Bosse’s work, lost and forgotten for many years, was rediscovered in 1990 and is on display in the RCHS gallery in the North Lobby of Landmark Center, St. Paul, Minnesota.



Henry P. Bosse was an engineer and draughtsman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the reshaping of the River for modern transportation. His images include long- vanished vistas of bluffs and coulees, rapidly growing cities, workboats pulling snags out of the new channels, rock quarries, dredging operations and construction of wing dams and bridges.

Bosse was born in Germany in 1844, but was living at St. Paul’s Cosmopolitan Hotel in 1875. By 1878 he’d moved on to the Rock Island District, Illinois, where he was Chief Draughtsman until his death in 1903.



Bosse seemed to enjoy his work; among his remaining sketches and cartoons is the self-portrait below.


Images reproduced through the courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers