The Minnesota Historical Library is pleased to announce that an expanded description to its Northern Pacific Railway Company’s Secretary’s unregistered letters received and related records (1864-1876) microfilm edition is now available online with full text search capability. This expanded inventory to the records includes an historical sketch and chronology of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, a detailed description of the records, a selected list of authors, and a roll list to the 36 rolls. The microfilm edition consists of a single chronological series of letters and records, supplemented on the last roll by a series of editor’s notes giving additional information on the content of the records.

The microfilm is available for use in the Hubbs Microforms reading room of the Minnesota Historical Society Library and is available for sale (scroll down about half way) and on interlibrary loan.

The records include letters and telegrams, memoranda, reports, financial statements, legal documents, meeting notes, maps, mechanical drawings, and printed materials documenting many aspects of the Northern Pacific Railway Company’s early history, including its organization, design and construction of the line, and financial management. Especially significant is the documentation of the company’s problematic financial condition and the role played by the banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co. in its financial management; lawsuits and legal issues; and, notably, the operations and concerns of the Land Department relating to its management of the railroad’s land grant, such as the sale of the railroad lands, immigration and domestic migration to and settlement of the region tributary to the line, protection of timber lands from illegal logging, and Indian claims in Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories.

The correspondence and other records are addressed primarily to Northern Pacific officers and other officials (especially presidents Josiah Perham, John Gregory Smith, and George W. Cass, but also the vice-president, secretary, and general counsel), Jay Cooke, and officials of Jay Cooke & Co. Correspondents range from internationally known financiers and railroad magnates to ordinary citizens seeking assistance. Selected correspondents include George L. Becker, Frederick Billings, Thomas Hawley Canfield, D.C. Linsley, Alvred B. Nettleton, William Milnor Roberts, Thomas Lafayette Rosser, William S. Rowland, George G. Sanborn, Charlemagne Tower, H.A. Towne, Samuel Wilkeson, and Charles B. Wright.