[Pacific Railroad Surveys], United States, War Dept., Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean ... 1854-5. Vol. VI.: 'Explorations ... from the Sacramento Valley to the Columbia River.' Washington, D.C.: B. Tucker, printer, 1857.
![[Pacific Railroad Surveys], United States, War Dept., Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean ... 1854-5. Vol. VI.: 'Explorations ... from the Sacramento Valley to the Columbia River.' Washington, D.C.: B. Tucker, printer, 1857.](https://sca.bowdoin.edu/50-books/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/nggallery/50-books/pacificrr.jpg "[Pacific Railroad Surveys], United States, War Dept., Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean ... 1854-5. Vol. VI.: 'Explorations ... from the Sacramento Valley to the Columbia River.' Washington, D.C.: B. Tucker, printer, 1857.")
Also called the 'Pacific Railroad Surveys,' this monumental report (12 vols. in 13) was first issued by the U.S. Senate and House as a government document, and a copy was presented to the College by Sen. William Pitt Fessenden (Class of 1823). The federal government sponsored several ambitious and extensive exploring expeditions during the 1850s, driven chiefly by the desire to understand more about the vast western expanse that had come under United States control. Strategic and economic factors concerning how to connect the distant West with the rest of the country prompted the Pacific Railroad Survey, but so did scientific inquiry. Findings concerning soil, climate, geology, botany, zoology, and ethnography were substantial and exhaustive, and the field reports in this work, through text and copious illustration (often in color), marked a significant accomplishment in American natural history.
Gift: William Pitt Fessenden.