Family and business papers of Loammi Baldwin and his son Loammi Baldwin, Jr., engineers of Woburn, Massachusetts.
This collection contains family deeds dating to the seventeenth century, but the bulk of the materials lies between 1785 and 1835. The papers include 479 maps and considerable correspondence between members of the Baldwin family. James Fowle Baldwin was superintendent for construction of the Boston and Lowell Railroad and, as a state senator, served on a commission to investigate sources of pure water for Boston. George Rumford Baldwin (b. 1798) constructed the canal between the Alatamaha and Turtle Rivers in Georgia. The correspondence of Loammi Baldwin, Jr., contains letters from Secretaries of the Navy, governors of Massachusetts, Boston officials, and incorporators of the early canals and railroads. Drafts of his replies, reports, engineering estimates, printed materials, and accounts are among the papers.
Loammi Baldwin (1745-1807) was Colonel of the 26th Continental Infantry in the Revolution, serving around Boston and New York until his discharge on account of poor health in 1777. After the war, Baldwin was sheriff of Middlesex County and was elected to the state legislature for two terms. His diverse talents are reflected in his work as surveyor and engineer on the Middlesex Canal (connecting the Charles and Merrimack Rivers), and his development of a popular variety of apple that was named after him. Baldwin was a boyhood friend and later correspondent of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford.
Loammi Baldwin, Jr. (1780-1838), 'the father of civil engineering in America,' built Fort Strong in Boston Harbor, designed the Bunker Hill monument, and was city engineer for Boston. He constructed the Union Canal from Reading to Middletown, Pennsylvania, and the navy yards at Charleston, South Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia.
