Bureau of Reclamation Irrigation Project Photographic Trade Catalog, 1948-1949

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Summary

Creators:
United States. Bureau of Reclamation.
Abstract:
Annotated photograph album of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects in Oregon and California.
Extent:
1 volume
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Bureau of Reclamation Irrigation Project Photographic Trade Catalog, MC310, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.

Background

Scope and content:

Annotated photograph album of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects in Oregon and California. The images begin with a view of the Lassen Park Highway in Northern California, followed by 9 photographs of works on the Klamath Basin Project in Southern Oregon near the California border, including photographs of canal sections, dams and sluice gates meant to divert Klamath Basin water to farmers in Oregon and California. The rest of the album consists of images of the Central Valley Irrigation Project, a large scale effort by the United States Bureau of Reclamation to transport water from northern California to the San Joaquin Valley, part of a series of projects the Bureau began under the New Deal, which was still ongoing when this album was produced. The album includes eight images related to the Corning-Willows Canal, built to irrigate farms in the west side of the Sacramento Valley, nine photographs taken along the Big Bend and Feather Rivers, one photo of the Oroville Wyandotte Irrigation District, and three photos related to the Delta Mendota Canal.

Tipped in before the first album page is a "Price List For Photographic Services" issued by the Bureau of Reclamation, which offered contact prints, enlargements, coloring enlargements, and more to "Bureau Employees & Gov't Agencies." This suggests that the album is likely a kind of trade catalog for distributing photographs of the projects. The propagandistic intent of Bureau of Reclamation photographs is well documented, with the bureau using a small group of talented and carefully controlled photographers to promote its projects. A chapter on Ben Glaha, who was selected to photograph the Hoover Dam notes that "the government...vigrously utilized visually appealing still photographs, carefully released to a variety of print media, to place the government project in the best possible light" (Villander, Hoover Dam: The Photographs of Ben Glaha, 83). The twelve larger format images were all taken by W.H. Colby, the official photographer for Pacific Constructors, a contractor working for the Bureau of Reclamation. Colby gained recognition for his photos of the Shasta Dam, providing "impressive images of the dam's construction from start to finish...extolling the social benefits--flood control, hydroelectric power, and irrigation...'Colby's photographs stand primarily as dramatic symbols of our industrial society at work" (Rowley, The Bureaau of Reclamation, 949).

The images present in this album appear to strive for the same effects, celebrating both the beautiful California river scenery along which the project was taking shape, as well as the agriculture and industry the project was meant to serve. These sharply finished photographs extoll the monumentality of the rivers, as well as that of a farms, bridge, dam, railway, and lumber mill along the route of the project. One image shows a dry, abandoned farmstead along the Corning-Willows Canal, perhaps suggesting that the canal will revitilize the area through irrigation. The smaller snapshot images offer complementary views suggesting the life-giving promise of the project: impressive looking canals, sluice gates, dams, a construction site, and more.

[Description provided by Caroliniana]

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Caroliniana, 2020.
Processing information:

Liz Phillips created this finding aid with information supplied by Caroliniana.

Physical location:
Researchers should contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
Physical facet:
Green cloth binding. 27 black and white photographs pasted to rectos of 22 leaves, each photograph accompanied by printed number and detailed caption on the leaves. 15 of the photos measure approximate 4.5 x 3 inches, while the other 12 measure 7 x 5 inches.
Dimensions:
11 x 8.75 inches
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Bureau of Reclamation Irrigation Project Photographic Trade Catalog, MC310, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.

Location of this collection:
University of California, Davis, Special Collections, UC Davis Library
100 NW Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292, US
Contact:
(530) 752-1621
speccoll@ucdavis.edu
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