Reports upon the Survey of the Boundary between the Territory of the United States and the Possessions of Great Britain. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1878.

Description

This 1878 first edition constitutes the official report of the United States Northern Boundary Commission, issued under the direction of Archibald Campbell, U.S. Commissioner, and Donald Roderick Cameron, his British counterpart. It documents one of the most ambitious and technically demanding surveys ever undertaken in North America: the final demarcation of the 49th parallel—the boundary between the United States and British North America—from the Lake of the Woods to the crest of the Rocky Mountains.

The work includes 13 detailed folding maps and 15 lithographed and engraved plates, several printed in color, illustrating the terrain, boundary monuments, and astronomical observations that guided the surveyors. The maps trace the line of demarcation through forests, plains, and mountains, recording the newly erected stone cairns, iron posts, and earthen mounds that physically marked the international frontier. Other plates depict the survey teams, their field instruments, and panoramic views of the frontier landscape.

The Reports provide a comprehensive narrative of the joint British-American field operations carried out between 1872 and 1876. These surveys completed the territorial definition first set out by the Treaties of 1818 and 1846, which had long left the exact placement of the boundary unresolved. Delayed by decades of diplomatic tension, the San Juan water boundary dispute, and the American Civil War, the Northern Boundary Commission at last translated the theoretical “line of the forty-ninth parallel” into a precise and mutually accepted geographic reality.

The survey’s success rested on the use of state-of-the-art astronomical and geodetic methods, combining triangulation, chronometric timing, and barometric leveling. The resulting maps stand among the most accurate frontier surveys of the 19th century, and the Reports capture both the scientific rigor and logistical hardship of the enterprise.

Archibald Campbell (1813–1887), who had previously served as commissioner on the Northwest Boundary Commission (1857–62), brought decades of experience in international boundary work. His Reports mark the culmination of a career dedicated to reconciling the cartography of empire with the realities of geography on the ground.

Issued by the U.S. Government Printing Office, this folio volume was produced in limited numbers for official and scientific use; few copies were made available to the public. It remains a cornerstone of North American boundary and exploration literature, valued both for its meticulous cartography and for the insight it offers into the final closing of the continental frontier.