February 21, 2014

Photo Friday: Great dams trap and tame the water (1927)

“Great dams trap and tame the water, hoarding its energy until needed. Grandes diques atrapan y amansan el agua, acaparando su energa hasta que el hombre la necesite.“ This photograph is a part of the online photography exhibit “Form and Landscape,” a collaborative project from William Deverell and Gren Hise.

By Melissa C. Lott

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"Great dams trap and tame the water, hoarding its energy until needed.

Grandes diques atrapan y amansan el agua, acaparando su energía hasta que el hombre la necesite."

This photograph is a part of the online photography exhibit "Form and Landscape," a collaborative project from William Deverell and Greg Hise. In this exhibit, Deverell and Hise share some of the more than 70,000 photos currently held by The Huntington Library in their Southern California Edison archive. These archives document the electrification of the greater Los Angeles area, with photographs taken across California from the late nineteenth century to the 1970s.

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Photo Credit: G. Haven Bishop (1879-1972), Shaver Lake Dam, Big Creek Hydroelectric Project, 1927. Southern California Edison Collection, courtesy of The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Used here with permission.

H/T to Jen Christiansen for sending me the online link to this exhibit. Thanks also to Bill Deverell and Thea Page for giving the "OK" to share these photographs on "Plugged In" and (along with Deborah Miller) their help in identifying who to credit for this photo.

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