Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82034660
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The records of the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company were acquired by the Library of Congress in 1944 via an exchange with Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., and by gift of the Chase Safe Deposit Company of New York, N.Y., in 1951.
The collection was housed circa 1951. The finding aid was created in 2000 and revised in 2012.
Fifteen maps have been transferred to the Library's Geography and Map Division where they are identified as part of these records.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The records of the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Nicaragua Canal Construction Company Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The records of the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company span the years 1887-1913, with the bulk of the material dated 1887-1888. The company, a commercial, non-governmental enterprise, was formed in 1886 with the intention of constructing a trans-Isthmian canal across Central America. Hydrographic and topographic survey teams were organized and dispatched to Nicaragua, where they investigated the routes of waterways, charted depths, and measured tidal influences. These records consist primarily of survey notes taken during these expeditions. The notebooks detail the teams’ findings concerning the rivers Brito, Colorado, Deseado, Indio, Las Lajas, San Carlos, San Francisco, San Juanillo, and Tauro. Soundings were also taken at Greytown and the Tamborcito basin.
Geographic place names have changed since the 1880s and several of the place names used by the survey teams to label their notebooks are no longer used. This finding aid lists the place names as used by the survey teams, not their modern equivalents. Greytown is now San Juan del Norte. The Tamborcito basin is now the Isla de la California. The rivers, or rios, Deseado, San Juanillo and San Francisco are now called creeks, or caños; the Deseado is now El Deseado. The Rio Tauro listed by the survey teams may refer to the modern Rio de la Tawa (also called Tagua); the river or area labeled “Ochoa” is unknown. *
These records also include issues of the
*Information concerning place names is taken from the findings of the United States Board on Geographic Names as published in the
This collection is arranged by type of material and geographic location.
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82034660