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Kenji and Helen Shiratori Shiozawa photograph collection, 1925-1999

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Shiozawa, Kenji, 1916-1999; Shiozawa, Helen Teruko Shiratori, 1920-2020
Title
Kenji and Helen Shiratori Shiozawa photograph collection
Dates
1925-1999 (inclusive)
Quantity
7 linear feet, (11 archives boxes)
Collection Number
P2248
Summary
Kenji and Helen Shiratori Shiozawa were Japanese Americans who lived and worked in Utah, Idaho, and California. The Kenji and Helen Shiratori Shiozawa photograph collection consists of color prints, negatives, and transparencies depicting Kenji Shiozawa's work as a landscape architect; Helen Shiratori Shiozawa's work as a schoolteacher; and images of Japanese American family life through the Shiozawa and Shiratori family and friends.
Repository
University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, UT
84112-0860

Telephone: 8015818863
special@library.utah.edu
Access Restrictions

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Languages
English
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Historical Note

Kenji Shiozawa was born on March 26, 2916, in Rigby, Idaho, to Heijiro and Kane Fukura Shiozawa. He graduated from Rigby High School in 1935 and attended Brigham Young University and Utah State University (USU). Kenji Shiozawa graduated from the latter in 1945 with a BA in Landscape Architecture. His studies were interrupted by World War II, and he served in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). After he was discharged, Shiozawa entered graduate school, earning a Masters of Landscape Architecture from USU in 1949. After graduation, Kenji Shiozawa taught at USU in the Department of Landscape Architecture. He worked as District Landscape Architect for the California Division of Beaches and Parks before taking a position as a Landscape Architect Supervisor for the United States Forest Service. In this role, Kenji Shiozawa worked on designing many outdoor spaces, including the Flaming Gorge and Sawtooth National Recreation areas and the recreation facilities at Mount Wheeler/Lehman Caves, now part of Great Basin National Park. Kenji Shiozawa received numerous recognitions for his work throughout his career, including being elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and receiving the outstanding Utah Landscape Architect award twice.

Helen Teruko Shiratori was born on June 20, 1920 in Rexburg, Idaho to Tomi Hagihara and Tsunesaku Shiratori, the second of their twelve children. She attended Madison High School and graduated as one of the valedictorians. Shiratori attended BYU, where she met Kenji Shiozawa. On June 26, 1944, Kenji Shiozawa and Helen Teruko Shiratori married in the Salt Lake City Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Temple; together, they had two children. In 1945, Helen Shiozawa graduated from BYU with a BS in Education. She later attended graduate school, obtaining a Masters of Education from USU in 1972. Helen Shiozawa began her teaching career in Berkeley, California. After the couple returned to Utah, Helen Shiozawa began her long teaching career in Utah. Over the course of her 29-year-long career, she taught at Riverdale Elementary, A. Parley Bates Elementary, and Valley Elementary in Huntsville, retiring from the last in 1987. After retirement, she continued educating others through volunteer work. In 1979, Helen Shiozawa was named Weber School District Teacher of the Year, and in 1993 she received the Huntsman Award for Excellence in Education.

Kenji Shiozawa died on July 24, 1999. Helen Shiratori Shiozawa died on January 26, 2020.

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Content Description

The Kenji and Helen Shiratori Shiozawa photograph collection consists of 12 boxes (in 11 containers) of photograph albums, black-and-white prints, and color transparencies, negatives, and prints documenting Kenji Shiozawa's life and career beginning in his childhood in Idaho and extending through his professional work as a Landscape Architecte and Environmental Planner in Utah, California, and Idaho. It documents Helen Shiratori Shiozawa's career as a teacher in California and Utah.

Throughout his life, Kenji Shiozawa photographed various aspects of nature, landscape, and architecture. The purpose of this was presumably to build a library of reference to support his career as a landscape architect and environmental planner. Frequent subjects that he photographed for this purpose include: trees; flowers and shrubs; pools and patios; power lines and fences; home and public building exteriors; and public parks and landscaping.

In addition to documenting the professional lives and interests of Kenji and Helen Shiratori Shiozawa, this collection contains photographs documenting their family and friends, with particular emphasis on their early married life and family life in the 1950s and 1960s.

This collection was largely organized by format by the donor. This order has been retained as three format series with subseries arranged by subject and date:

  • Series I: Oversize
  • Subseries (Boxes 1-3): Albums and Oversize
  • Series II: Prints and Negatives
  • Subseries (Box 4): Shiozawa Family, 1944-1955
  • Subseries(Boxes 5-6): Kenji Shiozawa's Career, 1950-1985
  • Subseries (Boxes 7-8): Shiozawa Family and Home, 1980-1999
  • Series III: Slides and Transparencies
  • Subseries (Boxes 9-10): Shiozawa Family and Travel, 1950-1968
  • Suberies (Boxes 11-12): Kenji Shiozawa's Career Kenji Shiozawa's Career, circa 1950-1980

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

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 Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Preferred Citation

Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

This collection was broadly organized by format by the donor. This order has been retained as three format series. Within the series, arrangement is by subject and date.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Dennis and Janet Shiozawa in 2020.

Processing Note

Processed by Special Collections staff.

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Separated Materials

See also the Kenji and Helen Shiratori Shiozawa papers (ACCN 3171) in the Manuscripts Division of Special Collections.

Related Materials

Forms part of the Mitsugi M. Kasai Memorial Japanese American Archives.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Elementary school teachers
  • Japanese American families
  • Landscape architects--Utah

Personal Names

  • Shiozawa, Helen Teruko Shiratori, 1920-2020--Photographs
  • Shiozawa, Kenji, 1916-1999--Photographs

Corporate Names

  • United States. Bureau of Land Management
  • United States. Forest Service

Geographical Names

  • Monterey (Calif.)
  • Rigby (Idaho)
  • Sawtooth National Forest (Idaho and Utah)

Form or Genre Terms

  • Color negatives
  • Color slides
  • Photograph albums
  • color photographs

Finding aid written by Special Collections staff.
2025

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