The UNB Archives invites you to visit its virtual exhibit entitled Henry George Clopper Ketchum – The Railway to Glory or Despair.
It is located at https://web.lib.unb.ca/archives/finding/ketchum/introduction.html.
Note: This exhibit is best viewed with Netscape 7.1 or Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.
Henry G.C. Ketchum is best remembered for his ill-fated Chignecto Ship Railway project which drew 4,000 immigrant workers and a team of world-class engineers to Amherst, N.S., in the 1890s. More than 100 years later, the controversy continues with supporters insisting that Ketchum was an engineering genius thwarted by political and economic conditions beyond his control.
Apart from the Chignecto project, an effort was made to throw some light on Ketchum’s early and very successful career as a railway engineer in Canada and Brazil. UNB continues to honour Ketchum as its first engineering graduate and donor of the prestigious Ketchum medal.
Comments would be welcome at pjohnson@unb.ca or lbaier@unb.ca.