Skip to main content

Search the Special Collections and Archives Portal

Film transparency of the face of Hoover (Boulder) Dam, taken from the downstream side of the dam on the Nevada side, May, 1947

Image

File
Download pho017828.tif (image/tiff; 19.34 MB)

Information

Date

1947-05

Description

The face of Hoover (Boulder) Dam, taken from the downstream side of the dam on the Nevada side. May, 1947. The intake towers are visible in the background. The Arizona spillway is visible at the far right of the photograph. During the years of lobbying leading up to the passage of legislation authorizing the dam in 1928, Hoover Dam was originally referred to "Boulder Dam" or as "Boulder Canyon Dam", even though the proposed site had shifted to Black Canyon. The Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 (BCPA) never mentions a proposed name or title for the dam. When Secretary Wilbur spoke at the ceremony starting the building of the railway between Las Vegas and the dam site on September 17, 1930, he named the dam "Hoover Dam", citing a tradition of naming dams after Presidents, though none had been so honored during their terms of office. After Hoover's election defeat in 1932 and the accession of the Roosevelt administration, Secretary Ickes ordered on May 13, 1933 that the dam be referred to as "Boulder Dam". In the following years, the name "Boulder Dam" failed to fully take hold, with many Americans using both names interchangeably and map makers divided as to which name should be printed. In 1947, a bill passed both Houses of Congress unanimously restoring the name to "Hoover Dam".

Digital ID

pho017828

Physical Identifier

0245_0024
    Details

    Citation

    pho017828. Anita Freeman Photograph Collection on Southern Nevada. PH-00245. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada. http://n2t.net/ark:/62930/d1610vw1j.

    Rights

    This material is made available to facilitate private study, scholarship, or research. It may be protected by copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity rights, or other interests not owned by UNLV. Users are responsible for determining whether permissions are necessary from rights owners for any intended use and for obtaining all required permissions. Acknowledgement of the UNLV University Libraries is requested. For more information, please see the UNLV Special Collections policies on reproduction and use (https://www.library.unlv.edu/speccol/research_and_services/reproductions) or contact us at special.collections@unlv.edu.

    Standardized Rights Statement

    Digital Provenance

    Digitized materials: physical originals can be viewed in Special Collections and Archives reading room

    Extent

    2916 x 2318 pixels
    4.86 x 3.863 inches
    20,278,744 bytes

    Language

    English

    Publisher

    University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

    Format

    image/tiff