Items of the Week: Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Kier Saftey Newsletters, Grand Coulee Dam historic documents

One of the fun things about the Western Waters Digital Library is the variety of interesting historical documents you can find. The M.W.A.K Columbian Newsletter from Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Kier CO was sent to residents of the area and workers on the Grand Coulee Dam Construction project.

The newsletters are full of useful tips like “Do not stand behind concrete buckets when being lifted!” and “Never look at the brilliant light from a welding arc!” The M.W.A.K. scoops column give you an overview of humor and riddles from 1937. These documents come from Washington State University’s Frank Arthur Banks Papers, 1913-1957. The Western Waters Digital Library has other historic newsletters from different organizations for you to browse as well.

Western Waters Digital Library Item of the Week: Contractor’s Christmas Display

As part of our WWDL news blog, we are going to feature selected items from the many collections in the Western Waters Digital Library. This week’s item is a photo from the Grand Coulee Dam site, “Contractor’s Christmas Display,” which comes to the Western Waters Digital Library from Washington State University’s Frank Arthur Banks Collection. The Frank Arthur Banks Collection contains “project histories of several Bureau of Reclamation projects directed by Banks, ephemeral engineering publications connected with the Grand Coulee Project, printed items of restricted circulation such as engineering reports, and Banks’ correspondence, notes and papers re: private consultation projects, notably the Bhakra Dam in India.”

You can search the Western Waters Digital Library for more historic photos by choosing “image” under type on the advanced search page.