F. E. Brown photograph collection of Bear Valley Dam

A collection of 46 photographs and a few pieces of ephemera related to the building of Bear Valley Dam, 1884, and surveys of the Whitewater River, San Bernardino County, California, 1890s. The photographs belonged to F. E. (Frank Elwood) Brown, who was the chief engineer of the dam, which was built to provide irrigation to citrus growers in San Bernardino County. It is unclear who took the photographs, which are prints of various sizes, many with handwritten identifications. The building of the dam created Big Bear Lake, and images show the valley before and after the lake's creation. Other images depict: the granite dam being built; a long flume crossing a creek; engineers at camp; and one image of Brown and fellow Redlands founder Edward G. Judson, approximately 1886. There are also several survey photographs of Whitewater River in San Bernardino County, and a few cabinet card photographs by early regional photographers Rudolph J. Philippi, Charles T. Collier, and D. Ford of Redlands. Ephemera includes a printed map of the Lake View Tract, Riverside County, California, bearing the letterhead of the Sierra Vista Orange Land Company, F. E. Brown, President. Additionally, there are two newspaper clippings from 1897 about Brown, and a fold-out case with portrait photographs of Brown and his wife, Jessie Fremont Smith.