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James D. Schuyler papers
WRCA 063
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Title: James Dix Schuyler papers
Date (inclusive): 1886-1912
Date (bulk): 1896-1907
Collection Number: WRCA 063
Creator:
Schuyler, James D. (James Dix), 1848-1912
Extent:
9.79 linear feet
(24 boxes)
Repository:
Rivera Library. Special Collections Department.
Riverside, CA 92517-5900
Abstract: The James Dix Schuyler Papers consist of unpublished reports, correspondence, and other documents. The reports cover Schuyler's
work as a consulting engineer in the Western U.S., Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Panama, and Puerto Rico. Photographs are
included in many reports and they depict public buildings, private residences, street scenes, and landscapes along with images
of dams, canals, and other hydraulic structures.
Languages: The collection is in English.
The collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the University of California, Riverside Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives.
Distribution or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission
of the copyright owners. To the extent other restrictions apply, permission for distribution or reproduction from the applicable
rights holder is also required. Responsibility for obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
[identification of item], [date if possible]. James Dix Schuyler papers (WRCA 063). Water Resources Collections and Archives.
Special Collections & University Archives, University of California, Riverside.
The collection was originally given to the Mechanics' Institute Library of San Francisco in 1927 by Karl C. Schuyler, of Denver,
and Philip Schuyler ,of San Francisco, nephews of James D. Schuyler. The Mechanics' Institute Library, in turn, donated the
collection to the Water Resources Center Archives.
Processed by Lois Judd, 1999. Finding aid updated to contextualize the presence of a racial slur in a report title, 2022.
Collection number updated February 2019. Legacy collection number was SCHU. This change was part of a project in 2018/2019
to update the collection numbers for collections in the Water Resources Collections and Archives.
James Dix Schuyler was born May 11, 1848, in Ithaca, New York, the son of Philip C. and Lucy M. (Dix) Schuyler. He was educated
at Friend's College, 1863-1868; after that he was self-taught. In July 1889 he was married to Mary Ingalls Tulliper.
Schuyler began his engineering career in 1869, locating and constructing the Kansas Pacific Railway in western Kansas and
Colorado. In 1870, he was appointed Resident Engineer on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, from Colorado Springs to Denver,
and made the first survey of Colorado Springs. He came to California in 1873, serving as Division Engineer of the North Pacific
Coast Railroad from Ross Valley to San Rafael. In 1874, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Stockton and Ione Railroad,
and on the financial collapse of that project, he worked temporarily as a writer for the Stockton Daily Independent. In 1877
he was made Chief Assistant State Engineer, under William Hammond Hall, and was placed in charge of the irrigation investigations
being conducted by that department in the Central Valley of California.
In 1882, he was appointed Chief Engineer and General Superintendent of the Sinaloa and Durango Railroad in Mexico. He returned
to California in 1884, and was engaged as a contractor in the construction of a section of the San Francisco sea-wall. In
1887-1888, he supervised the building of Sweetwater Dam in San Diego County, and in 1890-1891, he designed and supervised
the building of Hemet Dam in Riverside County, California, then the highest masonry structure in the state.
During subsequent years, Schuyler devoted special attention to hydraulic engineering in general, designing and building water
works in many cities and towns, including Denver, Portland, and numerous others. He was one of the Board of Consulting Engineers
to pass on the feasibility of the Owens River water supply project for the city of Los Angeles. From 1903 to 1905, he was
employed as the consulting engineer for the building of the great dam on the Snake River at the head of the Twin Falls Canal,
at the time the largest irrigation system in America. He held a similar relation to the American Beet Sugar Company in California
and Colorado during a period of nine years of irrigation and water supply development. In the course of his long practice
he was called upon to act in an advisory capacity for a very large number of irrigation projects and domestic water supply
works throughout the western United States. During these years he became known also for his construction of dams by hydraulic
fill--one of his first works of this type was the Lake Francis Dam, built for the Bay Counties Power Company in Yuba County,
California.
In January 1909, President Roosevelt appointed Schuyler to accompany President-elect Taft to Panama as one of seven engineers
to report on canal plans, the Gatun Dam, etc. The unanimous report of this board of engineers was in favor of carrying out
the plan adopted by Congress for a lock-canal, but recommended a modification of the height and slopes of the Gatun Dam, lowering
it by 20 feet.
Schuyler's activities as a consulting engineer extended across the ocean to Japan, and as far south as Brazil. He was consulting
engineer to Waialua Plantation, Hawaii, on the construction of the highest dam on the islands, chiefly built by sluicing;
to the Territorial Government of Hawaii on Nuuanu Dam, Honolulu; to the Monterrey Water-Works and Sewer Company, Ltd., of
Mexico; to the Kobe Syndicate on an extensive power project in Japan, involving the construction of a very high dam; to the
Mexican Light and Power Company, Ltd., on the building of four large dams for power development in Mexico; to the Vancouver
Power Company, Ltd., on the building of a dam at Coquitlam Lake; to the Arrowhead Reservoir Company; and to the U.S. Indian
Bureau on the building of Zuni Dam, New Mexico. He was also consulting engineer for the British Columbia Electric Railway
Company on dam construction, the reclamation of swamp lands, etc.
Schuyler was the author of Reservoirs for Irrigation, Water Power, and Domestic Water Supply (John Wiley & Sons, 1901; 2nd
edition, 1908), a work on dams, which for many years was a standard work on this subject. He was also the author of numerous
contributions to engineering societies, two of which won the Thomas Fitch Rowland prize for the best paper of the year read
before the American Society of Civil Engineers.
James Dix Schuyler died on September 13, 1912.
Excerpted from the memoir of James Dix Schuyler prepared by Stephen E. Kieffer, C. E. Grunsky, and J. B. Lippincott, published
in Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, v. 76 (1913), p. 2243-2245.
The James Dix Schuyler collection consists of unpublished reports, correspondence, and other documents. The reports cover
Schuyler's work as a consulting engineer in the Western U.S., Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Panama, and Puerto Rico.
A notable aspect of the Schuyler collection is the photographic record represented within the reports. Schuyler illustrated
many of his reports with original black-and-white photographs. He also provided detailed captions describing them. Included
among the photographs are many images documenting contemporary life in the communities in which Schuyler was consulting on
waterworks projects. Photographs of public buildings, private residences, street scenes, and landscapes can be found alongside
images of dams, canals, and other hydraulic structures.
The collection is arranged into 21 series, based on location.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Architecture -- West (U.S.)
Buildings -- West (U.S.)
Dams -- California
Dams -- West (U.S.)
Irrigation engineering -- California
Irrigation engineering -- West (U.S.)
Panama Canal (Panama)
Sewerage -- California
Sewerage -- West (U.S.)
Water-power -- Japan
Water-supply engineering -- Brazil
Water-supply engineering -- California
Water-supply engineering -- Canada
Water-supply engineering -- Mexico
Water-supply engineering -- Puerto Rico
Water-supply engineering -- West (U.S.)
Waterworks -- California
Waterworks -- West (U.S.)
Correspondence
Reports