About This Collection
The Office of the Secretary of Internal Affairs was created by the Constitution of 1874. Under the Constitution and subsequent legislation, this agency was assigned all the duties of the Surveyor General, as well as duties involving the supervision of the activities of business organizations and charitable institutions, and responsibility for establishing a Bureau of Industrial Statistics, which later became part of the Department of Commerce. Digital records are available for two of the five major bureaus including the Bureau of Statistics and the Bureau of Topographic and Geologic Survey. The Bureau of Topographical and Geologic Survey records include collections related to the Second Geological Survey headed by J. Peter Lesley commenced in 1874 and resulted in a series of published reports issued through 1889. For additional information on the Department of Internal Affairs or the Bureau of Topographical and Geologic Survey please consult the finding aid of the Pennsylvania State Archives. This collection contains alphabetical by county arranged published geological color-coded maps of each county prepared by the Second Geological Survey in 1884. The front of the volume contains a skeleton geological map for the entire state. Information provided includes the names of towns and townships, railroad lines, rivers and streams, and contours of geological formations.
