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WAUJonesWesleyPHColl715.xml Guide to the Wesley L. Jones Photograph Collection 1910-1927 Jones (Wesley. L.) Photograph Collection Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries © 2009 (Last modified: 1/31/2020)

Seattle, WA 98195

Finding aid written in English. Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard). University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections PH0715 Jones, Wesley Livsey, 1863-1932 Wesley L. Jones photograph collection 1910-1927 1927 3 boxes, 1 folder 309 photographic prints (2 boxes) ; various sizes 47 lantern slides (1 box) 1 pen & ink drawing on paper Collection materials are inEnglish. Portraits of Wesley Jones, lantern slides of Alaska, images of the flooding of the White and Cache Rivers, in Clarendon, Arkansas, and an album with images of the Mississippi River Flood of 1927

Wesley Livsey Jones was born on an Illinois farm in 1863, just days after his father died while serving in the Union army. Jones became a lawyer, and at the age of 26 he moved his practice to North Yakima (now Yakima). He quickly became involved with the Republican Party and was nominated to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1898. The Republican slate in Washington swept the elections, whisking Jones into office. He served in the House for ten years before running successfully for the U.S. Senate in 1908. He described himself a “conservative progressive”; a desire for compromise and an aversion to controversy characterized his political style. When many Republicans bolted to form the Progressive Party in 1912, Jones remained a “regular” Republican but moderated the dispute and helped pave the way for the re-integration of Washington’s Progressives in 1916.

Jones rose to become the Republican whip and served as chairman of the powerful Appropriations and Commerce Committees. Jones unflaggingly promoted federal investment in the Pacific Northwest; he led the development of the Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, successfully championed several federal irrigation projects in the region, and drafted the Jones Merchant Marine Act of 1920, which stipulated that only American ships could carry cargo between American ports (which made Alaska dependent on Seattle-owned shipping firms). Jones also helped craft the compromise which became the Federal Water Power Act of 1920. Jones staunchly advocated Prohibition throughout his career and sponsored several failed bills to tighten enforcement of the Volstead Act in the 1920s. While this “dry” stance initially increased his popularity, Jones seemed out of touch and puritanical in the late-1920s as Washingtonians increasingly viewed Prohibition as a failure. Jones ran for a fifth term in 1932, but was hampered both by deteriorating health and by association with an unpopular party headed by the unpopular President Hoover. Just as a Republican landslide had swept him into Congress thirty-four years earlier, a Democratic landslide swept him out in 1932 and replaced him with the liberal Homer Bone. Jones died less than three weeks after his defeat.

In the spring of 1927, after weeks of unusually heavy rains, the Mississippi River and its tributaries breached levees causing massive and widespread flooding throughout the Mississippi River Valley. At the time, it was the worst flood in the history of the valley. An area of 27,000 miles was affected and it is estimated that as many as a thousand people lost their lives and one million were left homeless.

Prior to the flood, in Greenville, Mississippi and other areas tens of thousands of African Americans were relocated to camps on levees and the men were forced to work for little or no pay. On April 16th, when the flooding began, many African Americans were killed when Greenville levee collapsed. One week later, thirteen thousand African Americans were still stranded on the Greenville levee.

As the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Jones was involved in legislation related to the development of levees in the Mississippi River Valley prior to, and after the 1927 flood. Jones collaborated with Senator Frank R. Reid from Illinois, Republican chair of the House Flood Control Committee, to write the Reid-Jones Bill that provided for improvements to the Mississippi River for flood control and navigation. The album photographs may have been used as visual aids for Senate hearings held by Senators Jones and Reid in support of this bill. In late May 1927, Jones and nine members of the House Flood Control Committee took part in a fact-finding tour of the flooded Mississippi Valley area. The 1928 Flood Control Act was signed into law by President Coolidge and provided that the Federal government help to bear the costs associated with improvements to the Mississippi River.

Collection includes portraits of Wesley Jones, lantern slides of Alaska, images of the flooding of the White and Cache Rivers, in Clarendon, Arkansas, and an album with images of the Mississippi River Flood of 1927. Glass lantern slides in this collection may have been used as visual aids by Senator Jones for related presentations.

Photographs are arranged in four series: Wesley L. Jones portraits Lantern slides of Alaska Flooding of the White and Cache Rivers, Clarendon, Arkansas Mississippi River Flood of 1927 Album

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The collection is open to the public.

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Processed by Carolyn E. Dunford, 2005.

The Mississippi River Flood of 1927 Album was relocated from the Wesley L. Jones Papers, Accession No. 0157-001 in the repository. It was originally given PH Collection 264, but has been subsequently merged into this collection.

Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington) Jones, Wesley Livsey, 1896-1932--Photographs Alaska--Photographs Mississippi River Valley--Photographs Legislators--United States--Photographs African Americans--Mississippi--Photographs Floods--Arkansas--Clarendon--Photographs Floods--Mississippi River Valley--Photographs Floods--Southern States--Photographs Homeless camps--Photographs Homeless camps--Mississippi--Photographs Photographs Photograph albums Lantern slides Photographs African Americans Environmental Conditions Alaska

Wesley L. Jones portraits OS4 1 Portrait of Wesley L. Jones 1911 Fenton 1/1 2 Portrait of Wesley L. Jones circa 1920s Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. 1/1 3 Wesley L. Jones shaking hands with another man circa 1920s Ray Haas 1/1 4 Wesley L. Jones with a group of men circa 1920s Ray Haas Lantern slides of Alaska

These lantern slides most likely originate from the Alaska Bureau of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Many of these images appear in the brochure "Alaska: Our Frontier Wonderland" which was first published in 1911 by the Alaska Bureau of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

2/1 5 Map showing land areas suitable for cultivation and grazing 1912 2/2 6 Map showing area comparison with the Scandinavian Peninsula 1913 2/3 7 Map of U.S. showing lines of equal average temperatures for winter months undated 2/4 8 Map showing arable lands (missing 2005)) undated 2/5 9 Map showing land areas with coal deposits 1913 Curtis & Miller, Seattle, Washington 2/6 10 Map showing size of Alaska relative to United States 1915 2/7 11 Placer mining; shoveling in Nome undated F. H. Nowell, Nome 2/8 12 Hydraulic mining, Chititu Creek undated 2/9 13 Dredge on Solomon River September 21, 1902 F. H. Nowell, Nome

Hand colored

2/10 14 Treadwell mine undated 2/11 15 La Touche copper mine undated 2/12 16 Ore bunkers, Kennicott undated 2/13 17 Marble quarry at Tokien undated E. B. Thompson, Washington, D.C.

Hand colored

2/14 18 Coal bed, Nenana Field undated 2/15 19 Scow load of salmon undated Curtis & Miller, Seattle, Washington 2/16 20 Santa Ana Cannery, southeast Alaska undated E. R. Warner, Seattle

Hand colored

2/17 21 Seal herd, Pribilof Islands undated LaVoy 2/18 22 Reindeer herd undated Curtis & Miller, Seattle, Washington 2/19 23 Potato patch at Nenana, Tanana Valley undated Curtis & Miller, Seattle, Washington

Hand colored

2/20 24 Government farm at Fairbanks undated Curtis & Miller, Seattle, Washington