Photographs made during the Rio Grande Project in New Mexico, Salt River Project in Arizona, and Yuma Project in Arizona and California. The collection includes images of scenery, roads and wagons, Apache workers, dams, farms, and remains of Fort Selden, Fort McRae, and Mesilla Jail. There are also two images, possibly not made by Lubken and probably made before 1900, of Casa Grande castle.
Biographical/Historical note:
Walter J. Lubken (1881–1960) was an official photographer for the United States Reclamation Service (now Bureau of Reclamation) from 1903 to 1917. While in this position, he documented irrigation projects in the American West. Lubken left the Reclamation Service and the photography profession in 1917, but returned to photograph the construction of the Hoover Dam (formerly Boulder Dam) in the 1930s.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 87-2H
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs by Lubken can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 24 and the BAE historical negatives.
The National Archives and Records Administration and the Sharlot Hall Museum hold photographs by Lubken.
Contained in:
Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collections, undated
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 87-2H, Walter J. Lubken photographs of the Salt River, Rio Grande, and Yuma Projects, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Glass negatives
Photographs
Scope and Contents:
Copy from Reclamation Service, 1907, Salt RIver Project, Arizona. Date probably not earlier than 1903 when Reclamation Service began Roosevelt Dam, Salt RIver Project.
Glass plate negative received (1/65) from Bureau of Indian Affairs. Published as illustration on page 77, National Geog., "From the War-Path to the Plow," by Franklin K. Lane, 1915, volume XXVII. Photographer credited as C.J. Blanchard.
Local Numbers:
NAA INV 9992800 ; OPPS NEG 4637
Local Note:
Number 49 on BIA list. ; Slightly different pose of same family in USNM collection, catalog number 387,304:(25), pawn (acc.) with caption "84 Bla Typical Blackfeet Indian Camp on the Blackfeet Reservation, showing Carlisle Ironbreast and his family. W.J.L. Aug. 23, 1909. "For full name of photographer see Spawn original print entry, N.M. catalog Number 387,304. ; Tinted slide of same in National Archives, Record Group 115, Lecture #5, Slide #84 (see Spawn original print entry, N.M. Catalog Number 387,304 re this record group) with caption: " Carlisle Ironbreast and family camp on Blackfeet reservation."
Standing: White Horse Rider. Sitting: Fox Woman - identified by negative number 430-e which see. Glass plate negative received (1/65) from Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Local Numbers:
NAA INV 9992900 ; OPPS NEG 4639
Local Note:
Number 57 on BIA list. ; Original print of same in USNM collection, catalog number 387,304:(27), Spawn (acc.) with caption "87 Bla Typical Indian Scene on the Blackfeet Reservation.W.J.L. Aug. 23, 1909." For full name of photographer see Spawn original print entry, N.M. catalog Number 387,304. ; Negative number 430-e is same subject, but negative is not as good as this negative 4639.
Notes taken down by Dr William C. Sturtevant: "Done for Col. Lemp's grandfather, John Lemp (1838-1912) of Boise,Idaho, on whose land the subject 'chief' often camped. Believed by Col. Lemp to be either Nez Perce or Bannock."
Date not recorded; before 1912.
Photographer: Walter Lubken, Boise, Idaho.
Local Numbers:
OPPS NEG.728632
Local Note:
Embossed in lower right hand corner of original print: "Walter Lubkin, Boise, Idaho."
Arb. Number 45 in NAA survey of unprocessed North American Indian photos, 1972.
Woman in Native Dress, Making Basket Outside Fabric-Covered Wickiup; Pitch-Covered Basket Jugs, Basket, Metate, Metal Cookware, Animal Skin and Saddle Nearby; Hide Pegged For Processing in Foreground
