Harmon Percy Marble
Harmon Percival Marble (November 5, 1870 – February 3, 1945) was an American journalist and politician. He was the mayor of Las Vegas from 1938 to 1939 and was a photographer of Native Americans. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
Harmon Percy Marble | |
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13th Mayor of Las Vegas | |
In office 1938–1939 | |
Preceded by | Leonard L. Arnett |
Succeeded by | John L. Russell |
Personal details | |
Born | Harmon Percival Marble November 5, 1870 Table Rock, Nebraska, U.S. |
Died | February 3, 1945 74) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. | (aged
Political party | Democratic |
Profession | Journalist and politician |
As a young adult, he worked for a number of years in the newspaper business, founding his own paper, the Humboldt Leader (probably Humboldt, Nebraska), in 1897. In 1911, he sold the paper in order to join the government Indian Service. He was first assigned to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, then in 1913 to the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, followed by work with the Sioux tribes at Fort Thompson, South Dakota. Later he was in charge of the Southern Pueblos in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and finally returned to Arizona. In 1926, he retired from the Indian Service [1] and moved to Long Beach, California where he owned a cigar store. Later he joined family in Las Vegas, Nevada and lived out his remaining years there. He was a prominent civic leader and mayor of Las Vegas,[2] and was instrumental in establishing the first low-income family housing development there, which was renamed Marble Manor in his honor after his death in 1945.
Photographer
Marble is known as a prolific photographer of Native Americans. During his government career, he took advantage of opportunities afforded by his positions to take hundreds of photographs of the Navajo, Menominee and Sioux tribes. His photographs were inconsistently exposed, often poorly composed and poorly printed. However, this lack of artistic sense rendered photos which offer an unvarnished portraiture of the indigenous population more so than better known images captured by contemporaries the likes of Edward Curtis and Rodman Wanamaker.
References
- "Harmon Percy Marble". Native American Images. nativeamericanlinks.com. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
- "Lot 43331, H.P. Marble Image of Menomonee Reservation Indians, circa 1915..." Heritage Auctions. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
Some of the information above was taken from hand-written family biographical documents acquired with the accompanying photograph.
External links
- Harmon Percy Marble at Find a Grave
- Images of Harmon Percy Marble photographs
- Harmon Percy Marble video essay
- Navajo man and woman, Warren Trading Post Co., Kayenta, Arizona Albumen photograph, Harmon Percy Marble, 1926
Political offices | ||
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Preceded by Leonard L. Arnett |
Mayor of Las Vegas 1938–1939 |
Succeeded by John L. Russell |