259 •(CANAL AND DRAINAGE CONSTRUCTION) A meticulously compiled album entitled Drainage Work with 113 photographs documenting a number of canal construction contracts and drainage efforts in the swamplands of North Carolina.
Presumably assembled by an employee of the Brett Engineering and Contracting Company, the album shows numerous barge and hull-mounted dredges scooping their way through waterlogged swamps to create wide, flowing channels, as well as multiple views of "hand ditches" dug by teams of manual workers. Heavily depicted is the laborious set-up process before digging on each job even begins, as well as portraits of workmen, commissioners, and supervisors. Silver prints, the images measuring approximately 3x5 inches (7.6x12.7 cm.), some slightly larger and smaller, and the reverse, mounted recto/verso to black pages, each with heavy annotations and captioning, in yellow pencil. Oblong 4to, black leatherette; tied binding. 1909-17

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