• Thomas Adams. Journal Beginning June 26 1854 at Cantonment Steven and Ending at Fort Owens, July 29 1855.

Curatorial note:

Thomas Adams (1830–1900) was a twenty-three-year old civil engineer when he set out in 1853 as part of a group traveling west with Isaac I. Stevens (1818–1862), the newly appointed governor of recently established Washington Territory. As they traveled to Olympia, Stevens arranged for the surveying of a railroad route across the northern part of the country. From 1853 to 1859, Adams served the party as meteorologist, topographer, sketch artist, and, eventually, assistant to Lieutenant John Mullan (1830–1909), who was in charge of the surveying. The Thomas Adams Papers consists of four journals and one letterbook documenting Adams’s life from 1852 to 1859. In addition to detailed descriptions of Adams’s overland experiences, the journals contain expertly drawn sketches of landscapes, encampments, Fort Owen, and Native Americans, as well as a manuscript dictionary of the Flathead language.

and

Thomas Adams Papers (C1452). Manuscripts Division, Western Americana Collection.

Collections:
  • Welcome Additions
  • Thomas Adams Papers C1452
  • Western Americana
  • Western Americana Collection
Title:
  • "Journal of Thomas Adams, W.C.D.C. of Capitol Hill, A.D. 1852"
Language:
  • English
Extent:
  • 1 folder
Publisher:
  • Adams, Thomas (1830-1900)
  • Mullan, John (1830-1909)
Created:
  • June 30, 1852
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/rf55zc68d
Edm rights:
  • No Known Copyright
Range label:
  • Logical
View in finding aid:
Date created:
  • 1852 June 30-August 8
Container:
  • Box 1, Folder 1