New York State Engineer and Surveyor Barge Canal Construction Photographs

Numerical by contract number, then chronological by date of photo and numerical by negative number.

11833-06: Numerical by negative number.

These photographs appear to have been submitted to the State Engineer and Surveyor by the Board of Consulting Engineers, a board of five civil engineers appointed to follow the progress of work on the canal system and to report on it to the State Engineer and Surveyor. Photographs were taken at the end of each month just before monthly cost estimates of work to be done were made.

Photographs show: canals; locks; dams; bridges; piers; nearby buildings; damages needing repair; dredging, excavation, repairs, and construction work in progress; culverts; and canal-specific fixtures (i.e., lights). Included are photographs of Barge Canal terminal structures in Buffalo. Terminal images include most larger towns and cities seviced by the canal system, and houses along the rights-of-way. Captions typed or written on most photographs provide: date of photograph; negative number; contract number; and location.

11833-06: This accretion consists of microfilmed black and white photographs taken during the construction of the Barge Canal. The Barge Canal was built between 1905 and 1918 throughout New York State. Most of these photographs concentrate on townships along the canal in central and western New York State. The photographs show the construction of the canal, bridges, excavation and embankments along the canal, buildings of the towns, locks, and dams. Each of the captions includes a brief description of the photograph, the date the photograph was taken, the contract number, and the negative number. There are indexes to some of the contracts mentioned included in the microfilm reels.

High resolution images of selected original documents in this series are available in State Archives Digital Collections.

B1909 Barge Canal Photographs, contains related records

B0728 Index to Glass Plate Negatives Depicting Construction of the Western Division of the Barge Canal, is an index to the negatives for several contracts in this series

B0727 Glass Plate Negatives Depicting Construction of the Western Division of the Barge Canal, contains negatives for prints in this series and additional negatives that were not printed.

The Canal Research Collection at the Onondaga Historical Association contains related material.

Item list is available at the repository.

11833-06: Reel list is available at the repository.

11833-97: Accessions 11833-77 and 11833-85 were combined by Archives staff in 1997 to reestablish original order, and now form this accession.

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