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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

United States. War Dept. Reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean made under the Secretary of War, in 1853-5...

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04963.12.01 Author/Creator: United States. War Dept. Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Book Date: 1860 Pagination: 1 v. : 358 p. : plates ; 30 x 24.5 cm. Order a Copy

Title continues "according to Acts of Congress of March 3, 1853, May 31, 1854, and August 5, 1854." First of two volumes. Volume includes part one and the appendices of Washington Territory Governor Isaac I. Stevens' report on the route near the 47th and 49th parallels. Executive document no. 56. Large folio volume with modern leather binding. Inscription on contents page reads "Property of Geo. T. Monk."

The reports of the Pacific Railroad surveys were prepared under the direct supervision of the Engineer Department. The volumes dealing with the soil, climate, geology, botany and zoology of the regions surveyed were edited and revised by Professors Henry and Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution. cf. Ingersoll, Hist. of the War Department. 1879, p. 292-293.

United States. War Department
Henry, Joseph, 1797-1878
Baird, Spencer Fullerton, 1823-1887
Stevens, Isaac Ingalls, 1818-1862

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