Robert E. Kennedy Photograph Collection

Content Description

The collection documents primarily in black and white photographs, negatives, and contact sheets Kennedy's Western United States civil engineering projects. The photographs were taken in Wyoming, New Mexico, South and North Dakota with a Kodak bellows camera. Most of the images are undated. Materials are arranged first by type and then in alphabetical order.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged in one series.

Biographical / Historical

Robert Eaker Kennedy (July 28, 1886-April 24, 1966), a civil engineer, was born to Reverend Frederic Dickinson Kennedy (May 15, 1853-September 17, 1917) and Ida Jane Eaker (March 2, 1857-November 8, 1899) in Ludden, North Dakota. Kennedy received a degree from the Grand Island College in Nebraska in 1910. On August 28th that same year he married Amanda "Addie" Miranda Pritchard (September 3, 1881-June 6, 1947) in Big Horn, Wyoming. To the union two children were born a daughter Marguerite A. Kennedy (March 27, 1912-January 27, 2008) in West Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and a son Robert Evan Kennedy (March 31, 1916- February 17, 2008) in Worland, Washakie County, Wyoming. In 1916, Kennedy graduated from Purdue University with a degree in civil engineering. After graduation he taught for a short time in Hyattville, Wyoming before working as a county surveyor for Washakie County, Wyoming. Kennedy's work moved the family to different cities in the state including Powell, Riverton, and Pavillion. In 1925 the family moved to Tucumcari, New Mexico and then to Bismarck, North Dakota where Kennedy worked as the North Dakota state engineer. The family moved once again for Kennedy's work to Denver, Colorado in 1935. Kennedy photographed much of his work in Wyoming, New Mexico, South and North Dakota documenting the conditions in which surveying was done, workers, natural landscapes, and machinery used for the work. Kennedy died in Denver, Colorado at the age of eighty.

Related Materials

Materials at the Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Cummings Structural Concrete Company Records, NMAH.AC.0218

Clyde E. Learned Papers, NMAH.AC.0226

American Society of Civil Engineers Fellows Collection, NMAH.AC.0229

Robert F. Olds Collection, NMAH.AC.0231

Julian Hinds Collection, NMAH.AC.0287

Lloyd F. Rader Papers, NMAH.AC.0952

John A. Beemer Papers, NMAH.AC.0957

James Forgie Papers, NMAH.AC.0986

William J. Eney Collection, NMAH.AC.1062

Donald M. Burmister Papers, NMAH.AC.1068

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Stereograph Cards, NMAH.AC.1090

American Society of Civil Engineers Oral Histories, NMAH.AC.1521

Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering Bridges Reference Collection, NMAH.AC.1577