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Bureau of Reclamation Irrigation
Project Photographic Trade Catalog
MC310
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Davis Library,
Dept. of Special Collections
Title: Bureau of Reclamation Irrigation Project Photographic
Trade Catalog
Creator:
United States. Bureau of
Reclamation.
Identifier/Call Number: MC310
Physical Description:
1
volume
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.
11 x 8.75 inches
Date (inclusive):
1948-1949
Abstract: Annotated photograph
album of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects in Oregon
and California.
Physical Location: Researchers should
contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections,
as many are stored offsite.
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]
Collection is open for research.
Liz Phillips created this finding aid with information
supplied by Caroliniana.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Caroliniana, 2020.
[Identification of item], Bureau of Reclamation Irrigation
Project Photographic Trade Catalog, MC310, Archives and Special
Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California,
Davis.
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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Irrigation -- California -- History --
Pictorial works
Irrigation -- Oregon -- History --
Pictorial works
Central Valley Project
(Calif.)
Klamath Project (U.S.)
Michael and Margaret B. Harrison
Western Research Center