Map Lovers’ Monday: Two views of the Union Canal in central Pennsylvania

FULL TITLES

  1. Map and profile of the Union Canal. M. H. Traubel, Sc., Anastatic Office, 143 Chestnut Str. Phila., F[rederick] Graff Jr. Del. [PWD Catalog No. 2011.001.0002.002]
  2. Connections of the Union Canal Penna. with the canals of the North and West. By J. P. Lesley, Top’l. Geo. [topographical geographer?]. A[ugust] Kollner’s Lithy. [Lithography]. [PWD Catalog No. 2011.001.0002.001]
This map was drawn by Frederick Graff, Jr., possibly in March of 1841 (see the obscure text in the bottom right corner).
This map shows how the Union Canal connected to other navigation systems, including the Erie Canal to the north and the Schuylkill Navigation to the east.

SOURCE City Archives of Philadelphia, from Fairmount Park Commission Land Titles, Box A-967, folder: “Wheeler, Charles – Union Canal – History ” The maps, each about 18.5 x 23 inches, were bound into a pamphlet, The Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: John C. Clark, Printer, 68 Dock Street, 1853). Also in this folder was another pamphlet, Acts of the Legislature of Pennsylvania relating to the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Lydia R. Bailey, 1825).

DATE 1853 ca.

HISTORY The Union Canal ran 82 miles from the Schuylkill River near Reading to Middletown on the Susquehanna River below Harrisburg. From the Schuylkill it followed Tulpehocken Creek, using a series of 93 locks to reach a level summit canal that then descended along Swatara Creek to the Susquehanna. Construction began in 1811, about a century after William Penn first conceived of a canal connecting Philadelphia with areas to the west. The canal was completed in 1828, and operated until the 1880s. Remnants of the system can still be seen at various points along the line. A tunnel near Lebanon, Pa. still carries a section of the canal under a hill, and is occasionally open for boat tours. For more information about the canal, you can visit this page on Wikipedia.

A boat trip through the Union Canal tunnel, near Lebanon, Pa., July 16, 2017 (Photograph by A. Leonard Pundt)

WHY I LOVE THESE MAPS While the canal is far outside Philadelphia, it did connect with the Schuylkill Navigation Company’s system, which ran from the Fairmount Water Works upstream into Schuylkill County. The maps’ creators also have a Philadelphia connection. The first map was drawn and published by August Kollner, who produced countless lithographs and original drawings and watercolors of scenes in and around Philadelphia. The second map was “delineated” (or drawn) by Frederic Graff, Jr. He was the son of Frederick Graff, who was assistant to Benjamin Latrobe, designer of the city’s first water works at Centre Square (1801-1815) and designer with John Davis of the Fairmount Water Works, which he served as chief engineer from 1815 until his death in 1847. Graff Jr. succeeded his father as the water system’s chief engineer, and subsequently had a distinguished career as a consulting engineer on projects in Philadelphia and elsewhere.

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