Collection includes: Album 1. 1931-1935. Oblong Quarto album (ca. 18,5x28,5 cm or 7 ¼ x 10 ¾ in). 48 card stock leaves. With ca. 152 mounted original gelatin silver photos, from ca. 9x15 cm (3 ½ x 5 ¾ in) to ca. 4,5x6 cm (1 ¾ x 2 ¼ in) and 31 pieces of ephemera: satirical sketch, lists of water department crews, newspaper clippings. All of the photos are captioned. Album 2. 1935-1939. Oblong Quarto album (ca. 20,5x31 cm or 8 x 12 ¼ in). 48 card stock leaves (28 blank) With ca. 187 mounted original gelatin silver photos, from ca. 9x15 cm (3 ½ x 5 ¾ in) to ca. 4,5x6 cm (1 ¾ x 2 ¼ in) and 15 pieces of ephemera including maps, flyers, restaurant menu, handwritten personal lists, letter and invitation card, newspaper clippings. Album 3. 1939-1943. Oblong Quarto album (ca. 18,5x28,5 cm or 7 ¼ x 10 ¾ in). 48 card stock leaves. Oblong Quarto album (ca. 20,5x31 cm or 8 x 12 ¼ in). 48 card stock leaves (27 blank) With ca. 178 mounted original gelatin silver photos, from ca. 9x15 cm (3 ½ x 5 ¾ in) to ca. 4,5x6 cm (1 ¾ x 2 ¼ in) and 15 pieces of ephemera cut-out map, invitation to Water District Employees Association  1939 Valentine Party, handwritten letter by Jones from MA, newspaper clippings. Folder 1. 30 separate gelatin silver photos, including several of Jones’ early portraits. 1900-1910s from ca. 14x24 cm (5 ½ x 9 ½ in) to ca. 4,5x6 cm (1 ¾ x 2 ¼ in), 3 issues of Colorado River Aqueduct News from 1934-1935 and a copy of Compressed Air Magazine from June of 1934. 

Period dark cloth albums with blind-tooled generic title “Photographs” on the front covers; fastened with strings. Strings of all three are loose. Leaves fragile, some photos are loose, but none were taken out of the albums. Rust from the staples on the few photos and ephemera. Overall in very good condition. 

Historically significant archive, documenting the work and life of Harwood Jones, the water engineer of Metropolitan Water Department of Los Angeles (1931-1939), later United Concrete Pipe Corporation (1939-1942) with the detailed photo-documentation of the sights he has worked, the colleagues who have accompanied him and his leisure time in California and out-of-state. 

Ca. 150 photos in the albums are dedicated to Jones’ work for the Metropolitan Water Department in California, mainly his contribution to the constriction of Los Angeles Aqueduct System, undertaken in 1930s. In 1925, the Department of Water and Power (DWP) was established, and the voters of Los Angeles approved a $2 million bond issue to perform the engineering for the Colorado River Aqueduct. An act of the State Legislature created the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). Its original purpose was to construct the Colorado River Aqueduct to supply supplemental water to Southern California. In 1931, voters approved a $220 million bond issue for construction, and work began on the ten-year project that would bring the water 300 miles to the coast.

Harwoods’ work began in 1931 with mapping and surveying expeditions to different parts of Colorado River valley and beyond for the Department. Album 1 documents those trips meticulously, with every photo captioned and every man from the workforce identified by the first and last names.

The places surveyed and photographed included Copper Basin Reservoir, CA, San Dimas Canyon, Palous Canyon, CA, Vidal, CA, Hayfield, CA, Mount San Jacinto reservoir site, Santa Fe bridge across Colorado river near Parker, AZ, Idyllwild, CA.

Important are the photos of The Parker Dam site (July 1931) before the construction began showing Parker, AZ and Earp, CA on the both sides of state border. Coolidge Dam, AZ is also featured on few photos, likely another sight of Jones’ work.

The album includes 5 group photos of the mapping expedition, with lists of names handwritten by Jones, longest one consisting of 36 people.  

Album 2 includes three maps of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Colorado River Aqueduct with Harwood’s marks and the note at the bottom ‘with the exception of Coycomb tunnel and the Freda Siphon I’ve been on the entire line from River to Caljaleo Reservoir’.

Later in the same album Jones photo documented mine rescue squad in Mecca, CA, where as a result of the flooding the mines were flooded and his expertise was deployed. Also shown Fargo Canyon Berdoo water line, CA damaged by the flooding with the photos of ‘road washed from under’ (according to the captions). Other photos from the album include the concrete machines, mixers, bulkhead construction, earth movers at work

And tunnel liming in different parts of the state: the installation of 58 miles of concrete conduits for Metropolitan Water System of LA - that resulted in delivering water from Colorado river to 13 CA cities, called ‘One of the biggest digging Jobs in history’ by LA Times, with 17 million tons of earth removed. 

Evidently through his work on liming for MWS, Jones got hired by United Concrete Pipe Corporation of California sometime around 1939 and has started to travel more across the country - most of Album 3 is dedicated to this part of his work life. His first work trip on the East Coast was to Southboro, MA for the building of Metropolitan Tunnel. The photos show the building of the shafts, the preparation of the dynamite deployment - this resulted in constructing of Ware to Boston water tunnel. Other projects done by Jones took him to Hawaii, Florida and other parts of California. Some photos suggest that Jones’ were assigned work in South America, namely Brazil, but no significant photos from there are present in the album. Ca. 40 photos document his work for United Concrete, accompanied by the newspaper clippings and explanations in captions, although his work for SoCal Aqueduct System is much better documented in Albums 1-2. 

8 photos of Native American interest are located in Albums 2-3: a photo at Indian school of Hayfield, CA with ‘Mr.Dudley’, the teacher and 7 images of Seminole Indian village, FL including the portrait of two native girls in traditional dresses, the photos of the huts and bridges and the canoe. 

In all the albums the photos of Jones’ friends, family trips and his leisure activities are mixed in between the engineering photos. Jones’ lived in Glendale, CA and often visited (or also lived for a period of time) in La Jolla, CA, so his family’s life in San Diego area is pretty well-documented.

1941 photos include images of San Diego suburbs, Colorado Beach, Ferry to Coronado, Catalina Boat, Catalina bird farm, Mexican musical band at the beach,  9 photos photos of Lindberg Field (San Diego Airpot), Big Pines, CA recreation camp.

Severn photos show Jones’ friend Mo going underwater wearing  breathing apparatus, last photo captioned ‘after coming up from exploring the ocean bottom’ on a boat. 

Jones’ friends were a diverse group of people and all of them are captioned in the albums - among his LA friends were Latino-Americans Olga Delgadillo and Jela Honduras, his other friend was Loretta Turnbull the world's first female speedboat drive champion, photographed 1 year before her historic race on Dec 7,1930 at Lake Elsinore, CA captioned ‘After the Ladies Championship Race’. The albums  32 newspaper clippings about Turnbull’s career, TLSletter from Loretta Turnbull to Harwood thanking him for the engagement congratulations together with the invitation to the Mr.and Mrs. Turnbull engagement party in La Jolla, CA. 

The ephemera, collected in the albums is of special interest as well: apart from the mentioned Southern California Colorado River Aqueduct maps with manuscript additions and ca.80 newspaper clippings about different work projects and life events, also included are Metropolitan Water Department Flyer showing the map of the dams, tunnels and reservoirs supplying Los Angeles with water, Menu from Lucca’s restaurant in Los Angeles (with manuscript additions by Jones), Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Employees Valentine Party from 1939, 3 issues of Colorado River Aqueduct News from 1934-1935, including the one congratulating Harwood’s team on concluding the tunnel at Thousand Palms, CA ahead of time, copy of Compressed Air Magazine from June of 1934, mentioning Harwood’s team work on ‘The Colossal Colorado River Aqueduct to Souther California’. 

Overall a significant archive of a water engineer, who was one of of the people responsible for securing access for people of Los Angeles area to the water of Colorado river.