Erie Canal Bibliography

Environmental

• W. B. Langbein, Hydrology and Environmental Aspects of Erie Canal (1817-1899), 1976.

Politics, Engineering, and Economics

Cadwallader Colden

Christopher Colles

Samuel B. Beach

• Considerations against continuing the great canal west of Seneca by Peter Plough Share, 1819.

Thomas and Hanna Boots

• An Immigrant Couple in Oswego County, 1828

Governor De Witt Clinton

• De Witt Clinton's Canal Visit to Buffalo in 1816
• The canal policy of the state of New York, 1816
• The Life and Writings of DeWitt Clinton, William W. Campbell, 1849

George W. Clinton

• Journal of a Tour from Albany to Lake Erie, by the Erie Canal, in 1826 by George W. Clinton. Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, 14 (1910): 274-305. Clinton was the son of DeWitt Clinton and at the age of 19 went along on a scientific voyage along the canal, for which see Samuel Rezneck, "A Traveling School of Science on the Erie Canal in 1826," New York History 40 (July 1959): 225-269.

Cadwallader D. Colden

• Memoir prepared at the Request of Committee of the Common Council of the City of New York, and Presented to the Mayor of the City, at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York Canals by Cadwallader Colden, 1825.

Walter D. Edmonds

• Rome Haul, 1929.

John Farey

• Essay on "Canals" in Abraham Rees's Cyclopedia, became the basic textbook for American canal engineers.

Robert Fulton

• A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation, 1796.
• February 5, 1797 letter from Robert Fulton to President Washington referring to potential canal improvements, including a canal to Lake Erie.

Albert Gallatin

• Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the subject of Public Roads and Canals made in pursuance of a resolution of Senate on March 2, 1807, 1808.

George Geddes

• Origin and history of the measures that lead to the construction of the Erie Canal, 1866.

Charles Glidden Haines

• Considerations on the Great Western Canal, from the Hudson to Lake Erie, 1818.

David Hosack

• Memoir of DeWitt Clinton, with an appendix containing numerous documents illustrative of the principal events of his life and of the early history of the canals

John Howison

• A Tour from Rochester to Utica in 1820

New York State Legislature

• Report on the Barge Canal, 1961.

J.A. Phillips

• General History of Inland Navigation Foreign and Domestic, 1792.

Henry V. Poor

• History of the railroads and canals of the United States, 1860.

J. Priestly

• Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and Railways throughout Great Britain, 1831. .

James Renwick

• Life of DeWitt Clinton, 1840.

John Rutherford, 1760-1840

• Facts and observations in relation to the origin and completion of the Erie canal

Ethel M. Springer

• Canal-boat Children, a 1923 report made by the Industrial Division of the Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor.

John Stevens

• Documents tending to prove the superior advantages of rail-ways and steam carriages over canal navigation, 1812.

Col. William Leete Stone

• From New York to Niagara--Journal of a Tour, in part by Canal, in 1829.

Elkanah Watson

• History of the western canals in the state of New York, 1788-1819, 1820.

Western Inland Lock Navigation Company

• First Report of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, 1796.
• Second Report of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company

Richard Weston

• A Journey West of Utica in the Mid-1830s, 1833.

Noble E. Whitford

• History of the canal system of the state of New York, together with brief histories of the canals of the United States and Canada, 1906.
• History of the Barge Canal of New York State, 1921.

David Wilkie

• A Canal Journey in 1834

Traveler's accounts, short stories, novels, etc.

Anonymous or unknown

• The Great Water Highway through New York State (1829)
• Journal of a Wanderer; Being a Residence in India, and Six Weeks in North America 91844)

Jacob Abbott, 1803-1879

• Marco Paul's voyages and travels on the Erie Canal, 1852.

Edward Strutt Abdy, 1791-1846

• Journal of a residence and tour in the United States of North America, 1833.

James Edward Alexander

• L'Acadie; or, Seven Year's Explorations in British America

Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

• Travels through North America during the years 1825 and 1826

Thomas and Hannah Boots

• Letter to their children (1828)

William Brown

• Rochester in the mid-1840s (1843 or 44)

James Silk Buckingham

• Journal from Albany to Buffalo and return (1838)

Frances Ann Butler (Frances Kemble)

• Journal (1833)

George Combe

• Notes on the United States of America during a Phrenological Visit(1839)

Charles Dickens

• Journey on the Pennsylvania canal (1842)

Walter D. Edmonds

• At Schoharie Crossing (1929)

Basil Hall

• Travels in North America in the years 1827 and 1828

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The Canal Boat (1835)
• Rochester (1835)
• The Inland Port (1835)

John Howison

• Sketches of Upper Canada (1820)

Alexander Mackay

• The Western World (1846)

Harriet Martineau

• Retrospect of Western Travel (1834) On line at University of Gottingen

Archibald Montgomery Maxwell

• A Run through the United States, During the Autumn of 1840

Joseph Pickering

• Journey from Baltimore to Buffalo (1825)

Patrick Shirreff

• A Tour through North America (1833)

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Little Fred, the Canal Boy (1843)
• The Canal Boat (1843)

James Stuart

• Three years in North America (1828)

Robert Sutcliffe

• Travels in some parts of North America in the year 1804, 1805, 1806

Alexis de Tocqueville

• Journey to America (1831)

Frances Trollope

• Domestic Manners of the Americans (1828)

Henry Tudor

• Lockport in 1831

Richard Weston

• A Visit to the United States and Canada in 1833

David Wilkie

• Sketches of a Summer Trip to New York and the Canadas (1834)

Thomas W. Woodcock

• Some Account of a Trip to the "Falls of Niagara", May 1836

Frances Wright

• Views of Society and Manners in America (Traveled Genesee Road in 1818)