Preliminary Inventories
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PRELIMINARY INVENTORIES Number 170 RECORDS RELATING TO INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES The National Archives National Archives and Records Service General Services Administration Washington: 1968 PRELIMINARY INVENTORY OF THE RECORDS RELATING TO INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES (RECORD GROUP 76) Compiled by Daniel T. Goggin The National Archives National Archives and Records Service General Services Administration Washington: 1968 National Archives Publication No. 69-2 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. A68-7772 GSA through the National Archives and Records Service is responsible for administering the permanent noncurrent records of the Federal Government. These archival hold ings, now amounting to about 900,000 cubic feet, date from the days of the Continental Congresses; they include the basic records of the three branches of our Government- Congress, the courts, and the executive departments and independent agencies. The Presidential Libraries--Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower--contain the papers of those Presidents and many of their associates in office. Among our holdings are many hallowed documents relating to great events of our Nation's history, preserved and ven erated as symbols to stimulate a worthy patriotism in all of us. But most of the records are less dramatic, kept because of their continuing practical utility for the ordinary proc esses of government, for the protection of private rights, and for the research use of students and scholars. To facilitate the use of the records and to describe their nature and content, our archivists prepare various kinds of finding aids. The present work is one such publication. We believe that it will prove valuable to anyone who wishes to use the records it describes. LAWSON B. KNOTT, JR. Administrator of General Services iii PREFACE The first step in the records -description program of the National Archives is the compilation of preliminary invento ries of the material in some 400 record groups to which the holdings of the National Archives are allocated. These in ventories are called "preliminary" because they are provi sional in character. They are prepared as soon as possible after the records are received without waiting to screen out all disposable material or to perfect the arrangement of the records. They are compiled primarily for internal use, both as finding aids to help the staff render efficient reference service and as a means of establishing administrative con trol over the records. Each preliminary inventory contains an introduction that briefly states the history and functions of the agency that accumulated the records. The records themselves are de scribed series by series; that is, by units of records of the same form or that deal with the same subject or activity or that are arranged serially. Other significant information about the records may sometimes be given in appendixes. Several finding aids that give an overall picture of mate rials in the National Archives have been published. A com prehensive Guide to the Records in the National Archives (1948) and a brief guide, Your Government's Records in the National Archives (revised 1950), have been issued. A guide devoted to one geographical area--Guide to Materials on Latin America in the National Archives (1961)--has been published. Forty-five Reference Information Papers, which analyze rec ords in the National Archives on such subjects as transpor tation, small business, and the Middle East, have so far been issued. Records of the Civil War have been described in Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War (1962) v and Civil War Maps in the Natio;nal Archives (1964), those of World War I in Handbook of F~aeral World War Agencies and Their Records, 1917-1921 (1943), and those of World War II in the two-volume guttie, Federal Records of World War II (1950-51). Genealogical records have been listed in Guide to Genealogical Re~nrds in theNational Archives (19 64). Many bodies of records of high research value have been ed ited by the National Archives and reproduced on microfilm as a form of publication. Positive prints of this microfilm, many of which are described in the List of National Archives Microfilm Publications (1968), are available for purchase. JAMES B. RHOADS Archivist of the United States vi CONTENTS Page Introduction . 1 Inventory ........ .. ............... 3 Records relating to the United States-Canadian Border 3 Records relating to the Northeast Boundary: Passamaquoddy Bay to the St. Lawrence River .. · . 3 Commission established under Article V of the Treaty of November 19 , 1794, between the United States and Great Britain . 3 Commission established under Article IV of the December 24, 1814, Treaty between the United States and Great Britain ... .. .... .. .. 7 Commission established under Article V of the December 24 , 1814, Treaty between the United States and Great Britain . 9 Arbitration by the King of the Netherlands under terms of the Convention of September 29, 1827, between the United States and Great Britain. 14 Records of the U.S. Agent and of the Department of State . 16 Miscellaneous records relating to the Northeast Boundary, 1827-42 . 19 U.S. Commissioners appointed under an act of Congress of July 20, 1840 . 22 Commission established under Article VI of the Treaty of August 9, 1842, between the United States and Great Britain . 24 Commission appointed in 1849 to mark the boundary at Beebe Plain, Vt. 26 Commission established under Article II of the Convention of July 22 , 1892, between the United States and Great Britain . 27 Northern Boundary: St. Lawrence River to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. 28 Records relating to the Commissions established under Articles VI and VII of the Treaty of December 24, 1814, between the United States and Great Britain. 28 Commission established by an exchange of notes between the United States and Great Britain in 1870 . 33 Miscellaneous reports on the Northern Boundary, 1897, 1903 . .. ...... 37 Northwest Boundary: Summit of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean . 37 Commission established under terms of an act of Congress of August 11, 1856, as agreed to by Great Britain. 37 Records of the U.S. Commissioner .......... .... ..... 39 Records of the Department of State . 42 Arbitration of the Emperor of Germany under Article XXXIV of the Treaty of May 8, 1871, between the United States and Great Britain. 43 Records of the survey of the Northwest Boundary under the April l, 1901, instructions of the Department of State ......... ...... 45 Records of the U.S. Section of the International Boundary Commission, United States and Canada .... ........... .... .. .. 46 Records relating to the Northeast Boundary . 47 Records relating to the Commission to det~rmine the boundary line near Pope's Folly Island . 48 Records relating to the Northern Boundary. 49 Records relating to the Northwest Boundary . 51 Records relating to more than one Section of the International Boundary . 52 Records of the U.S. Section of the St. John River Commission, United States and Canada ......................... ... 53 Records of the U.S. Section of the International Waterways Commission, United States and Canada . 53 vii Page Administrative records . 54 Reports and survey records. 55 Records of the U. S. Section of the International Joint Commission, United States and Canada . 57 Maps of the U.S. Engineer of the International Lake of the -woods Control Board, United States and Canada . 59 Records relating to the Alaskan Boundary . ·. 1892-95 Survey . 61 Records relating to the May 30, 1898, Protocol and to the Joint High Commission. 62 Records relating to the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal 63 Records of the U. S. Agent . 64 Records of the Department of State . 66 Records of the U.S. Section of the International Boundary Commission relating to the Alaskan Boundary . 66 Records relating to the Southern Boundary of the United States . 68 Records relating to the United States-Spanish Border. 68 Commission established under Article III of the October 27, 1795, Treaty between the United States and Spain . 68 Records relating to the United States-Texas Border . 70 Commission established under the April 25 . 1838, Convention between the United States and Republic of Texas . 70 Records relating to the United States-Mexican Border . .. 71 Commission established under Article V of the February 2, 1848. Treaty between the United States and Mexico . 71 Records of the U.S. Section . ·. 72 Letters and reports received by the Department of the Interior 75 International Boundary Commission, United States and Mexico . 76 Records relating to the Land Boundary . 77 Final reports . 77 U.S. Section of the International Boundary Commission 78 Correspondence . 78 Survey records . 79 Administrative records . 80 Records primarily relating to the Water Boundary . 81 Rules and proceedings . 81 Records of the U.S. Section of the International (Water) Boundary Commission . 81 Correspondence . 81 Reports and Publications 82 Maps . 84 Administrative Records . 85 Records relating to Bancos . 85 Commission for the study of the Equitable Distribution of the Water of the Rio Grande and Colorado River . 87 Records relating to the Chamizal. 87 Correspondence of the Division of Mexican Affairs 89 Appendixes: I. List of Watercolor Views and Landscape Sketches Along the Northwest Boundary (Entry 221). 91 II. List of Subjects of Files of the U.S. Section of the International Waterways Commission (Entry 293). 94 III. List of Closed Case Files of the International Joint Commission (Entry 320) 98 Viii INTRODUCTION Definitions of ti1e international boundaries Records Relating to United States Claims of the United States have not always been accu Against the Central _Powers. rate since they were often based on insufficient Organization of the Inventory data. Unsatisfactory description of boundaries Descriptions of the records relating to com has resulted in friction between the United missions and arbitrations have been org::mized, States, Great Britain, Spain, and Mexico. In for the most part, geographically. Since bound some cases border incidents occurred and ary commissions were usually esbblished iri re Armed Forces were sent to the area in dispute.