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Papers of Robert E. Glover

 Collection
Identifier: WREG

Scope and Contents

The Papers of Robert E. Glover consists of documents dated 1896 to 2000, with the bulk falling from 1922 to 1984. The focus of the collection is on the extensive work he did over the course of his career on such subjects as concrete, dams, mathematics, groundwater, and more. The organizations he worked for which are most thoroughly documented include the United States Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Colorado State University. A smaller portion of the collection reflects Glover's personal life in terms of family activities and hobbies, including birding, photography, and environmentalism. Predominant material types include reports, articles, memoranda, correspondence, data, calculations, notes, diaries, slides, photographs, negatives, artifacts, maps, and charts.

Dates

  • Creation: 1896-2000
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1922-1984

Creator

Restrictions on Access

Student grades appearing in grade books or other materials in Series 1 (boxes 2-3) are restricted for 70 years from the date of creation. All "confidential" markings on correspondence or other materials have been determined to be for administrative purposes, not national security information; therefore, these materials are open for access. Some items are stored off-site, so advance notice of intended use is recommended.

Restrictions on Use

Not all of the material in the collection is in the public domain. Researchers are responsible for addressing copyright issues.

Biography

A civil engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Colorado State University, Robert Glover conducted significant research on concrete cooling, dam construction, groundwater flow, and more. A small portion of his lasting legacy is found in a formula that bears his name, as well as a plaque on Hoover Dam listing him as one of its contributors.

Robert Ellsworth Glover was born in Ord, Nebraska, on January 22, 1896. He began his college education at the University of Nebraska in September 1915 but enlisted in the Army two years later after the United States entered World War I. He served as a Private, First Class, with Company D, 342 Machine Gun Battalion, of the 89th Division. Glover was deployed to France on June 4, 1918, and saw combat at the Battle of St. Mihiel that same year. Glover returned to the U.S. in 1919 and was discharged in March.

In September 1919, Glover returned to the University of Nebraska to finish his degree. In 1921, he graduated with a bachelor of science in civil engineering. Not long afterwards, he served as an engineer for the construction of the capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska.

While at the University of Nebraska, Glover formed his life-long relationship with the United States Reclamation Service (later the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation). He worked as a rod-and-planetable man at the Service's Flathead Project in St. Ignatius, Montana, in 1917 and 1920 while still a student. After graduation, Glover returned to the Reclamation Service and within two years began serving as an assistant engineer, first for the Rio Grande project in Texas and then for the Pecos River project in New Mexico. In 1924, Glover was assigned as an engineer in the Denver office of the Bureau of Reclamation. While there, Glover worked on such notable projects as Gibson Dam, Owyhee Dam, and Boulder (Hoover) Dam (see Appendix for list). Glover was promoted to Head of Technical Engineering in 1936, where he stayed until 1949 when he transferred to the Research and Geology Division. This position led to his promotion to Special Assistant to the Chief Designing Engineer, a post he held until his retirement in 1954.

Robert Glover had a distinguished career with the Bureau of Reclamation. During his time there, he developed the trial-load method which is still used to design arch dams. He also developed a penstock analysis, a water-hammer analysis, and the stiffener design. His extensive work on Hoover Dam led to the development of a refrigeration system to accelerate concrete cooling. Glover's valuable contributions were recognized by the Bureau, which awarded him both silver and gold medals for outstanding service.

Glover's achievements extend to the field of hydrology as well. He developed many mathematical equations applicable to groundwater flow analysis, including the formula bearing his name. His transient-state equations have helped engineers solve groundwater problems. He also developed equations to describe river-aquifer relationships, effects of well field pumping, and other groundwater problems. He published numerous articles and books on groundwater movement and recharge, the trial-load method, and thermal properties of concrete, among many others.

During his many years of work, Glover completed a professional degree in civil engineering from the University of Nebraska (1936) and a masters in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado (1950). After retiring from the Bureau, Glover worked for the Boeing Aircraft Company as a structural engineer and then for the U.S. Geological Survey as a hydraulic engineer on a contract basis.

Robert Glover developed a working relationship with Colorado State University (CSU) starting in 1956. He was employed by the CSU Experiment Station as a civilian engineer and as a professor emeritus with the Civil Engineering Department where he developed and taught a course for the solution of groundwater problems. He also eventually published a textbook he had developed for his classes in the 1960s: Transient Ground Water Hydraulics (1974).

Glover was a member of many organizations, including the American Concrete Institute, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Geophysical Union, the American Mathematical Society, the American Legion, the National Audubon Society, and the Colorado Mountain Club. In addition to other awards received was the one named after him, the Robert E. Glover Distinguished Service Award, given by the Colorado Ground Water Association, presented to him as first recipient in 1983.

Despite his busy work life, Glover remained involved with his family and pursued many hobbies. He married Carol Rosalie Morris on June 25, 1925, and raised three children: daughter, Marjorie Carol (Clark), and sons, Robert Morris and William Frank. Glover followed many interests and hobbies, among them: astronomy, genealogy, hunting, fishing, ornithology, photography, politics, and environmentalism. He participated in many annual Christmas bird counts and Wilderness Review Panel trips and also ground prisms for the Observatory Park telescope in Denver. Following his retirement from work in 1980, Robert Glover spent much time engaging in his hobbies and being with his wife and family in his Denver home until he passed away on March 26, 1984.

Extent

45 linear feet (26 record cartons, 5 document boxes, 9 flat boxes, 1 tube, 2 flat files)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

A civil engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Colorado State University, Robert Glover (1896-1984) conducted significant research on concrete cooling, dam construction, groundwater flow, and more. The focus of the collection is on the extensive work he did on these subjects. A smaller portion of the collection reflects Glover's personal life in terms of family activities and hobbies, including birding, photography, and environmentalism. Predominant material types include reports, articles, memoranda, correspondence, data, calculations, notes, diaries, slides, photographs, negatives, artifacts, maps, and charts. A portion of the collection is digitized and online.

Arrangement

Glover's original order of his files was retained as much as possible, with seemingly unarranged files interfiled as necessary. Series were created based on file groupings as well as material types.

The collection consists of 9 series in 40 boxes, 2 flat files, and 1 tube:

Series 1: Employment files, 1922-1984 and undated

Series 2: Project files, 1922-1980 and undated

Series 3: Subject files, 1896-1984 and undated

Series 4: Printed materials, 1925-1981 and undated

Subseries 4.1: By Glover, 1931-1981

Subseries 4.2: By others, 1925-1981 and undated

Series 5: Personal interest files, 1919-1984 and undated

Series 6: Diaries and journals, 1923-1984 and undated

Series 7: Visual materials, 1913-2000 and undated

Subseries 7.1: Slides, 1946-1976 and undated

Subseries 7.2: Photographs and negatives, 1913-1983 and undated

Subseries 7.3: Other, 2000 and undated

Series 8: Artifacts, 1983 and undated

Series 9: Oversize, 1919-1979 and undated

Acquisition

The Papers of Robert E. Glover was donated to the Colorado Agricultural Archives by Marjorie Glover Clark and Robert Morris Glover in 1997. The collection was transferred to the Water Resources Archive in March 2002. Some oversized materials belonging to the collection were found in a separate storage location in the summer of 2008.

Appraisal

Materials appraised for retention decisions included printed materials, slides, negatives, artifacts, and oversized items. Printed materials were retained only if they were by Glover, annotated or uncommon. Only a sampling of Glover's extensive nature photography slides were saved, rather than the entire bulk. Duplicates of slides were not retained. Nitrate negatives having accompanying prints were discarded. Those not having prints and which were unidentified were also discarded. Nitrate negatives without prints and which were to be retained were scanned, prints were made, and the originals were discarded. Some personal hygiene artifacts and general office supplies were discarded. Among the oversized items, published maps were not retained.

Online Materials

Some reports, slides, and other materials have been scanned and are available through the Colorado State University Libraries website. Note that not all links are to the exact documents in this collection, but scans from other sources. In the electronic version of this document, some of these direct links appear in context. A link to the full online collection appears in the abstract.

Related Collections

Related collections in the Water Resources Archive include the Groundwater Data Collection and the Papers of Daryl B. Simons. Some of the groundwater studies that Glover contributed to are documented further in the former. Dr. Simons was a CSU civil engineering professor contemporaneously with Glover. The Water Oral Histories Collection contains two interviews with Glover's children and their reminiscences of his personal and professional life.

Appendix

List of major dams Robert Glover worked on:

Ross Dam, Washington

Grand Coulee Dam, Washington

Owyhee Dam, Oregon

Shasta Dam, California

Oroville Dam, California

Flaming Gorge Dam, Utah

Flathead Project, Montana

Hungry Horse Dam, Montana

Seminoe Dam, Wyoming

Davis Dam, Nevada

Hoover Dam, Nevada/Arizona

Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona

Parker Dam, Arizona

Processing

With the aid of a student assistant, processing was completed in May 2007. The collection was completely rehoused in acid-free materials. Metal paperclips and binder clips were removed and replaced with plastic ones as necessary; all rubber bands were removed. Papers were removed from envelopes; manila envelopes with essential writing on them were photocopied and then discarded. Acidic papers were interleaved with acid-free paper. Photographs and negatives mixed in with papers were relocated to their own series, unless they were part of reports. All photographs and slides were sleeved and stored in photo album boxes. Duplicates past the first two were removed. Form letters that Glover received were discarded. Student grade sheets were removed; other materials with student grades were relocated into restricted-access folders. Materials found in summer 2008 were incorporated in the fall.

Inventory Note

Note: Title information supplied by the archivist is bracketed. Estimated pagination is preceded by an "e." Two identical copies of the same item are indicated by the phrase "2 copies" at the end of the entry, following the number of pages of each copy. Authored articles, books, and studies are listed in bibliographic form.

Title
Guide to the Papers of Robert E. Glover
Status
Edited Full Draft
Author
Prepared by Patricia J. Rettig
Date
Copyright 2008
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the CSU Libraries Archives & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Fort Collins Colorado 80523-1019 USA
970-491-1844