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Archive: June 2024 (4 Posts)

Drawing showing names of railroad stations and railroad curvature.

William Wilgus: Progress, Loss, and a Divided Manuscript Collection

Posted by: Josh Levy

William Wilgus was one of the most accomplished civil engineers of his time. Today two manuscript collections document his sweeping career, one at the New York Public Library and another at the Library of Congress, which opened for research in 2023. Documenting incidents such as a fatal 1907 train accident in the Bronx and the 1915 flooding of New York’s massive Ashokan Reservoir, the two collections tell a story of progress and loss, and of memory and honor.