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Victor Darnell was a pioneering student of American civil engineering. A 1943 graduate of MIT, Mr. Darnell spent thirty-one years, most of that time as chief engineer, working for the Berlin Steel Construction Corporation, in Connecticut. He understood, as only a practitioner can, exactly how the bridges that became his chief interest worked and how nineteenth-century engineers understood the language of iron, steel, and stress.

Over the years, Mr. Darnell assembled a collection documenting the practice of structural and civil engineering in nineteenth-century America-one of the most complete such collections in private hands anywhere. In 1993 he generously offered the Burndy Library the gift of his collection once he had finished his research. Early in 1999, the Library received the sad news that Mr. Darnell had died. His books and papers then made the journey from his Connecticut home to Cambridge.

Numbering in the thousands of items, the collection is one of remarkable richness and depth. It is no exaggeration to say that it takes the Burndy's collections in the history of engineering to an entirely new level.

Rich in both primary and secondary books, including such essential resources as a nearly complete run of Engineering News from its founding in 1874 to 1920, the collection also contains much ephemera and unique material. This ranges from photographs and broadsides issued by bridge building companies, to design books, catalogues, advertising magazines, and working blueprints.

The collection's main focus is on American bridges and engineering, but there is a substantial amount of material from Britain and continental Europe as well. Of equal value for scholars of engineering are Mr. Darnell's files and notes, which he generously included in the gift. In the course of preparing A Directory of American Bridge-building Companies, 1840-1900, published by the Society for Industrial Archeology in 1984, Mr. Darnell assembled comprehensive documentation of over sixty years of American civil engineering. Among the research materials necessary for that work, and now present at the Burndy, are copies of nearly all American bridge patents through 1900, with a calendar and index of patentees. Since Mr. Darnellcontinued adding new information to his notes and files long after the book was published, the files are an essential supplement to the printed book.

What comes across most strongly in Mr. Darnell's letters is a rare combination of enthusiasm and modesty. He attached no restrictions to his gift and, at the end of a letter in which he offered a thumbnail inventory of the collection, listing one rare and important group after another, asked simply: "What is your frank, unvarnished opinion of all the stuff? Are there any items that bother you? " No, Mr. Darnell; there most certainly are not.