PBA Galleries

23, [1] pp. (8vo) 21.5x13.5 (8½x5¼"), later black cloth. First Edition.

The Western Railroad Corporation was chartered in 1833 to develop a line from Worcester to western Massachusetts. It began operations to Springfield in 1841. The directors included Thomas B. Wales, Josiah Quincy, Jr., John Henshaw, Justice Willard, Henry Rice, Francis Jackson, and Geo. Bliss. Among these luminaries, Thomas B. Wales was involved in early railroad construction, American clipper ship  trade, and owned one of the oldest Boston libraries. Josiah Quincy, Jr. was Boston mayor, and Henry Rice was an American Army officer in the War of 1812, a leading Boston merchant, a member of the Boston City Council and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. OCLC/WorldCat lists only three copies of this report, at the Boston Athenaeum, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the American Antiquarian Society.