Abstract
The Morgan Sweeney Photograph Collection (approximately 1922-1969) consists of black-and-white photographic prints of Boulder City, Nevada, and Lake Mead and Hoover Dam areas, located on the border between Arizona and Nevada. The images depict the interior, exterior, and construction stages of Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam). There is also an aerial photograph of Boulder City, Nevada.
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Scope and Contents Note
The Morgan Sweeney Photograph Collection (approximately 1922-1969) consists of black-and-white photographic prints of Boulder City, Nevada, and Lake Mead and Hoover Dam areas, located on the border between Arizona and Nevada. The images depict the interior, exterior, and construction stages of Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam). There is also an aerial photograph of Boulder City, Nevada.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Biographical / Historical Note
Lake Mead, located in Clark County, Nevada and Mohave County, Arizona on the Colorado River, is the
sixteenth largest man-made lake in the world. Its surface area is 164,000 acres with a storage volume of 26,134,000 acre-feet. The National Park Service originally named Lake Mead the "Boulder Dam Recreation Area" in 1936 preceding Hoover Dam's (Boulder Dam) construction, existing as the United State's largest reservoir at the time. In 1947, the National Park Service then renamed the reservoir Lake Mead after Dr. Elwood Mead, who was the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation from 1924 to 1936. In 1964, Public Law 88-639 established the Lake Mead National Recreation Area under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Over time, Lake Mead's water level fluctuated from its highest point in July 1983 at 1,225 feet, down to its current height at 1,083 feet in 2019. However, Lake Mead still exists as one of the largest reservoirs in the United States with depths surpassing 300 feet. Lake Mead National Recreation Area is also the sixth most visited park in the National Park System and the premier inland water recreation area in the Western United States.
The United States Bureau of Reclamation began construction on Hoover Dam in the Black Canyon, located on the Nevada-Arizona border, in 1932. The Black Canyon Project dammed the Colorado River and
constructed a hydroelectric power plant to provide electricity to the southwestern United States. The dam created the reservoir known as Lake Mead. Originally called Boulder Dam, the government officially
renamed it Hoover Dam in 1947 in honor of President Herbert Hoover.
Sources:
"Hoover Dam." History.com Editors. History. August 21, 2018. Accessed August 27, 2019. https://
www.history.com/topics/great-depression/hoover-dam.
"Lake Mead Statistics." Lakes Online. July 18, 2019. Accessed August 27, 2019. http://
www.mead.uslakes.info/Statistics.asp
"Lake Mead Water Level." Lakes Online. July 18, 2019. Accessed August 27, 2019. http://
mead.uslakes.info/level.asp
"Lake Mead." Vegas.com. 2019. Accessed August 27, 2019. https://www.vegas.com/attractions/near-lasvegas/lake-mead/
Preferred Citation
Morgan Sweeney Photograph Collection, approximately 1922-1969. PH-00228. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 1978 by Morgan Sweeney; accession number 1978-080.
Processing Note
In 2020, Sarah Jones created a finding aid using existing description from Digital Collections and entered it into ArchivesSpace.