{"value"=>"<p>84 notebooks (including one blank book) kept by Serrell, arranged chronologically and numbered (with evident gaps in the serial order) from 1 to 136. There are no field notebooks for the periods Nov. 1854 - March 1860; and May 1877 - May 1880. The internal arrangement of the notebooks is chronological as in a diary. The notebooks record Serrell's daily surveying activities mainly in New York City for his private clients and for the City of New York. The notes, which are mainly in pencil, include the name and address of the client or property owner, the location of the area surveyed, a rough sketch or diagram (annotated with numerous calculations) of the area surveyed and the amount billed (or paid) for the survey. Included also are engineering notes and estimates for the construction of sewers, for earth and rock excavations, for the laying out of curbs, gutters, culverts, and drains, and for the flagging, grading and paving of city streets. There are also a few assessment lists for sewers prepared by Serrell for city tax purposes.</p> <p>Serrell's private clients include property owners, merchants, attorneys, builders and architects. His private clients included Henry Brevoort, Peter Goelet, John Jay, John Lafarge, Allan Melville, Moses B. Taylor, James E. Shaw, Alexander T. Stewart, William R. Stewart, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Isaac Walton. His commercial and institutional clients included the Board of Education, Booth's Theater, Brown Brothers, Crystal Palace, Croton Aqueduct Department, Dry Dock Bank, Eighth Avenue Rail Road Co., Fulton Rail Road Co., the Hippodrome, Metropolitan Gas Works, Mott Haven Canal, New York Stock Exchange, New York State Arsenal, Novelty Iron Works, Roosevelt Hospital, Sixth Avenue Rail Road, Tammany Hall, Trinity Church, and Western Union Telegraph.</p> <p>There are also a few surveys of lands and properties outside of New York City proper including Brooklyn, Englewood (New Jersey), Glen Cove (Long Island), Mott Haven (Westchester Co.), Randall's Island, Stapleton, (Staten Island), and Ward's Island.</p> <p>Interspersed in the field notes, especially in the earlier period, are brief personal notes and observations relating to the weather and to his comings and goings. Included are notes relating to an invention of an \"exhausting engine\" (Books #28, #30), a boat engine (Book #72), and a \"propeller\" \"or mode of propelling vessels\" (Book #80). Serrell also devised a plan for red reflectors for light houses. In 1849 he observed the lighting of the lamps at the lighthouse at Execution Rocks (off Sands Point, Long Island) and made recommendations for improvements in its lighting mechanism (Books #8 and #10). Miscellaneous entries during the Civil War period mention the readiness of his regiment to go to war (Book #69), the N. Y. C. Draft Riots, assassination of President Lincoln, and the embarkment of a naval expedition from Fortress Monroe which included his brother Edward W. Serrell, then colonel of an engineering regiment.</p> <p>While on a Jersey City ferry Serrell also mentions seeing the iron plated vessel \"Weehawken\". A sketch of the vessel follows the entry (Book #73).</p> <p>A cabinet photographic portrait of James E. Serrell taken in January of 1876 when he was 56 years old is pasted on the back inside cover of Book #124.</p> <p>Included also are 5 notebooks (1849-53) kept by George C. Dickinson, Serrell's principal assistant; and 4 notebooks (1837-63) kept by Edwin Smith.</p> <p>Complementing the field notebooks are an index to the field notebooks of land surveys; and a survey book, 1845.</p> <p>The index to the field notebooks of land surveys records the date of the survey; the name of the property owner; the street address or coordinates of the property or area surveyed; the number of the field notebook which contains the survey data; and the type of survey which was made (i. e., lot, house, vault, grading, sewer). The index is arranged into three sections: (1) unnumbered streets listed in alphabetically by street name; (2) avenues arranged alphabetically (\"A\" - \"D\") and then numerically (#1 - #13); (3) and numbered streets (1st - 45th). A few surveys of properties outside of New York City are filed alphabetically within the unnumbered streets section.</p> <p>The survey book (1845) contains multi-colored maps and drawings of Serrell's surveys of properties in New York City owned by private persons and by the Corporation of the City of New York. The book contains an incomplete index by street name and by property owner. The book includes maps of the Eastern Post Road between 23rd and 66th Streets; maps of the Kingsbridge Road between 67th and 228th Streets; and maps of properties (showing names of owners) on the east and west sides of 5th Avenue between 42nd and 87th Streets. There is also a survey of the Atlantic Dock, Brooklyn; and Nathan Coleman's farm at Poughkeepsie (N. Y.).</p>"}