Thomas Caldwell Adams was born in Salt Lake City on May 12, 1901. He was the only son of Thomas and Emily Caldwell Adams. His father, an attorney, died of typhoid fever on October 11, 1905 at the age of 45. Thomas attended school in Salt Lake City, including the LDS High School from 1915-1918. In the latter year he began studies in Civil Engineering at the University of Utah. His summers were spent working for various engineering firms engaged in drainage surveys around the state of Utah. He graduated from the University in 1922 and went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York for his graduate studies. He received his Ph. D. from there in 1926 and spent one year working on a special investigation for the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
From 1927 to 1941 he was a professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Utah. In 1934, he was made president of the Utah Society of Engineers, an indication of the high standing in which he was held by his colleagues. He spent 1934 and 1935 as the director of the Great Salt Lake Diking Investigations, which were done under the auspices of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. In 1935 he was made a member of the Great Salt Lake Authority. Other professional organizations in which he held office during this time were the American Geophysical Union, the Utah Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Letters and the American Society of Civil Engineers.
His growing expertise in the field of hydrology was reflected by his position as Hydraulic Engineer for the National Resources Planning Board from March to September 1941. In October of 1941, Adams joined the Office of Production Management of the federal government, and was employed there until February of 1942, when he moved to another federal agency, the War Production Board. He stayed with the latter organization until the end of the war in 1945. In that year, he decided to leave both government and teaching and went into business for himself as a private consulting engineer until his death in 1965. During this time, in 1955, he was named president of the Utah Building and Construction Congress.
Besides his busy professional life, Dr. Adams had other interests, many of which centered around the Great Salt Lake. He was a founding member of the Great Salt Lake Yacht Club, and served as its Commodore for several years. He published papers about the lake, and was considered one of the state's foremost authorities on it. His interests also included the history of Saltair Resort, and he was an administrative officer of the Saltair Restoration Division of the Yacht Club. Adams strongly advocated the restoration of the resort. Other activities included serving as Executive Secretary of the Great Salt Lake Lands Association, acting as a leader in the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and membership in Kiwanis and the Timpanogas Club. He never married.
The materials kept their original numbering.
Audio-visual materials can be fragile and require specialized equipment to play back. For this reason, access to audio-visual materials is provided through digital copies, and it might take longer to provide access to items that are not yet digitized. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law, condition of the material, or by donor.
The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library's
Collection Name, Collection Number, Item Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Processed by Molly Steed in 2020.
See also the Thomas Caldwell Adams papers (MS 0043) and photographs (P0043)
The Thomas Caldwell Adams home movie collection has a total of 12 8mm films with various footages around Utah and Nevada, such as the Salt Flats and the Boulder Dam.
A camera operator films the downtown area, the suburbs, and the outskirts of Reno, Nevada on or near March 19th (Engineers' Day). This footage contains many visual glitches and signs of film deterioration.
A group of men travel out of town and through the mountains. While there, they film an aqueduct in the mountains, as well as the surrounding landscapes. The exact location is unspecified, but likely near Salt Lake County.
A team of researchers survey the salt flats near the Great Salt Lake. They travel around the Great Salt Lake via train, where they then study an area likely near Farmington Bay and the Lagoon Amusement Park. There, they barbeque, gather salt, and pilot a boat across the lake to further their hydrograph research.
Contains footage of the operations and surrounding area of mining town, possibly located in or around Virginia City, Nevada.
This film documents the responsibilities of a group of civil engineers working at the University of Utah. The camera operator first films the perimeter of President's Circle in the middle of winter. Then, they film a group of civil engineers designing, discussing, building, and testing different projects, as well as exploring three different project sites.
A segment from a public service announcement produced by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. It explains the history, purpose and capabilities of the Hoover Dam, a hydroelectric power plant in Clark County, Nevada.
A camera operator visits and films different parts of the old Saltair resorts near the Great Salt Lake.
Thomas Caldwell Adams visits the University of Nevada in Reno, Nevada.
Footage of a variety of locations and landmarks in Nevada, including but not limited to: The University of Nevada, Reno and Saint Mary in the Mountains Catholic Church in Virginia City, Nevada.
This film begins in a small town somewhere in Nevada. The camera operator then travels to a larger town via train (possibly through the Western Pacific Railroad). While there, the camera operator filmed a variety of construction projects and landscapes.
A team of researchers explore a cattle farm, a reservoir, a dam, and its surrounding area in the middle of winter. The exact location is unspecified, but likely in either Nevada or Utah.
The camera operator briefly films downtown Salt Lake City from various different angles. Then, a team of four researchers (including the camera operator) pilot a dingy and survey the salt flats likely near the Great Salt Lake. Finally, the camera operator films the landscape and suburbs; they are either located in Davis County or the Salt Lake County.