First Municipality's Surveyor's Office, 1837-1852
Scope and Contents
The records are manuscript volumes in French. They are arranged in series as described below.
- Daybooks of Public Works Performed
- Recapitualtions of Employment on the Public Works
- Jurnal of Expenditures for Public Works
- Ledger of Expenditures for Public Works
The records could be useful in a study of the treatment accorded to white and black workers in an antebellum urban setting. Were there differences in the work projects assigned to black and white laborers? Was one group required to work longer hours than another? What pay differential existed for the various classes of worker? Were black prisoners treated worse than other black laborers? All of these issues could be explored using these records.
Dates
- Creation: 1837-1852
Creator
- From the Collection: First Municipality (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Available on microfilm to registered researchers by appointment. Request by call number. Originals are closed for research.
Requesting Materials
Biographical / Historical
By ordinance of May 17, 1836, the First Municipality Council provided for a civil engineer to oversee the various public works within the boundaries of the municipality. A new ordinance, passed on January 30, 1837, established an "office of public works and Surveyor's department," to consist of the Surveyor, a deputy, a clerk for the office, and "other officers or persons employed in the attributes of said department," all under the control of the Surveyor. The Surveyor was required to furnish security in the amount of $20,000 for the faithful performance of his duties. Among those employed by his office were superintendents of the carts and of the works; a store keeper; a carpenter and two assistants; several overseers; and a paver.
The duties of the office were specified in the 1836 law and in subsequent ordinances. They included directing the construction and/or repair of public buildings; reporting defective private buildings; making plans for levelling levees, streets, and sidewalks; and superintending construction and/or repair of levees and wharves. The Surveyor also appears to have been responsible in general for the work that had been specified for the City Surveyor in ordinances passed prior to 1836.
The Council was quite precise in its requirements for record keeping by the Surveyor and with respect to his reports. The ordinances suggest that many more record books were kept by the Surveyor's Office than have survived in this collection.
Extent
10 Volumes (10 volumes, available on 3 rolls of microfilm)
3 Reels (10 volumes, available on 3 rolls of microfilm)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Custodial History
These volumes were previously cataloged as records of the Department of Public Works. It appears from the ordinances, however, that the Department of Public Works was a fiscal office responsible for the collection and disbursement of money in certain categories (actually the office was that of the Treasury of the Department of Public Works, not an actual Public Works Department). These records, however, appear to have been maintained by the Surveyor's Office to record payments due for the public works rather than documents from the Treasurer of the Department of Public Works who would have made the actual payments. The presence of the aforementioned certifications by the superintendent of the works, an employee of the Surveyor's Office, would appear to bear out this interpretation.
Repository Details
Part of the City Archives Repository
City Archives & Special Collections
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans LA 70112
504-596-2610
archivist@nolalibrary.org