Monthly Archives: April 2008

Chautauqua Program: Event at Heritage Museum in Independence, OR

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Pat Courtney Gold presents “Innovators and Traders: Indigenous People of the Columbia River”

Pat Courtney Gold now devotes her time to creating art and lecturing on Plateau Cultural Art. The Wasco traditional art of full-turn twined baskets with geometric human figures and motif unique to Columbia River area was a dying art. Pat revived this art form, and her goal is to preserve the technique and record the traditional designs for future generation.

She has been an artist in Resident at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City, New York. The Peabody Museum commissioned a basket from Pat and asked to write an article about her work and the Wasco basket collected by Lewis and Clark in 1805 for cataloging accompanying “Northwest Native Weavers: Honoring Our Heritage.”

Pat’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Highlights in Oregon include The Governor’s Office in Salem, Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, the Littman Gallery at Portland State University, the Museum at Warm Springs, the Portland Art Museum, the University of Oregon, and Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center.

Her program will show how like to days hot topics of international commerce, diplomatic relations, cultural exchanges and tourism are important to the northwest; it was just as important nearly twelve thousand years ago among the indigenous people who lived along the Columbia River. These civilized and prosperous nations developed a marketplace that, by the 1700’s included trade with Russia, Spain, England, China and America, yet their story is often untold in histories of the region.

Pat Courtney Gold, a Wasco native enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon, discusses the rich heritage of cultural and financial commerce conducted up and down the Columbia River. Just as questions of sustainability affect modern commerce, Gold will show how native people’s relationship to the land provided our first environmentally friendly model of commerce.

This free Chautauqua Program will be presented on Saturday, May 10 @ 1:30, Heritage Museum. 112 S. 3rd St., Independence, OR.

For more information, contact Julie Baxter (503)838-4989

TEM Report: Pacific Northwest Historians Conference: April 18, 2008

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Where Collector Meets Scholar: The Research Value of the Gerald Williams Collection
Digital History and the Pacific Northwest
Teaching From Local Historical Archives in Spokane

Bringing the collector and the scholar together– how does the archivist fit? what is the archivist’s role? how can the scholar shape the collection through their interaction with the creator? Donna Sinclair asked “where does collector meet scholar?”

Uses for the Williams Collection:

  • Research classes: bring grad/undergrad history classes into the archives (i.e. research based class teaching students how to use these materials on this topic OR research class on how to do research with this as an example). It is our job to encourage and promote this collection within OSU, but also look at how we can share it with other educational institutions throughout the state and nation.
  • HOWEVER, look outside the history department: show other disciplines how this collection can be used in their research (i.e. how do you approach a bio-regional demarcated area as a researcher/student?) Again, promotion/access/use is the primary responsibility of the OSU Archives– now that we have it, we have to use it, we have to share it, we have to encourage others to delve in and swim around in it.

Bill Lang

  • The dynamic between different kinds of historical materials can be quite powerful; it is only when you put the different types together that you see the relationship that is inherent/within the collection/topic.
  • The relationship & connection between text and imagery allows you to think about your research topic in an integrated fashion at the beginning, can change how researchers “do” their work/ think about their project from the conceptual stage, can shape scholarship.

Charles Mutschler

  • It’s the wave of technology!
  • How are we grappling with new “digital age” issues within our professions?
  • What are users asking us to do, to know, to produce?
  • Students (as the next generation of users, creators) are visually oriented. Both because of this and to facilitate this, the world of education is changing radically– we all have to adjust how we think, teach, process, produce, etc.
  • Changes/advances in technology could actually democratize the academy!

Larry Cebula

  • Digital history projects are moving from public to private enterprises: more money, more resources, more studies, more partnerships?
  • We need a centralized resource page for “deep” digital archives, a central reference page, a place where everyone will go, a place where dead links will be updated… How can we use a wiki as a space for these “organic” subject guides? Built by the community of users, community of creators, community of archivists, community of teaching (K-20+)? Give people a space to create, comment, etc., and allow for a “web” of connections to form– it’s the “see also” or “related materials” or “you might also like” page.

Mary Paynton Schaff

  • Time magazine article: people want to upload their own information, the public is important to the new information society, they want (expect?)to be a part of the web/content.

Tamara Georgick

  • Digital project overload … What to consider before launching into a massive program.
  • In addition to hardware, software, money, staff resource questions, she also said that we need to evaluate rigorously. Is it worth putting out there? What is the value? ($, social, educational, historical, aesthetic) Is there an audience?
  • Here’s one that stood out: can you tell the professional resources from the amateur resources? Because yours need to stand out as legitimate primary resources. Really? What does this mean?

Lisa Hagen, Kieran Mahoney, Marcy James, Kelly Kiki

  • Primary Sources in the Classroom: teachers using local history archives in their classroom
  • Tie history to larger picture, see their lives in the context of history, develop curiosity, activate natural questions about history, social engagement.
  • Kinkos = make puzzles out of photos
  • Worksheet = I notice/wonder/infer or predict: observation/question/reflection.
  • Photo Story 3 for Windows = “Create slide shows using your digital photos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. Add stunning special effects, soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then, personalize them with titles and captions. Small file sizes make it easy to send your photo stories in an e-mail. Watch them on your TV, a computer, or a Windows Mobile–based portable device.”

Adventures at OLA/WLA: Hunting for history and sharing the search

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It’s been a big week for outreach!

Thursday morning, student worker Christy Toliver and archivist Tiah Edmunson-Morton traveled to Vancouver, WA to share their poster depicting the “Adventures in the Archives: Hunting for History” scavenger hunt from summer 2007.

The hunt was an activity for Adventures in Learning, which “combines stimulating academic and social opportunities in a fun-filled 10-day experience” for “gifted, talented, and creative” 6th and 7th graders who are “interested in fast-paced, challenging opportunities.” Fast-paced and challenging? That’s us!

Last summer, we hosted 10-12 students for a 2-day scavenger hunt in the University Archives and throughout our fantastic campus! On the first day, students searched through historic yearbooks, catalogs, microfilm, and pictures looking for clues centered around the life of Wayne Bagley, an OSC student from the late 1920s. Those clues led them into their second day, an outdoor adventure designed to have them explore the campus, run out their sillies, and connect the past & present.

They’ll be back again this year– and now we’ll be ready with our fancy display!

OSU Archives Presents: Calling all Extension Offices!

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This week the Archives staff was invited to talk to a group of staff from the Extension Offices. This post includes links and files from that presentation.

Their site says it best: “The Oregon State University Extension Service engages the people of Oregon with research-based knowledge and education that focus on strengthening communities and economies, sustaining natural resources, and promoting healthy families and individuals.” The collections at OSU Archives document the long and important history of how the Extension offices have impacted their communities; additionally, the individual character of those communities is reflected in the records.

Please click here for all the presentation slides, handouts, and links.

Calling All Nominations! Last Call for Library Awards

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cheerleaders1.jpgAward Details: Totten

Students are eligible for either the Totten Graduation Award ($750) or one of six Totten Scholarships ($250).

Totten Graduating Student Award

  1. Nominated student must have been employed by the OSU Libraries for at least two academic years.
  2. The student must have demonstrated outstanding work performance.
  3. The Recognition Committee will also consider leadership skills, initiative, ambition, a strong customer service ethic, and reliability.
  4. Students must be graduating seniors or graduate students (graduating or graduated fall, winter, spring, or summer of the current academic year).

Totten Scholarships: Six $250 Scholarships

  1. Nominated students must have been employed by the OSU Libraries for at least three consecutive terms (spring term can be the third term).
  2. Students must have at least one full term remaining after spring term in which to use the scholarship.
  3. The Recognition Committee will also consider leadership skills, initiative, ambition, a strong customer service ethic, scholarly attitude, and reliability.

Award Details: Performance

There will be 3 categories of awards given: Classified, Faculty, Project. Up to 5 awards (total) will be given out, allowing for multiple awards in each category.

Outstanding Faculty and Outstanding Classified Employee Nominees should have:

  1. worked to exemplify and advance one of the three goals of the library;
  2. developed a new project or program or simplified a process; or
  3. fostered and promoted a collaborative work environment.

Outstanding Project Nominations should have done at least one of the following:

  1. Worked to change the information landscape at OSU by providing faculty and students with the information they require– wherever and whenever it is needed.
  2. Partnered with OSU colleges and programs by contributing to the academic success and life-long learning of OSU students.
  3. Partnered with Oregon communities to foster economic development.
  4. Developed an innovative program, activity, or service; provided a dynamic or distinctive solution to a problem; or reached a special population through a unique program.
  5. Completed a project, a new initiative, or any other distinct activity that results in improved services or increased efficiency.

Outstanding Project Nominations should have been initiated, worked-on, or completed during this academic year.

Recipients are ineligible for two years following their awards.

Any member of the OSU Libraries may nominate another person or project that fits the criteria.

Individuals may choose to nominate someone or a project from their own department or another department within the Library.

New Exhibit in the Archives

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home-management-house.jpgPlease visit the Archives Reference room on the 3rd floor of the Valley Library to see the new exhibit featuring the “home management babies.”

It is estimated that 50 children served as “practice babies” for the roughly 1,500 students enrolled in the six-week mandatory Household Administration Program of the College of Home Economics from 1926 to 1947. The OSU Archives has collections of photographic prints and records relating to the Kent and Withycombe Home Management Houses, which were operated as the practice homes for the Household Administration Program.

OSU’s program was part of a larger movement in the field of Home Economics. It was thought that by establishing these “practical home laboratories” for young women, the universities could give the students a “chance to practice at homemaking before she tries it on her own with a husband” (Oregon Sunday Journal, Jan. 25, 1949).

In 1919, the University of Minnesota started a pilot program in the Home Economics Department that introduced “real life” child care into the home laboratory. The program quickly spread to twenty other universities across America; within a few years, places like OSU, Cornell, Drexel, Iowa State, Tennessee, the Carnegie Institute, New York State Teachers College, and others followed the University of Minnesota’s lead and established their own programs. These schools set up dozens of home management cottages, houses, and apartments; hundreds of babies became teaching tools.

As part of this effort to teach female students about child care, babies were taken from orphanages or single mothers and moved to the home management house. The children usually remained at the house until they were two; at that time, they would be returned to the orphanage, adopted, or, in rare cases, given back to their biological mothers. In most programs, the girls would act as the child’s caregiver for a week; when their week was finished, responsibility for the care of the child would shift to the next student in line.