[Wheeler, Montana]

Artist Margaret Bourke-White (American, 1904–1971)

Date1936 (negative), ca. 1965 (print)

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 13 5/8 × 19 1/8 inches (34.6 × 48.6 cm);
Mount (Matted): 22 1/16 × 27 15/16 inches (56 × 71 cm)

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineGift of the artist, Class of 1927, and LIFE Magazine

Terms

Photographs
Gelatin silver prints
American

Object number65.574

Label CopyWhen LIFE sent Bourke-White to photograph the Fort Peck Montana Dam project, the editors expected construction pictures. What they got, the editors wrote in their introductory note to the first issue of the magazine, was “a human document of American frontier life.” Ten thousand people were hired to work on the dam—but thousands more, including workers’ families, had to be accommodated. Wheeler was one of six frontier towns that developed near the government town of Fort Peck. At its height, nearly thirty-five thousand people lived in Fort Peck and adjacent communities. ("Margaret Bourke-White: From Cornell Student to Visionary Photojournalist," curated by Stephanie Wiles and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 - June 7, 2015)

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