Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
On the antiquity and invention of the lock canal of Exeter
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Rare Books
277076
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Visual Materials
A group of images documenting the failed attempt by the French government to complete the Panama Canal in the 1880s. Many of the images depict the last few months of construction before Ferdinand de Lessepes and his compatriots ran out of money and dissolved the company. The collection shows the lock construction including detailed images of workers in the canal cuts, heavy machinery, rail lines along the cuts, worker housing, and the terrain.
photCL 462
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Visual Materials
The Aswan Dam Photographs collection contains 28 albums containing more than 1750 black-and-white photographs (most approximately 8 x 10 in. format), documenting the construction of the first Aswan Dam and Asyut Barrage from 1899 to 1902, the first dam heightening from 1907 to 1912, the Isna Barrage from 1907 to 1909, and the second heightening from 1930 to 1933. The images chiefly chronicle progress at the construction sites and depict laborers, masonry work, excavating, the transportation of materials and equipment, and the building of the locks, buttresses, gates, canals, and bridges, with many views of the Nile River. In addition there are images of repairs to the temple at Philae (in Albums 1, 3b, 4, and 12), and some photographs of ceremonies including the H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught laying the foundation stone on February 29, 1908 (Album 10, pages 8-9), and the laying of the final stone with Abbas II Hilmi, the Khedive of Egypt, on February 9, 1909 (Album 5, page 24).The collection consists of both nondescript albums with affixed photographs accompanied by typed or handwritten captions, as well as more formal presentation albums, which include inscriptions of W. L. Lowe Brown, resident engineer at the Asyut Barrage (Album 1); John Aird, whose company constructed the dam (Albums 2, 6, and 8) Murdoch MacDonald, chief engineer beginning in 1902 (Album 3); While most of the albums are limited to photographs and captions, Album 1 and 2 have an eight-page printed preface by William E. Garstin and Albums 5 and 6 have two introductory pages of printed explanatory notes by Murdoch MacDonald. Photographers engaged in documenting the construction and heightening projects were D.S. George (construction of the Aswan Dam and first heightening), F. Fiorillo (first heightening), A. Gianny (viewing of Aswan Dam), A. Marques (first heightening), and other unidentified photographers. Within the materials, there are variant spellings of Aswan including Assuan and Asswan.
photCL Burndy 1
