The location depicted is now part of the Vail Lake reservoir on Temecula Creek, east of Temecula, California. In this finding aid, the photograph was formerly titled “Nigger Canyon dam site, Temecula River.”

The photograph itself is not physically labeled with a title or caption, and UCR Library has been unable to determine whether the racist former title was supplied by Lee himself, or was applied later. The racist name for this canyon was used in published sources between approximately 1920 and 1955. The location itself was not renamed because when Vail Lake Dam was built in 1948, the canyon was subsumed by the new reservoir.

UCR Library recognizes the racist nature of the former title. We have quoted it in this note in order to promote transparency about archives’ descriptive practices, and to connect the harmful historical place name to accurate present-day geographic information.