Rare Books
Thirteen papers in support of Mr. Helper's scheme for constructing a longitudinal double-track steel railway through North and Central and South America
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Hinton R. Helper letter to Harper & Row, Publishers
Manuscripts
The letter is an inquiry as to whether Harper and Brothers (now Harper & Row) would be interested in publishing Helper's manuscript on California, then titled "Nojoque; or Eureka Rambles and Southern Rights." In the letter, Helper proposes terms for publication and explains that his manuscript is intended to disabuse readers of any idealistic and romantic impressions they might have of California. The book was eventually published privately for Helper in Baltimore under the title "The Land of Gold: Reality Versus Fiction."
mssHM 69815
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Honduras Interoceanic Railway Company, Limited, Incorporated March 26, 1857, With limited Liability, Under The Joint Stock Companies's Act, 1856 : For The Construction And Working Of A Railway Between The Atlantic And Pacific Oceans, Through The State of Honduras, Central America
Rare Books
70006
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[in manila envelope with Item 2 below] "Proposed Construction by Mexican Government of Railroad from Terminus of Inter-California Southern Railway to the Gulf. Possible Sale Inter-California to Mexican Government. Possible Abandonment I.C.S." File No. 080-2, Part 2. From (~1.25"). Mexican government apparently wanted to buy this line from the SP, but didn't have cash. SP proposed a trade of Mexican fuel oil, enough to meet the SPM's 700,000 barrel-per-year needs, for some period of years, in exchange. It appears that govt. finally decided to take line in exchange for paying 2% of gross receipts to the ICS (and thus to the SPM), after several other creative (and apparently unsuccessful) proposals. Apparently labor issues were a key factor in the relinquishing of this line, and considerable railroad labor discussion and detail is included herein. Other items include a letter from Walter Douglas to Obregón about the ICS, dated 5/13/39; a curt letter from Walter Douglas to A.D. McDonald in NY that notes that "Mr. Guy Shoup seems to be disturbed over the fact that the ICS has no right of way through the Andrade Lands, title to which seems still to be in litigation... I can see no reason for going to this expense at this time. So far as the Southern Pacific of Mexico is concerned, our tracks pass over hundreds of kilometers of lands to which we have no legal title, and I don't see any reason why in the case of the ICS any additional cost should be incurred by purchasing a right of way from which we will probably never be disturbed. We have written to Mr. Shoup to this effect...." Very rare to see this kind of candidness from the SP in any of published material on them! Most of their corporate records have very carefully excised or hidden this type of admission... and one reason the SPM's records are such a great hook into the parent SP corporation
Manuscripts
These materials, consisting primarily of correspondence but also including maps, news clippings, photographs, and blueprints, are arranged and bound by topic according to the Southern Pacific's internal organizational schema. There are 160 individual bound items in these 23 boxes. Each grouping is in reverse chronological order as it was originally filed by SP de México administrators. Collection has material in English and Spanish.
mssSPdeMéxicocollection