Home Ohio Memory Collection Om259_1095769_104

Reference URL

Add tags

Comment

Save to favorites

To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed the entire object, paste this HTML in website

To link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Canal Lock Drawings

you wish to report:

Your comment:

Your Name:

Submit

Cancel

...

Title	Canal Lock Drawings
Subject	Transportation Science and Technology Architecture Geography and Natural Resources Canals Locks (Hydraulic engineering) Drawings
Place	Akron (Ohio) Summit County (Ohio)
Description	Richard Howe, an engineer on the Ohio and Erie Canal, created these drawings of canal locks. To navigate the different elevations of the natural terrain, canals were built with locks. The structure consisted of two gated areas in the canal. When a boat entered the lock, the gate would close behind it and the water level would be raised, floating the boat to the higher elevation. When the water level inside the lock equaled that on the other side of the gate, the boat would be released. These drawings range from 13" x 15.75" (33 x 40 cm) to 19.25" x 21" (49 x 53 cm). The Ohio and Erie Canal was built to connect Lake Erie at Cleveland with the Ohio River at Portsmouth in order to provide transportation and promote the state's economic development. Construction began in 1825, and the canal was officially opened between Cleveland and Akron on July 4, 1827. The entire canal was 308 miles long and required 146 locks. After 1850, canal use and maintenance declined as the use of railroad transportation increased. Engineer Richard Howe (1799-1872) became one of the first settlers of Akron in 1829. Born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, he came to Ohio in 1812 with his widowed mother and six brothers and sisters. They settled at Franklinton, near Columbus. Lucas Sullivant, a wealthy landowner in Franklinton, later adopted Richard Howe. Sullivant gave Howe his first job, which was to survey and locate a road from Columbus to Cincinnati. When the first board of engineers was organized in 1824 to survey and locate a canal, Howe was selected as one of its members and he retained his position as civil engineer from 1824 to 1850, attaining the rank of president engineer. He was responsible for surveying and mapping of the Ohio and Erie Canal between Cleveland and Massillon. Howe resigned as canal engineer and went west to California to join the gold rush in 1850, along with about 400 Akron residents who left for the gold fields. He did not find gold, but was appointed as deputy surveyor for the state of California. Howe returned to Ohio in 1863 and, in the employ of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, & St. Louis Railroad, superintended the construction of the bridge across the Ohio River at Steubenville. Richard Howe remained in Ohio until his death. His home in Akron, built in 1836, is the oldest brick building in the city. The Richard Howe Canal Collection is comprised of a number of handwritten notebooks containing notes on canal water measurements, observations of canals, and accounting information. Also present are maps, measured drawings of locks and bridges, a survey of the Miami River, drainage basin, correspondence and some later printed items. The bulk of the materials date from the 1830s through the 1840s.
Creator	Howe, Richard, 1799-1872
Date of Original	1830 - 1850 circa
Collection	Richard Howe Canal Collection
Source	Audiovisual material Box 3
Submitting Institution	Kent State University
Type	StillImage
Format	picture

Title	Om259_1095769_104
Rights	For rights and reproduction requests, go to the Ohio Historical Society's Audiovisual and Graphic Reproduction Services page at http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/audiovis/photodup.html; Online access is provided for research purposes only. For rights and reproduction requests or more information, go to http://www.ohiohistory.org/images/information
File Name	Om259_1095769_104.tif
Image Height	10523
Image Width	7627
File Size	16050.618 KB
Full Text	Scale 8 feet to an inch

Find results with:

Searching collections:

Home Ohio Memory Collection Om259_1095769_104

Canal Lock Drawings

Object Description

Description

Tags

Comments

Canal Lock Drawings

Canal Lock Drawings

	All
	Pages Enter page numbers or page ranges separated by commas. For example: 1,3,5-12