Thesis: Expert civil servants and their professional colleagues who served cities as paid consultants were among the most significant participants in urban government during the late nineteenth century, and any survey of the American municipality must include their story.
CIVIL ENGINEERS
The skills of Civil Engineers awarded them a particularly stable and public-good oriented position in the urban bureaucracy, peaking in the 1900s.
Boston Engineering Corps
Joseph P. Davis: Boston's city engineer 1872-1880.
Henry M. Wightman: Davis' assistant and successor.
William Jackson: Encombent after Davis' death, 1885-1910 (during which the city government decided on a three year term for engineers, and Jackson was reappointed by Alderman every time he ran).
George S. Webster: Philadelphia's third chief engineer. From 1855 to 1916 on three men held this position, the first from 1855 to 1872, the second from 1872-1893. Wowza.
Landscape Architects and Park Superintendents
Olmsted: Central Park 1857-1878; did not like dealing with politics
Landscape architects worked from firms, making them exempt from political promotion and nepitism. Parks need experts for their execution and therefore the Landscape Architects became a relatively non-political civil servant. Also, parks work required interaction with a lot of different laymen. The work's interdisciplinary nature was sort of the root of the planning career (at least I think that is what they are suggesting).
City Librarians
Justin Windsor Jr: Boston librarian who demanded equal pay as engineers (1868).
...just more examples of librarians being recognized as experts.
Educators
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