Collection SummaryE. Edward Scowcroft (1909-1988) was born in Seattle, Washington. He attended the University of Washington and graduated from its School of Architecture in 1929. In 1946, he moved to Billings, Montana, to work as an architect with Orr Pickering and Associates. After Pickering’s untimely death in 1964, the company’s principal members reorganized into Graham, Scowcroft, Hansen, and Ottem. Scowcroft was president of the Montana Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and three of his major projects are included in this photograph collection: the Midland National Bank building, Socony-Mobil office building, and a nuclear fallout shelter map created in 1967 for the Yellowstone County Civil Defense. In 1969, he left Montana for San Francisco, working on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and other projects. Scowcroft eventually made his way back to Washington in 1978 and continued to work as an architect until his death in 1988.
This photograph collection contains 283 negatives and 215 prints of construction and renovation projects the firms were involved with throughout the period 1948-1969. Images show the construction of various buildings throughout Montana and Yellowstone National Park, as well as projects in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, Cedar Valley, Utah, Lake Mead, California, and Palm Springs, California. They also contain structural-analysis photographs (circa 1958) of the Canyon Hotel in Yellowstone Park, which burned down in 1960 after being scheduled for demolition. To fit with the Montana History Portal’s theme, only images taken in Montana or Yellowstone National Park have been uploaded. Please contact the Billings Public Library for more information and to arrange access to the entire collection.Contributing InstitutionBillings Public Library
