Scowcroft Photograph Collection (Digital Display)

Billings Public Library is very proud to announce the public display of its E. Edward Scowcroft photograph collection. This collection contains over 300 images taken for two Billings, MT, architecture firms between 1948-1969: Orr Pickering & Associates, and Graham, Scowcroft, Hansen, and Ottem. The images show the construction of numerous buildings designed by these two firms in cities throughout Montana, as well as within Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon National Park (AZ), Grand Teton National Park, Cedar Valley, UT, Lake Mead, CA, and Palm Springs, CA. Notably, the collection contains several structural-analysis photographs Yellowstone National Park's Canyon Hotel, taken just a couple years before it burned down in 1960 after being scheduled for demolition.

E. 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.

Billings Public Library thanks Scott Scowcroft and the Scowcroft family for their generous donation.

Click here to view the entire collection via the Montana History Portal!