This collection consists of printed material and data Frank B. Cook, Chief of Engineering in the Design Division for the Bureau of Reclamation, U. S. Department of the Interior, used in his profession designing buildings and public dams in the western United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. The collection contains Bureau published reports on the design criteria for several of the dam projects including the Big Thompson in Colorado and Alcova in Wyoming. There are notebooks Cook created of building specifications, material costs, supplier sheets and other information associated with construction projects. There are documents Cook created that appear to be drafts for a 1959 Bureau training manual for hydroelectric dam personnel. There are inspection reports on western dam projects written by field engineers for Cook from 1936 to 1951. Other primary materials consist of mathematical formula and notations Cook worked for the projects and a few congratulatory notes of correspondence about his retirement from the Bureau. There is a large undated photograph of all personnel included in the building of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam. There are photographs from the 1930s, some unidentified, and an architectural drawing of Coulee Dam in Washington state and four others that are unidentified.
