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Thomas P. Roberts papers, 1827-1944

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Roberts, Thomas P. (Thomas Paschall), 1843-1924
Title
Thomas P. Roberts papers
Dates
1827-1944 (inclusive)
Quantity
2 linear feet
Collection Number
2541
Summary
The Thomas P. Roberts Papers include letters, diaries, legal and financial documents, essays, reports, printed materials, and photographs, all collected or created by Thomas Paschall Roberts. Topics include the formation and operation of the Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal Commission, the Monongahela Navigation Company, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the construction of canals, locks, railroads, and other engineering projects in the United States and Brazil.
Repository
Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections
Montana State University-Bozeman Library
Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT
59717-3320
Telephone: 4069944242
Fax: 4069942851
Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Languages
Collection materials are in English
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Biographical Note

Thomas Paschall Roberts (1843-1924) was the third son of prominent civil engineer William Milnor Roberts (1810-1881). He worked with his father as a civil engineer and enjoyed a lengthy career on his own in the same profession. He grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and attended Dickinson and State colleges. He left Dickinson State in 1863 to work in Brazil with his father, who was he was in charge of the building of Brazil's Don Pedro Railway. Following his return to the States in the fall of 1865 he took charge of surveys in Northwestern Pennsylvania for a projected railroad. In 1866 Roberts became principal assistant to his father in charge of the open-channel improvement of the entire Ohio River. From 1870 until 1884 he was engaged on or in charge of numerous railroad and waterway surveys, including the Montana Division of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Also in the early seventies he made a reconnaissance of the upper Missouri River from Fort Benton to the Three Forks, his report and map of which were published by the War Department in 1874. He surveyed the upper Monongahela River in 1875 and the Allegheny River in 1878-9. The latter half of his life was devoted almost entirely to waterway improvements and matters relating to navigation, in which he developed an unusual interest. In 1884 he became chief engineer of the Monongahela Navigation Company and when the United States Government purchased the company's plant in 1897, Roberts entered the service of the United States Engineer Department, retaining local charge of the Monongahela River improvements during the greater part of their reconstruction period until 1912, thereafter serving as consulting engineer in an advisory capacity in the United States Engineer Office at Pittsburgh.

In 1889 Thomas P. Roberts became interested in the proposed building of a canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, and in 1890 Governor Beaver appointed him chief engineer of the Ship Canal Commission of Pennsylvania to conduct the necessary surveys for determining the feasibility of the scheme. In 1894, after an intensive study of the existing conditions, the became chairman of an engineering committee designated by the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce to make a complete survey and prepare a report on the proposed canal as to its practicability. Roberts was a founding member of the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania and maintained a wide interest in scientific, social, and historical topics. He was particularly interested in the causes of the Ice Age in North America and wrote both scientific studies on the topic as well as a short novel. He married Juliette Emma Christy on June 8, 1870 and the couple had seven children: Eleanor Christy Roberts, Annie Gibson Roberts, Juliette Paschall Roberts, Laura Milnor Roberts, Thomas Paschall Roberts Jr., James Milnor Roberts, and Mary Brunot Roberts. Thomas Paschall Roberts died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 25, 1924.

Thomas Paschall Robert's father William Milnor Roberts (1810-1881) was a Pennsylvania-born civil engineer who was engaged as chief engineer for various projects in Montana, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Canada. From 1857 to 1865 he was in charge of the building of the Don Pedro Railway in Brazil. After his return to the United States Roberts was engaged on important hydraulic and railroad works, such as the improvement of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, the construction of the St. Louis Bridge, and the water supplies of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. He was also involved in surveying the route for the Northern Pacific Railroad. As a result of W.M. Roberts' engineering work in Montana, Montana State College (later Montana State University) named its engineering building Roberts Hall in his honor in 1923. He married Annie Barbara Gibson of Pennsylvania in 1837 with whom he had six children; William Milnor Roberts, Jr. (July 7, 1838), John Bannister Gibson Roberts (Feb. 1, 1841), Thomas Paschall Roberts (April 21, 1843), George Gibson Roberts (March 22, 1845), Annie Gibson Roberts (April 27, 1849), Richard Anderson Roberts (May 13, 1854), and Charles Watts Roberts (July 1857).

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Content Description

Letters, diaries, legal and financial documents, essays, reports, printed materials and photographs, all collected or created by Thomas Paschall Roberts, make up the bulk of this collection. The letters contain many sheets written to Thomas from his father and other family members and friends regarding personal matters and engineering projects, along with outgoing drafts and carbons from Thomas to colleagues and friends. The diaries are primarily those of William Milnor Roberts while he worked in Brazil from 1860 through 1865, but one kept by Thomas details his daily life in 1867 while working to improve navigation on the Ohio River. Of particular interest in the collection are the manuscript essays and reports written by Thomas and others pertaining to a wide variety of historical, scientific, and engineering topics. One of the twelve photographs in the collection is a formal portrait of Thomas taken on September 18, 1920, which includes his detailed, humorous account of its creation on the verso. Some of the correspondents and creators of materials in this collection include John Marston Goodwin and Emile Low, also prominent civil engineers. Topics include the formation and operation of the Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal Commission, the Monongahela Navigation Company, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the construction of canals, locks, railroads, and other engineering projects in the United States and Brazil.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Series 1 Letters, 1857-1944

Series 2 Diaries, 1860-1867

Series 3 Legal and Financial Documents, 1860-1913

Series 4 Essays and Reports, 1880-1944

Series 5 Printed Materials, 1841-1937

Series 6 Photographs, 1870-1933

Series 7 Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923

Acquisition Information

Letters, diaries, essays, reports, printed materials and photographs created or collected by Thomas P. Roberts were donated to Montana State University by Priscilla Thompson-Roberts, Arlington, Virginia, on August 5, 2011.

Processing Note

This collection was processed 2011 September 2

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Detailed Description of the Collection

  • 1: Letters, 1857-1944

    Letters, mostly received by Thomas P. Roberts (TPR) in the course of his professional career, along with some family exchanges. Early letters dated from 1857 to 1863 are from family members, including TPR's mother, uncle, brother, and father, William Milnor Roberts. These letters pertain to family matters and personal reflections on the war and its causes. Of particular interest is the letter from TPR's brother, John B. G. Roberts, who attended a funeral in Washington, D. C. in 1861 and mentions meeting Abraham Lincoln. Postwar letters from 1866 to 1879 are mostly from William Milnor Roberts to various parties concerning engineering projects, including the survey for the intended route of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Letters dated 1881 and beyond are from a variety of engineers and businessmen to TPR, including John Marston Goodwin and Eban Brewer. Rough drafts and carbon copies of outgoing letters from TPR cover a wide variety of topics, including family matters, engineering problems, and the naming of the engineering building at Montana State University for his father. The most recent letters concern Roberts's descendants. All have been chronologically arranged.

  • 2: Diaries, 1860-1867

    Five small manuscript diaries created by William Milnor Roberts while engaged by Brazil's Dom Pedro II for the construction of a railroad in that country. The diaries contain personal information as well as technical notes on the project. The final diary, created by WMR in 1865, is actually a small memoranda book that contains random notes composed during his voyage back to the United States after the completion of his stay in Brazil. The Thomas P. Roberts diary contains detailed entries of his day to day activities in 1867, a time when he served as an assistant engineer under his father while engaged in a comprehensive survey of the Ohio River for navigation improvement.

  • 3: Legal and Financial Documents, 1860-1913

    Contracts, financial notes, appointment certificates, and miscellaneous financial notes pertaining to Thomas P. Roberts or his father, William Milnor Roberts. Documents include partnership agreements and property settlements for WMR in his Brazilian work, court documents for lawsuits involving TPR as a witness, contracts and property statements for TPR's personal property, and miscellaneous financial receipts for business and personal expenses. All have been chronologically arranged, and oversize materials removed to Box 5 have been noted.

  • 4: Essays and Reports, 1880-1944

    Manuscript essays and reports composed by Thomas P. Roberts and others. The documents created by TPR cover a wide variety of topics, including his abiding interest in the causes of the Ice Age and its effects in North America, local history, religion, and engineering projects along the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers. TPR also gathered material dealing with his family's genealogy, and even wrote a novelette about Ice Age people. One essay, written toward the end of his life, gives TPR's views on Einstein's theory of relativity. Three additional essays, written by William Milnor Roberts, John Marston Goodwin, and Emile Low, present thoughts on engineering projects in Brazil and Pennsylvania. The essays have been arranged in chronological order, with those by TPR preceding the last three created by others.

  • 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937

    Printed reports, pamphlets, broadsides, and newspaper clippings written by Thomas P. Roberts and others, collected by TPR or his descendants. Many of the materials in this series were either written by TPR or mention him and concern engineering projects such as the Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal, the navigation exploitation of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, railroad construction, and the general topic of early American civil engineering. The first seven folders contain offprints of journal articles or pamphlets written by TPR. The following folders have been arranged in alphabetical order by the names of the creators and include serial publications that include articles written by TPR and others on the above mentioned topics. The newspaper clippings and scrapbooks are extremely fragile and have been removed for separate storage in oversize box 5. Photocopied surrogates are available for research use.

    • Description: Survey of the Monongahela River, and examination of the Louisa Fork of Sandy River. Letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting, in compliance with the river and harbor act of March 3, 1875, a report of Maj. W.E. Merrill, Corps of Engineers, on the survey of the Monongahela River, et. cetera January 25, 1876. -- Referred to the Committee on Commerce and ordered to be printed. Serial Set Vol. No. 1689, Session Vol. No.12. 44th Congress, 1st Session. H.Exec.Doc. 91.

      (Washington: GPO, 1876) [bulk of the report was written by Thomas P. Roberts and James E. Bell to Col. W. E. Merritt.]

      Container: Box 3, Folder 1
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Roberts, Thomas P. The Allegheny River

      [an address by T. P. Roberts entitled "The Allegheny River" to the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania on February 17, 1880]

      Container: Box 3, Folder 2
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Roberts, Thomas P. Prospectus of the Ohio Valley Railroad between Evansville, Indiana and Jackson, Tennessee

      (Pittsburgh: n.p., 1885)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 3
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Roberts, Thomas P. Long Distance Transportation of Natural Gas. A Paper Read Before the Society of Engineers of Western Pennsylvania, January 19, 1886

      (Pittsburgh: the Society, 1886)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 4
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Roberts, Thomas P. Address on the commercial outlets of the Great Lakes, with special reference to the proposed Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal: delivered before the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh, March 27, 1893

      (Pittsburgh: s.n., 1893)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 5
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Roberts, Thomas P. The Projected Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal

      (Boston, Damrell and Upham, 1893)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 6
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Roberts, Thomas P. ("Enlargement of the Erie Canal," article in Proceedings of the International Deep Waterways Association. 1st convention, Cleveland, Sept. 24-26, 1895

      (Cleveland, W.M. Bayne Print. Co., 1895)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 7
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Black, W. M. The United States Corps of Engineers and its relation to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Centennial Celebration of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey

      (Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 1916)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 8
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: American Society of Civil Engineers. Some notes on the location and construction of locks and movable dams on the Ohio River with particular reference to Ohio River Dam No. 18

      (S.l.: s.n., 1923)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 9
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Carnegie, Andrew, 1835-1919. Pennsylvania's industries and railroad policy: An address delivered before the legislature of Pennsylvania, at Harrisburg, on Monday evening, April 8, 1889

      (Pittsburgh: s.n., 1889)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 10
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Citizens Meetings

      [broadside announcing a public hearing by the board of Directors of the Pittsburgh, Castle Shannon and Washington Railroad on April 2, and Bethel School house April 3 to "consider and act upon the report of Thomas P. Roberts regarding various possible expansion routes of the railroad between Castle Shannon and Finleyville."]

      Container: Box 3, Folder 11
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Deisler, George F. Official program and complete history, Ohio River pageant and dedication, October 19th-25th, 1929, commemorating the completion of the Ohio River canalization from Pittsburgh to Cairo

      (Cincinnati: 1929)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 12
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Eads, James Buchanan, 1820-1887. Mississippi Jetties: : Review by James B. Eads of the report of the Board of U.S. Engineers appointed under the act of Congress approved June 19, A.D. 1878. (Washington: GPO, 1878), bound with U. S. Secretary of War. Letter from the Secretary of War, communicating, in obedience to law, the report of the board of officers appointed to examine the works in progress of construction by James B. Eads, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. January 27, 1879. -- Referred to the Committee on Commerce and ordered to be printed. Serial Set Vol. No. 1831, Session Vol. No.4, 45th Congress, 3rd Session, S.Exec.Doc. 49

      (Washington: GPO, 1879)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 13
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. Final Report of Committee on Roads, with Draft of Proposed Road Act

      (Pittsburgh, Penn., Jos. Eichbaum and Co., 1891)

      Dates: 1891
      Container: Box 3, Folder 14
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. Proceedings

      [partial]

      Dates: 1890 November
      Container: Box 3, Folder 15
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. Proceedings, 23, 6

      [includes "Floods and Means of their Prevention in our Western Rivers," by TPR]

      Dates: 1907 July
      Container: Box 3, Folder 16
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. Proceedings, 24, 4

      [includes "The Monongahela River,' by TPR]

      Dates: 1908 May
      Container: Box 3, Folder 17
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. Proceedings, 26, 2

      [includes "Floods in the River Seine," by TPR]

      Dates: 1910 March
      Container: Box 3, Folder 18
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. Proceedings, 27, 8

      [includes "Acids in the Monongahela River," by TPR]

      Dates: 1911 November
      Container: Box 3, Folder 19
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. Proceedings, 32, 16

      [includes "The Glacial Epoch," by TPR]

      Dates: 1916 October
      Container: Box 3, Folder 20
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. Proceedings, 40, 10

      [includes obituary of TPR]

      Dates: 1925 January
      Container: Box 3, Folder 21
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Great Britain. War Office. General Staff. Notes on engineer work during operations, Rev. ed.

      (London: Harrison, 1918)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 22
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. Committee on Rivers and Harbors. Report of Committee on Rivers and Harbors on encroachments upon the channels of the rivers about Pittsburgh: read at the regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Chamber, October 14th, 1889

      (Pittsburgh : Joseph Eichbaum and Co., 1889)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 23
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, et. al. Report of the joint commission of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh, Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania, Allegheny County Medical Society and Iron City Microscopical Society on the present condition and improvement of the water supply of Allegheny County

      (Pittsburgh: the Commission, 1894)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 24
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. Lake Erie and Ohio River ship canal: organization, reports of committees, and other papers approved by the Provisional Committee of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh, Pa.

      (Pittsburgh, Pa.: James M'Millan, 1894)

      Container: Box 3, Folder 25
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. Lake Erie and Ohio River ship canal: report of the Provisional Committee of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh, Pa. [special edition without appendix]

      (Pittsburgh, Pa. : Percy F. Smith, Printing and Litho Co., 1896)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 1
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: In memoriam, John Henry Galey: born February 4, 1840, died April 12, 1918

      (New York : James T. White and Co., 1921)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 2
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Lake Erie and Ohio River ship canal Company. Memoranda in re the Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal of Pennsylvania s.l.; s.n.,
      Dates: 1910
      Container: Box 4, Folder 3
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Lake Erie and Ohio River ship canal Company. Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal. Confidential

      (sn. sd.)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 4
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Lake Erie and Ohio River ship canal Company. National Charter

      (Pittsburgh, 1906)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 5
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Markham, E. M. Statistical Report of Lake Commerce Passing Through Canals at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Ontario during session of 1919 with supplementary report of commerce passing through the Detroit River

      (Washington: GPO, 1920)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 6
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Second annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company

      also Third annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company; 1841

      Dates: 1840
      Container: Box 4, Folder 7
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Fifth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company

      also Sixth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company; 1846

      Dates: 1845
      Container: Box 4, Folder 8
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Eighth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company

      also Ninth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company; 1849

      Dates: 1848
      Container: Box 4, Folder 9
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Tenth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company

      also Eleventh annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company; 1851

      Dates: 1850
      Container: Box 4, Folder 10
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Twelfth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company

      also Thirteenth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company; 1853

      Dates: 1852
      Container: Box 4, Folder 11
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Fourteenth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company

      also Fifteenth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company; 1855

      Dates: 1854
      Container: Box 4, Folder 12
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Seventeenth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company

      also Eighteenth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company; 1858

      Dates: 1857
      Container: Box 4, Folder 13
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Nineteenth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company

      also Twentieth annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company; 1860

      Dates: 1859
      Container: Box 4, Folder 14
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Twenty-first annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company

      also Twenty-second annual report of the President and managers to the Monongahela Navigation Company; 1862

      Dates: 1861
      Container: Box 4, Folder 15
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Thirty-Sixth Annual report of the Board of Managers of the Monongahela Navigation Company to the stockholders: with accompanying documents

      also Forty-Second Annual report of the Board of Managers of the Monongahela Navigation Company to the stockholders: with accompanying documents, 1882

      Dates: 1876
      Container: Box 4, Folder 16
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Monongahela Navigation Company. Forty-Fourth Annual report of the Board of Managers of the Monongahela Navigation Company to the stockholders: with accompanying documents

      also fragment of undated "Annual report to the stockholders of the Monongahela Navigation Co."

      Dates: 1884
      Container: Box 4, Folder 17
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: The Nautical Gazette, 61, 4

      [includes story on TPR and the new government steam launch T. P. Roberts, p. 58-59]

      Dates: 1906 July 26
      Container: Box 4, Folder 18
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Pennsylvania. Lake Erie and Ohio River Canal Board. The Lake Erie and Ohio River Canal

      (s.n., s.l.). [undated broadside]

      Container: Box 4, Folder 19
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Pennsylvania. Ship Canal Commission. Report of the Ship Canal Commission of Pennsylvania to the General Assembly of 1891 respecting the feasibility of a ship canal to connect the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio River

      (Harrisburg, Pa.: Ship Canal Commission of Pennsylvania ; Erie, Pa.: Printed by Dispatch Pub. Co., 1891)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 20
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Souvenir of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

      ([Pittsburgh?]: Eichbaum Press, 1898)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 21
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Stevenson, William Holmes: 1857. Report of the Lake Erie and Ohio River canal board of Pennsylvania / Filed June 28, 1917 with Hon. Martin G. Brumbaugh, governor of Pennsylvania

      (Harrisburg?, s.n., 1917)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 22
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Pittsburgh District. Aegis of an industrial empire: or, genesis of Pittsburgh Engineer District

      (Pittsburgh: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1937)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 23
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: U.S. Secretary of War. Prevention of damage by floods. Letter from the secretary of war, transmitting report of the board of officers of the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army appointed April 12, 1913, upon the most practicable and effective measures for prevention of damage by flood to works constructed for the improvement of navigation, of interference with interstate commerce, and other disastrous results thereof.

      (Washington, Govt. Print. Off. 1914)

      Container: Box 4, Folder 24
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Newspaper clipping scrapbook

      [photocopy; fragile original has been placed in Box 5, oversize material]

      Container: Box 4, Folder 25
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Newspaper clipping scrapbook

      [photocopy; fragile original has been placed in Box 5, oversize material]

      Container: Box 4, Folder 26
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Loose clippings

      [photocopies]

      Container: Box 4, Folder 27
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Scrapbook

      [removed from Series 5]

      Container: Box 5, Folder 14
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937
    • Description: Scrapbook

      [removed from Series 5]

      Dates: circa 1889
      Container: Box 5, Folder 15
      Location: 5: Printed Materials, 1841-1937

  • 6: Photographs, 1870-1933

    A formal 1912 portrait of TPR, with detailed information regarding its creation written on the back; several views of TPR with colleagues; images of TPR's stepmother and brother-in-law; an image possibly of the steam boat T.P. Roberts; several views of engineering and industrial sites in Pennsylvania.

  • 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923

    Manuscript and printed maps, including a detailed 1824 chart of the route of a Pennsylvania canal and other canals and railroads. An unidentified house plan, which may be that of TPR's home, details landscaping plants, and two later dated printed maps show early automobile routes through western Pennsylvania. Fragile oversize scrapbooks and two large printed appointment commissions are also in this series.

    • Description: "The Canal Route Between Pittsburg [sic] and Conneaut Lake"

      Charles T. Whippo, Civil Engineer- Drawn by Matthew R. Stealey. [manuscript map on linen, very fragile, 31 by 76 inches]

      Dates: 1827
      Container: Box 5, Folder 1
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Bellfontaine and Indiana Railroad Map

      [photocopy]

      Dates: 1852
      Container: Box 5, Folder 2
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Commercial Map, Lake Erie and Ohio Ship Canal
      Dates: 1896 March
      Container: Box 5, Folder 3
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Map and Profiles, Lake Erie and Ohio Ship Canal
      Dates: 1896 March
      Container: Box 5, Folder 4
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Automobile Club of Pittsburgh.. South Western Pennsylvania road map

      (Boston: Walker Lith. and Pub. Co.,1917)

      Container: Box 5, Folder 5
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Automobile Club of Pittsburgh.. South Western Pennsylvania road map

      (Boston: Walker Lith. and Pub. Co., 1923)

      Container: Box 5, Folder 6
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Lehhman, George M. Map showing location of proposed Lake Erie and Ohio River Canal and connecting waterways, east of Mississippi River. Appalachian Coal Field and Iron Ore Region.
      Container: Box 5, Folder 7
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Lehman, George M. Map showing the areas having the benefit of through water transportation. The Lake Erie and Ohio River Canal at the point of the arrow would complete the chain. It is the missing link.
      Container: Box 5, Folder 8
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Lehman, George M. The Lake Erie and Ohio River Canal Board; Beaver-Mahoning-Grand River Tourte. Drainage areas; storage reservoir on summit and line of canal as recently proposed by the District and Division of Engineers, U.S. Army.
      Container: Box 5, Folder 9
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Steamer Sprague and Tow

      [blueprint]

      Dates: 1908
      Container: Box 5, Folder 10
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923
    • Description: Hand drawn house plan
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box 5, Folder 11
      Location: 7: Maps and Oversize Materials, 1827-1923

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Americans--Brazil--Diaries
  • Civil engineering--Brazil
  • Civil engineering--United States
  • Civil engineers--Brazil
  • Civil engineers--United States
  • Geology, Stratigraphic--Pleistocene
  • Inland navigation--United States
  • Railroads--Brazil--Design and construction

Personal Names

  • Goodwin, John M.
  • Low, Emile
  • Roberts, Thomas P. (Thomas Paschall), 1843-1924--Archives
  • Roberts, W. Milnor (William Milnor), 1810-1881
  • Roberts, W. Milnor (William Milnor), 1810-1881--Diaries

Corporate Names

  • Estrada de Ferro Dom Pedro II (Brazil)
  • Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal Commission
  • Monongahela Navigation Company
  • Northern Pacific Railroad Company
  • Ship Canal Commission of Pennsylvania
  • United States. Army. Corps of Engineers

Family Names

  • Roberts family--Correspondence

Geographical Names

  • Brazil--Description and travel
  • Monongahela River (W. Va. and Pa.)--Navigation
  • Ohio River--Navigation

Kim Allen Scott, 2011. Updated by Heather Mulliner, 2022.
2022

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