Archives West Finding Aid

The Records of the Agricultural Engineering Department fall into two distinct series, photographs and reports.

The photographs are in three easily identifiable sections. The first are the numbered photographs, 1925-1938. Many of these were glued onto labeled file folders with other photographs and negatives placed loose in the folders. In many cases the glue had dried out and the photographs were loose in the folder. All photographs were removed from the original folders and placed in acid neutral envelopes with their accompanying negatives. The envelopes were then placed in file folders which retained the original numerical and subject identification. The original numerical system, which consisted of two, three, or four digit numbers, was slightly modified to make all numbers four digits by adding zeros at the end, e.g. 20 became 2000, 221 became 2210 and 2217 remained the same. The only anomaly in this system is the Pea combining series under Harvesting machinery which had an original number of 31310. Most of the prints in this group are undated, but appear to date from the 1920s and 1930s. Among the subjects covered in this group of photographs are land development, flood control and irrigation, tillage, seeding, and harvesting machinery, rural electrification, and farm buildings.

The second group of numbered photographs, 1955-1979 were taken by or for John E. Dixon and have the prefix JD. The prints are mounted on both sides of 8 1/2" x 11" pages. Originally the negatives were in envelopes glued to the same page as the print, but many of the envelopes were loose, so all were removed and placed in order in separate boxes. In some cases numbers have been repeated in different years. Some of the subjects included in this group of photographs are trench silos, potato storage, and poultry houses .

The final group of photographs includes prints similar to those in the first group, and pictures of types of tractors supplied by the Caterpillar, International Harvester, and J.I Case companies. Also included in this group are lantern slides of agricultural implements, electrification, poultry and other agricultural topics, filmstrips and accompanying phonograph Records, and 16mm motion pictures. Titles for the filmstrips and records are listed in Appendix A.

The second series contains various reports issued by the Department of Agricultural Engineering. The Annual reports, 1925-1966 (1946 is lacking), are carbon typescripts containing the reports of departmental activities, photographs, and publications. The years 1950 to 1953 also contain the report of the Agricultural Engineer in a separate volume.

The Water use studies, Northside pumping division, Minidoka project are mimeographed reports prepared by the assistant irrigationist who was a member of the Agricultural Engineering Department. The study was a joint project of the University of Idaho and the Bureau of Reclamation. These are followed by a series of individual reports which are alphabetical by title.

The final group of reports concern farm electrification. They consist of maps, information on a conference in Davis, California in 1947, and correspondence and related material from the Idaho Farm Electrification Committee which were originally in notebooks. The minutes of these meetings duplicate other holdings in Special Collections and were therefore removed from the collection. Also included are transcripts for a radio program "Some practical solutions of farm electrification problems" prepared by the Rural Electrification Section of General Electric, and broadcast over station WGY, Schenectady, New York.

Remaining items include the Idaho Power Company sales campaign brochures to encourage sales staff, and a notebook labeled "Permanent Records" which contains histories of the department and the Experiment Station, lease agreements for equipment and records of equipment purchased. This notebook is arranged alphabetically by company.

Duplicate photographs were removed from the collection, as were duplicates of the annual reports and Minidoka study reports. Many of the items in the Idaho Farm Electrification Committee are in the cataloged collection of Special Collections, and duplicate material was removed from this record group. These include Annual Reports (Day NW TK 4018 I3); Progress reports (Day NW TK 4018 I3a; and Minutes (Day NW TK 4018 I3b). In all the collection was reduced by 9.5 cubic feet.