previously unaccessioned series.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.