Abstract
The Emily Higby Powell Photograph Album (approximately 1910-1920) contains black-and-white photographs taken by Emily Higby Powell on a trip from New York to the west coast. The images depict desert landscape throughout the Southwest, including Northern Nevada, as well as images taken on Lake Champlain in Essex, New York.
Finding Aid PDF
Date
Extent
Related People/Corporations
Scope and Contents Note
The Emily Higby Powell Photograph Album (approximately 1910-1920) contains black-and-white photographs taken by Emily Higby Powell on a trip from New York to the west coast. The images depict desert landscape throughout the Southwest, including Northern Nevada, as well as images taken on Lake Champlain in Essex, New York.
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.
Arrangement
Materials remain as they were received.
Biographical / Historical Note
Emily Higby Powell was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 25, 1887, the second of six children born to Stephen Alonzo and Julia Eliza Morhous Powell. In 1910, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College and returned home to work as a secretary at her father's paper business. Powell's journey across the United States took place sometime between her college graduation and her decision, in 1917, to support the war effort as a Red Cross canteen worker in Europe. Returning to the United States in 1921, Powell rejoined her father's company, working and traveling extensively throughout Europe and the Caribbean until her death in November 1969. Never married, she remained close to her family and the photograph album of her early travels found its way to her great-nephew, Stephen Alonzo Powell III.
Stephen Alonzo Powell III was born July 21, 1933 in Summit, New Jersey, the son of Bryan B. and Elizabeth Baker Powell. Graduating in 1955 from Hamilton College, New York, he enlisted in the army. Following his military service, he obtained a Master of Library Science degree from Rutgers University in 1962 and started work at the University of Nevada, Reno as an acquisitions librarian. Moving from Reno to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1969, he joined Library Special Collections at Nevada Southern University, later the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In 1972, he created the first published bibliography of the department’s growing gaming collection. Before leaving the university in 1980, Powell donated his great-aunt's photograph album to the archive. Returning to the east coast, he eventually settling in Doylestown, Pennsylvania and began a long career in book-selling, specializing in modern literary first editions. Stephen A. Powell died on Septermber 18, 2007.
Sources:
Ancestry.com search for Emily Higby Powell, accessed October 10, 2019, https://www.ancestry.com/search/
Find A Grave memorial page for Emily H. Powell, 1887-1969, accessed October 10, 2019, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/187109078/emily-h_-powell#source
Wellesley College, "Wellesley College Calendar 1910-1911" (1910), The Wellesley College Catalogs, Book 17,
accessed October 10, 2019, http://repository.wellesley.edu/catalogs/17
Hamilton College, "Hamilton Magazine," Spring, 2008, accessed October 10, 2019, https://www.hamilton.edu/magazine/spring08/necrology/1950s#powell
Preferred Citation
Emily Higby Powell Photograph Album, approximately 1910-1920. PH-00114. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 1980 by Stephen Powell; accession number 1980-132.
Processing Note
In 2019, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Sarah Jones and Melise Leech rehoused the materials, wrote the finding aid, and entered the data into ArchivesSpace.