Many of our blog posts in the past year have involved the Civil War period, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the event. One Civil War era primary resource in the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections archives is the City of Davenport Engineering Department Survey Books (Accession #2000-01).
These handwritten books cover the years from the 1850’s into the 1910’s. Street grade levels, street plans, building dimensions, and water levels may be found inside the numerous volumes. Each is a “pencil drawn” snapshot of life in Davenport.
One of the earliest volumes in the collection contains information on Camp McClellan and Camp Kearney. Dated November 11, 1865, these drawings provide details of the camps buildings and layout.
Following are a few images from the 1865 survey book. The images have not been altered except for slight cropping of the scanned image to allow for better viewing.
