Harmon Percival Marble (November 5, 1870 – February 3, 1945) was an American

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. He was the mayor of

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

from 1938 to 1939 and was a photographer of Native Americans. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Career

Indian Service

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 Humboldt is a city in Richardson County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 800 at the 2020 census. History Humboldt was platted in 1868. It was named after Humboldt, Tennessee, where an early settler had stayed while fighting in ...

), in 1897. In 1911, he sold the paper in order to join the Indian Service. He was first assigned to the

Navajo Reservation The Navajo Nation (), also known as Navajoland, is an Indian reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, then in 1913 to the

Menominee Indian Reservation The Menominee Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation located in northeastern Wisconsin held in trust by the United States for the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin. It is the largest Indian reservation east of the Mississippi River. In the Menomi ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, followed by work with the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...

tribes at

Fort Thompson, South Dakota Fort Thompson (Lakota: Čunkičakse) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Buffalo County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,282 at the 2010 census, making it the largest settlement on the Crow Creek Reservation. Fort Thompson ...

. Later, he was in charge of the Southern Pueblos in

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

, and finally returned to Arizona.

Las Vegas

In 1926, he retired from the Indian Service and moved to

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

, 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, and was instrumental in establishing the first low-income family housing development in the city, which was renamed "Marble Manor" in his honor after his death in 1945.

Photography

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 The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

Menominee The Menominee ( ; meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recognized tribe of Na ...

and

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 Edward Sheriff Curtis (February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952; sometimes given as Edward Sherriff Curtis) was an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and Native American people. Sometimes referred to ...

and

Rodman Wanamaker Lewis Rodman Wanamaker (February 13, 1863 – March 9, 1928) was an American businessman and heir to the Wanamaker's department store fortune. In addition to operating stores in Philadelphia, New York City, and Paris, he was a patron of the ar ...

References

External links

Images of Harmon Percy Marble photographs

Navajo man and woman, Warren Trading Post Co., Kayenta, Arizona Albumen photograph
Harmon Percy Marble, 1926 {{DEFAULTSORT:Marble, Harmon Percy 1870 births 1945 deaths 20th-century mayors of places in Nevada American photographers Journalists from Las Vegas Journalists from Nebraska Mayors of Las Vegas Nevada Democrats People from Pawnee County, Nebraska United States Indian agents