Research: Topics: Environment: Preliminary Guide to Environmental Sources
Preliminary Guide to Environmental Sources
Historical Records Repositories in Other States
Historical Collections and Labor Archives. Pennsylvania State University.
University Park, Pennsylvania
- Susquehanna Inter-League Council. Susquehanna River Basin compact
papers, 1959 1981
1.4 cubic ft.The collection consists of correspondence, meeting agendas and minutes, transcribed testimony before the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Senate subcommittees, the newsletter Susquehanna currents (June 1962-July 1964), reports from government agencies about the water quality of the river, and copies of legislation on the Susquehanna River Basin compact. The Susquehanna Inter-League Council of the League of Women Voters formed in 1961 to keep pace with a developing interest in the Susquehanna River and to influence the decisions made in the Basin concerning its water resources. Membership consisted of four leagues in New York, eleven in Pennsylvania, and one in Maryland plus the three state leagues. The Council concerned itself with pollution from agriculture and industry, flood damage, and uniform interstate regulations in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
Institute Archives and Special Collections, M.I.T.Libraries, Rm.14N-118.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- Freeman, John Ripley, 1855-1932. Papers, 1827-1955.
129.5 cubic ft. (129 records cartons) and (1 oversize box)
There are no restrictions on access to this collection.
Retrieval requires advance notice.John Ripley Freeman, 1855-1932, B.S. 1876, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was an internationally known hydraulics engineer who served as a consultant on water power, river control, water supply, and allied problems of sanitary and hydraulic engineering. After graduating from MIT he worked at the Essex Company, a water power company in Lawrence, Mass. He then joined the Associated Factory Mutual Fire Companies, beginning as an engineer and special inspector in 1886, and rising to president in 1896, where he remained until his death. Freeman combined his roles as engineer and insurance executive and wrote extensively on the issue of fire prevention, and the role of design and construction in avoiding loss of life and property from earthquakes. During his years at Associated, he also consulted widely in the United States and abroad on many water and power supply projects. He served on government advisory committees, including one about the problems of dam and lock foundations and earth slides for the Panama Canal. He was active during World War I as a member of the National Advisory Board on Aeronautics. Freeman was a member of the MIT Corporation, 1893-1932.
The collection documents Freeman's activities as a consulting engineer for almost sixty years, 1876-1932. Project files containing correspondence, photographs, drafts and published reports, maps, diaries, computation and data, clippings, reprints and transcripts of testimony record his work on over 100 projects in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Panama including: the Keokuk Dam in Iowa; the Great Lakes Study for the Chicago Sanitary District; the Charles River Dam and Metropolitan Water Board in Boston, Mass.; a study of the Catawba Dam failure in North Carolina; improvement of the Grand Canal and prevention of floods on the Yellow and Hwai Rivers in China; and eight major projects in California, including the construction of the Hetch Hetchy Dam. Reports, data, correspondence and notes document his studies and investigations for the Associated Factory Mutual Fire Insurance Companies; also included are reports and correspondence, drawings, notes, and photographs about his studies on the site and construction for a new MIT campus in Cambridge, Mass. Correspondence, minutes, and reports reveal his activities on the Board of Visitors to the National Bureau of Standards, as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics during World War I, and as a consultant to the National Research Council, as well as in many local New England government and civic organizations. Additional materials record Freeman's promotion of German-American intellectual exchange and influence of these exchanges on engineering in the United States, 1910-1932; his involvement in hydraulics research and hydraulic laboratories; activities in fire prevention and earthquake engineering; and mining speculation and other investment practices.
Subjects: New York (City) Board of Water Supply. New York (State) Water Supply Commission.
Finding aids: Finding aid available.
