This collection consists of approximately 2,500 color slides (1 linear foot).
Slides show construction of St. Lawrence Seaway, Robert Moses Power Dam, and associated activities.
A tug boat in Snell Lock in the early days of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Collection Overview
Eleanor Jane Lahey Dumas (1916-1997) was employed with the Massena Observer until her marriage and later became a Watertown Daily Times Massena correspondent in the early 1940s. Mrs. Dumas covered Northern New York and Southern Ontario until her retirement in 1976. Eleanor is most noted for covering high profile events in the North Country, such as Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to St. Lawrence University in 1955 and the construction of the Eisenhower Lock and Power Dam from 1954-1959. In 1970 Mrs. Dumas was awarded a certificate of merit by the United Press International for her coverage of the S.S. Eastcliff Hall Maritime Disaster in the St Lawrence River on July 14, 1970. In 1981 she was appointed to the position of town historian and curator of the Massena Museum and served in that position until 1987. Eleanor and her daughter Nina E. Dumas (also a Watertown Daily Times Correspondent) published a book entitled History of Massena: The Orphan Town in 1978.
These slides were purchased from John Dumas, the son of Eleanor Dumas, in 1999 with funds from The Friends of Owen D. Young & Launders Libraries.