Name/Title
Oscar and Etha Latza CollectionEntry/Object ID
MS.109Scope and Content
Oscar and Etha Latza Collection
MS 109
Oscar and Etha Latza Collection
Oscar Walter Latza was born January 19, 1902 in Ortelsburg, Ostpreussen, Germany. He came to the United States in 1922 and was trained as a machinist. He worked in the Northeast and in 1933 came out to southern Nevada to work on construction of Hoover Dam. He worked in turn for the Six Companies, the Babcock and Wilcox Company, and, on December 23, 1935, transferred to the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation where he stayed until retiring in 1965.
The material in the Latza Collection includes items related to his various employments, such as union books and identification pins and badges; and sucpersonal papers as his 1916 baptismal certificate and 1928 U. S. passport. The prize of Oscar’s collection, however, is the autobiography he began writing in 1989 which details his life from the time he was a child until 1990. Researchers will find Latza’s descriptions of his working life in general—and Hoover Dam construction in particular—invaluable, although it’s important to check and re-check his spellings and identifications of names, places, etc.
Oscar died on November 28, 2000.
* * *Collection
ManuscriptsArchive Items Details
Notes
MS 109
Oscar and Etha Latza Collection
[2 boxes]
[001.114]
Box 1 of 2
ff no.
1. baptismal certificate [1916]
2. passport [U. S., 1928]
3. Midvale Steel Company employment badge [c. 1928]
4. Six Companies ID badge and tool check [c. 1933]
5. International Association of Machinists – union books [2]
and [4] badges [1936-1941+]
6. two war ration books [c. 1942-45]
7. two U. S. Department of the Interior badges [c. 1950s]
8. government employee leave cards [1964-65]
9. National Rifle Association of America badge [n. d.]
Box 2 of 2
ff no.
1. autobiography – manuscript [2 volumes]
2. autobiography – transcript [zip disc]
3. autobiography – unbound typescript [verbatim]
4. autobiography - unbound typescript [corrected]
5. autobiography - "Oscar Walter Latza, His Life"
6. autobiography - "Oscar Walter Latza, His Life"
7. autobiography - "Oscar Walter Latza, His Life"
8. autobiography - "Oscar Walter Latza, His Life"
9. autobiography - "Oscar Walter Latza, His Life"
* * *Relationships
Related Entries
Notes
photo collection 0144 [Oscar and Etha Latza Collection]
biography file
three-dimensional artifactsCreated By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
November 27, 2006Updated By
bcmha.archives@gmail.comUpdate Date
September 8, 2025