[Small Album of Annotated Photographs Documenting Concrete Construction and Civil Engineering Projects in the American West During the Early 20th Century]

[Various locations including Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa], 1919. Very good plus.. Forty-two original black-and-white photographs and real photo postcards, most with manuscript annotations, bound into a two-ring leather binder. Two additional postcards laid in. Minor occasional dust soiling, but overall in excellent shape. An intriguing pocket-sized binder containing a collection of photographs and real photo postcards documenting large-scale construction projects in the American West, mostly involving concrete projects such as dams, drainage, reservoir infrastructure, railroads, and more between about 1913 to 1920. All of the projects occur on or west of the Mississippi River, in locations such as Keokuk, Iowa; Ardmore, South Dakota; Grand Island, Nebraska; and Arminto, Wyoming. The projects cover a wide range of subject matter, from a simple base for a railroad mail sack crane to entire dam wall construction, and seem to feature several involving sprayable concrete, commonly known as gunite. This material was rather new in the 1910s, but is still widely in use to the present day.

The majority of the images are captioned in manuscript, identifying the project or location or often both. These include a power-generating dam in Keokuk; reinforcement of a reservoir dam near Lysite, Wyoming; widening of a cut for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad through Arminto; memorializing a concrete crib wall for the same railroad at the Bancroft St. Vincent Omaha; the installation of an eighteen-inch wall casting and sinking the Kelly well in Grand Island; documenting frost action on a brick chimney and water tank and also picturing a "concrete gun" in Worland, Wyoming; and others. The images are organized into two sections with small tabs, one reading "Dams" and the other "Miscellan."

The compiler of the pictures is not identified, but he or she was most likely involved in the operational aspects of the construction projects. One of the captions is initialed at the bottom, "JRH," which may help scholars identify the compiler with further research. The binder itself was produced in Kansas City, which may be an additional clue to the compiler's identity. A small but focused collection featuring major western construction projects from the early-20th century.