Eastwick Letters

EASTWICK LETTERS transcribes and illustrates 117 individual sheets written 1844-51 by Andrew McCalla Eastwick, his wife Lydia, their children, and business associates as the family set up works, and home in 19th century St. Petersburg, Russia.

Eastwick was one of three partners in the Philadelphia firm of Harrison, Winans & Eastwick. The business had been awarded a $3 million/ five-year contract to build rolling stock, (locomotive engines and cars) for Czar Nicholas I for a railroad to connect St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The enterprise required Eastwick and partners to take possession of a large Imperial industrial complex on the Neva River, known as Alexandroffsky Head Mechanical Works. Once in operation they were to use serf labor and Russian materials to fulfill the contract. Concurrently, Major George Washington Whistler (West Point civil engineer and father of the famous artist), was to oversee the construction of the 420 miles of railway track and railbed required.

Presented chronologically and extensively illustrated, EASTWICK LETTERS opens a window into the private emotions of the writers, and illustrates a colorful story of Russian life and times at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. More so than early photographs, the letters vividly reveal the inner thoughts of each writer, and what they observed in a foreign land.

In 1851 the Eastwick family returned to Philadelphia where Andrew purchased Bartram's Garden along the Schuylkill River and saved it from industrial development.

Years later after Andrew's passing, Lydia Eastwick bequeathed the property to the City of Philadelphia where today, Bartram's Garden is a landmark. The conservatory is open to the public and carries on the legacy of John Bartram, first American botanist to the Colonies.