Kaaterskill Books

Unrecorded Broadside of a Great American Canal

[Delaware and Hudson Canal Company].

[Broadside] "The following rules, regulations and by-laws are to be observed by all persons using or navigating the Del. & Hud. Canal".

n.p. 1894. 1 sheet. 24 x 14 1/4 inches. First edition. A very good copy, with some edgewear and staining in the margins. Item #46365

Text in three columns bordered in black. A few decorations, small illustration of canal boat pulled by three horses at masthead.

The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first canal in the U.S. built as a private enterprise, becoming America’s first long-distance transportation route chartered by the states of Pennsylvania and New York in 1823, with construction starting in 1825 using Irish and German immigrants for labor. It was a leader in new technologies, using the first telegraph system in America, and the first to run a commercial steam locomotive on tracks in the Western Hemisphere. In 1825, its stock was offered, and it was soon capitalized at one million dollars; by 1848, it was likely the nation's largest private corporation. The 108-mile route from Pennsylvania to New York wound through a narrow valley between the Shawangunk Ridge and the Catskill Mountains,on to the Hudson River near Kingston, and opened up NYC for anthracite coal. During the 1840's it rapidly expanded, increasing its capacity from 200,000 tons to one million tons of coal annually, and employing John A. Roebling to work on four suspension aqueducts among its many innovations. Though it was one of the few canals to remain profitable until it closed in 1898, it had by then been supplanted by railroads.

Signed in print by R.M. [Robert Morrison] Olyphant (1824-1918), an American businessman active in New York City and China in the late 19th century. He served as president of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad for 20 years after returning from his activities in the China trade.

Rare. Apparently unrecorded. We could locate no copies in any library catalogues.

Price: $750.00