Photographs River des Peres Drainage Works Section J [cover title]
St. Louis: 1926-1931. Cover letter, plus 109 photographs, all 8 x 10 inches, including about thirty duplicate prints. Contemporary brad-bound wrappers, typed title label on front cover. Moderate soiling and significant edge wear and tearing to wrappers. Varying levels of marginal chipping to cover letter, first two photographs, and top right edge of several later photographs, with some mostly marginal staining. Good. Item #3720
An informative collection of photographs featuring the right of way on Section J of the River des Peres Drainage Works project in St. Louis from the Fall of 1926 to August 1933. According to the cover letter to the earliest group of photographs from the District Engineer, E.E. Ashlock, the first group of photographs were taken between September 14th and 16th, 1926 by the assistant engineer of his department, Harrold I. Smutz. Ashlock also includes a detailed listing with descriptions of the contents of some of the photographs, keyed from "J-1" to "J-11." Following Ashlock's cover letter are over a hundred photographs detailing the River des Peres project, with additional typed annotations for the later group of photographs. The project pictured here was undertaken after a series of significant floods in St. Louis. The River des Peres, at the confluence of the Mississippi River, was effectively channelized and its contents redirected underground through a series of large pipes. The river functions today as a critical part of the city's sanitary and storm water system, a role it took on after the project pictured here.
The photographs depict a wide range of perspectives of the River des Peres, showing views of upstream equipment, pictures taken from an "old road looking east across the cleared right of way," from a "road west...looking downstream along right of way," "on crest of hill...looking upstream showing cut timber to be covered by spoil," and so forth. The photographs are often annotated on the verso, sometimes in pen and sometimes on small sheets with typed captions. A typical caption reads: "300 feet west of Sta. 201 on old road, looking east. Men are standing on West R. of W. line. The line shown is the west of R. of W. line. East R. of W. line is approximately along line of Telegraph poles."
The first twenty-two photographs were taken in September 1926. The next thirteen images were produced in 1927-28. The remainder of the images were produced from 1931 to 1933. About thirty of the images are present in duplicate, but one or both of the images are usually produced at different exposures or sometimes one of the images is annotated or has additional information captioned on the front or back. In several cases, on both the unique images and some of the duplicates, an engineer has drawn the right of way lines on the surface of the images and added additional explanatory text, especially in the earlier images.
An important group of photographs showing the state of a major St. Louis public works project in the midst of the Roaring Twenties, and one of the largest and most significant public works projects of its time.
Price: $2,250.00