Collection search - Samuel Keefer fonds [textual record, graphic material]

Record information – Brief
1
Samuel Keefer fonds [textual record, graphic material]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1834-1882.

Reference:

R7331-0-X-E, MG29-A2

Type of material:

Textual material, Art, Photographs

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

97861

Context of this record:

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Samuel Keefer fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

6 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1834-1882.

Place of creation:

Canada

Extent:

5.7 cm of textual records (269 p.).
2 paintings: oil on canvas;
1 photograph: b&w 8 x 10?.
Positive Paper Silver - albumen

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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Fonds consists of a Cornwall Canal engineer's log-book, 1834-1838 (Volume 1); engineering miscellanea, including an indexed notebook and correspondence covering a range of subjects related to railways, the Niagara suspension bridge, canals and waterworks in Canada, 1852-1878; and a treatise derived from Keefer's work on the Royal Commission on the Canadian Pacific Railway, ca. 1882.

The fonds also includes a photographic portrait of Samuel Keefer, as well as two oil paintings commissioned by Keefer in 1844 from the Cincinnati artist Godfrey N. Frankenstein, showing the Union Bridges from the downstream side of the Ottawa river.

Provenance:

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Keefer, Samuel, 1811-1890

Additional name(s):

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Canadian Pacific Railway Company

Biography/Administrative history:

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Keefer, Samuel, 1811-1890 : Samuel Keefer was born in 1811 at Thorold, Ontario and died at Brockville, 7 Janurary 1890. He served his apprenticeship as a civil engineer, with the Welland Canal Company from 1827 to 1833; this included an interruption of two years at Upper Canada College. From 1834 to 1838, he was assistant engineer on the Cornwall Canal project. In 1839 he was appointed secretary to the newly established Board of Works for Lower Canada. In 1841, he became Chief Engineer to the Board of Works for the united province of Canada (Department of Public Works, after 1846). Keefer designed the suspension bridge over the Chaudiere Falls at Ottawa, 1844, and oversaw much of the canal work on the St. Lawrence in the 1840s and early 1850s. In 1853, he became a resident engineer on a division of the Grand Trunk Railway, however, in 1857, he returned to the public service as first inspector of railroads, to which the duties of Deputy Commissioner of Public Works were added in 1859. In 1859, he took over control of the building of the Parliment Buildings, but cost overruns forced his resignation in 1864.

Keefer retired to private practice and his later achievements included the 1869 construction of the second suspension bridge across the Niagara gorge, which was the longest bridge of its kind in the world. In 1880, he was appointed to the Royal Commission of enquiry into the affairs of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

See also; Dictionary of Canadian Biography; and The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1985.

Finding aid:

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(No finding aid)

Additional information:

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General note:

Volumes 2 and 3 of this unit were acquired by the National Archives in 1960, and volume 1 in 1972. Volume 1 was at first catalogued in the now disbanded Keefer Collection (formerly MG 24 I 106), from which it was transferred to its present location in 1986.

Custodial history:

The two oil paintings and the photographic portrait of Samuel Keefer were donated to the Archives in 1941 by Miss Helen Sherwood, who in a letter of May 14, 1941, gave the provenance as follows: "In my possession are two pictures of the first suspension bridge that was built over the Chaudiere Falls at Ottawa 1843-44. They were painted for Mr. Samuel Keefer the engineer in charge of the building of it. He presented the pictures to his father-in-law, the Hon. George Crawford (my Grandfather) and they in turn were passed on to me."
Subject heading:

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Great Western Railway Company (Canada)

Canada. Dept. of Public Works

Railroads - United States, 1852-1878 Welland Canal Company, 1827-1833

Railroads - Europe, 1834-1838 Cornwall Canal, 1834-1838

Civil engineers - Correspondence, [1934-[ca.1882]] Niagara Suspension Bridge, 1852-1878

Civil engineers - Canada, [1934-[ca.1882]] Royal Commission on the Canadian Pacific Railway, 1882

Railroads - Surveying, 1870-1880 Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada, 1853-1857

Civil engineers - Diaries, [ca.1882] St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad Company, 1852-1878

Lower Canada. Board of Works, 1839-1841
Source:

Private

Former archival reference no.:

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MG29-A2

Other accession no.:

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1941-088 NPC
1941-089 PIC
1941-090 PIC
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Textual records

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Graphic (art)

[Consultation33 Restricted by custodian]
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Graphic (photo)

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