Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Archives and Special Collections
Guide to the Papers of Loammi Baldwin (1780-1838)
MC.0069
Table of Contents
Summary Information
- Repository
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Archives and Special Collections
- Creator -
- Baldwin, Loammi, 1780-1838
- Title
- Loammi Baldwin papers
- ID
- MC.0069
- Date [bulk]
- Bulk, 1827-1833
- Date [inclusive]
- 1824-1916
- Extent
- 1.4 cubic feet (1 legal manuscript box, 7 volumes)
- Location
- Materials are stored off-site. Advance notice is required for use.
- Language
- English
- Abstract
- Loammi Baldwin, 1780-1838, was a civil engineer whose projects included canal construction and harbor improvement, railroads, water power projects, and city water supplies. The collection includes correspondence, reports, tide tables, cost estimates, drawings, notes, computations, and court records describing Baldwin's design and construction of dry docks for the United States Navy at Charlestown, Massachustts, and Gosport (Norfolk), Virginia. Project materials date from between 1827 and 1834.
Citation
Loammi Baldwin Papers, MC 69, box X. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Biography
Loammi Baldwin, 1780-1838, class of 1800, Harvard College, was a lawyer and later a civil engineer whose projects included canal construction and harbor improvement, railroads, water power projects, and city water supplies. He was in charge of the design and construction of dry docks at the Charlestown, Massachusetts, and Norfolk, Virginia, Navy Yards. His father (Loammi Baldwin, 1745-1807) was one of New England's first civil engineers, and his brothers, James Fowle Baldwin and George Rumford Baldwin, were railway and hydraulic engineers. The Baldwin family origins were in Woburn, Massachusetts. Loammi was an advocate of engineering education and took students into his office in Charlestown, where they had the use of his family's large library of engineering books, now part of the collection of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries.
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The collection consists of project records of civil engineer Loammi Baldwin. His dry dock records in this collection date between 1824 and 1834. Correspondence, reports, tide tables, cost estimates, drawings, notes, computations, and court records describe Baldwin's design and construction of dry docks for the United States Navy at Charlestown, Massachusetts, and Norfolk (Gosport), Virginia. Also included are volumes of payroll records, summaries by workers' trades, a register of invoices, measurements of stone used, a register of pile-driving, and a diary of Baldwin's activities in Charlestown. Box 1 includes material of John Ripley Freeman, who acquired Baldwin material in 1903 and 1916 from the Baldwin family. Freeman used the material while working as the chief engineer of the Committee on the Charles River Dam in 1903.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Archives and Special Collections (Copyright 1981)
MIT LibrariesBuilding 14N-118
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139-4307
617.253.5690
mithistory@mit.edu
Revision Description
2010
Access note
The collection is open for research.
Intellectual Property Rights
Access to collections in the Institute Archives and Special Collections is not authorization to publish. Separate written application for permission to publish must be made to the Institute Archives.
Related Materials
Related Materials
John R. Freeman papers, MC 51, Institute Archives and Special Collections, MIT Libraries.
Baldwin Family Book Collection, Institute Archives and Special Collections, MIT Libraries; given to the Woburn Public Library in 1899 and deposited at MIT in 1914.
Loammi Baldwin books and manuscripts, Harvard University Baker Library.
Controlled Access Headings
Corporate Name(s)
- Charlestown Navy Yard (Mass.)
- Norfolk Navy Yard (U.S.)
Personal Name(s)
- Baldwin, George Rumford, 1798-1888
- Baldwin, James Fowle, 1782-1862
- Baldwin, Loammi, 1780-1838
Subject(s)
- Civil engineering.
- Dry docks--Design and construction.
- Tides--New England.
- Tides--Tables.
- Wages--History--Sources.
Bibliography
A sketch of the life and works of Loammi Baldwin, civil engineer, read before the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, Sept. 16, 1885, by George L. Vose. Boston: Press of G. H. Ellis, 1885. MIT Libraries: TA140.B34.V6.
United States. Navy Dept. Report of the Secretary of the Navy, in relation to the construction of a dry dock: rendered in obedience to a resolution of the Senate of 25th May last: January 5, 1825, printed by order of the Senate of the United States. Washington: Printed by Gales & Seaton, 1825. Institute Archives, MIT Libraries (non-circulating): TC361.U66 1825
Baldwin, Loammi. Report on Introducing Pure Water into the City of Boston. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, & Co., 2nd ed. 1835.
Collection Inventory
| Box | Folder | |||
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Tide tables: Brooklyn, New York; Charlestown, Massachusetts; Norfolk, Virginia; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire 1824-1827 |
1 | 1 | ||
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Correspondence concerning dry docks at Charlestown and Norfolk 1826 |
1 | 2 | ||
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Notes and Plan for Navy Yards undated |
1 | 3 | ||
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Plans and Surveys for Navy Yards undated |
1 | 4 | ||
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Regarding tides 1829 |
1 | 5 | ||
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Calculations for floating gates, Charlestown dry dock circa 1832 |
1 | 6 | ||
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Survey report to Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, March Term, 1845, in case of Benjamin Wheeler vs. Anson J. Stone, et al., made by George R. Baldwin; letter to James F. Baldwin, April 13, 1852 1845-1852 |
1 | 7 | ||
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Photocopy of notes on and excerpts from Baldwin manuscripts, by John R. Freeman 1916 November |
1 | 8 | ||
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Payroll of workmen on the dry dock, US Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts 1827 June 1 to 1830 June 15 |
1 | |||
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Payroll of workmen on the dry dock, US Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts 1830 June 16 to 1833 May 15 |
2 | |||
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Register of driving coffer dam piles, extracts of letters sent, diary of activities, US Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts 1827-1833 |
3 | |||
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Register of workmen employed in the dry dock at the US Navy Yard, (Gosport) Norfolk, Virginia 1827 December 1 to 1830 November 30 |
4 | |||
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Register of workmen employed in the dry dock at the US Navy Yard, (Gosport) Norfolk, Virginia 1830 December 1 to 1834 March 1 |
5 | |||
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Register of invoices, US Navy Yard, (Gosport) Norfolk, Virginia 1829 December 10 to 1830 May 29 |
6 | |||
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Cost of stone, US Navy Yard, (Gosport) Norfolk, Virginia circa 1830 |
7 | |||
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