Sep 27, 2018 - Sale 2486

Sale 2486 - Lot 374

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.) A superintending engineer's albums on bridge construction projects in Illinois and elsewhere. 341 photos, 62 small blueprints, and other ephemera, bound in 4 volumes. Various sizes and conditions, with the three photograph albums neatly captioned in white ink on black paper, and intermittent wear to the album leaves and bindings. Vp, 1927-32
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Additional Details

These albums were compiled by Leroy Johnson (1881-1970), a supervising engineer with the Illinois Steel Bridge Construction Company who was based in Jacksonville, IL. These neatly compiled albums document projects from a wide swath of the Midwest and West. The earliest is devoted to the Shippingsport Bridge over the Illinois River between LaSalle and Oglesby, IL, with 139 numbered photographs taken from late 1927 to 1929, as well as the cover of the dedication program; many of the photographs show workers, some of whom are named. Next is the Joe Page Bridge over the Illinois River from Hardin in Calhoun County, IL, an isolated strip of land between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. As Johnson wrote in his scrapbook, the bridge was "connecting Calhoun County with the outside world." The bridge contained a special lift span to allow for the passage of cargo vessels. The album contains 83 numbered and captioned photos from 1930 to 1931, as well as clippings, the dedication program, and two letters relating to the project. Last is a more wide-ranging album compiled by Johnson in 1932 titled "Pictorial Review of Bridges of Various Types & Design." It contains 119 photographs, not numbered but all captioned, dating from 1927 to 1932; the leaves are disbound and lacking a rear cover. Johnson may have consulted on some of the projects, though we suspect he may have snapped other photographs while on vacation, or perhaps received some from friends. Construction projects include the Illinois River Bridge near Gore, OK; and a bridge in Jasper, AR. Other bridge shots are from in or near Boynton, FL; Logansport, IN; Monterrey, Mexico; Ja Junita, CO; Orland, CO; Houston, TX; Little Rock, AR; Fort Worth, TX; Logan, NM; Kansas City, MO; and various locations in Johnson's native Kansas. Many of these are carefully noted with details on their construction dates and costs. Finally, the collection includes a small ring binder with 62 blueprints, 7 x 4 inches, compiled for an unknown project Johnson undertook for the Kansas City Bridge Company.