We’d love you to visit, but our hours will be shortened for the break. The 3rd floor reference desk will be open for service 10am to 4pm Monday March 23rd through Friday March 27th.
However, the website and reference inquiry forms are always open!
OAC alumnae Alice Leora Edwards was born April 19, 1882 in Monroe, Oregon. She graduated in 1906 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Home Economics — and then she takes a wonderful turn! Though she is quite well-known for her work in Home Economics. she started her academic career as an instructor in Zoology and Entomology at OAC (1909 – 1915) and served as a student assistant in the Biology department at Teachers College, Columbia University (1915 – 1917).
After her stint at Columbia, she returns to her “career path” in 1917, receiving an M.A. from Columbia University and an Assistant Professor of Dietetics position at the University of Minnesota (1917 – 1918). From 1921 to 1926, she was the Dean of Home Economics at Rhode Island College. Then, as many academics do, she returned to school, earning her Ed.D. from Columbia University Teachers College (1940). In 1941, she became the Dean of Home Economics at Mary Washington College at the University of Virginia at Fredericksburg, a position she held until her retirement from academic life in 1951.
Edwards was Executive Secretary of the American Home Economics Association from 1926 until 1936, representing the organization on the Council of American Standards, the Women’s Joint Congressional Committee, and the President’s Advisory Committee on Education. She devoted her career to acting as an advocate for standardized size and labels for consumer goods. She edited Scientific Consumer Purchasing: A Study Guide for the Consumer (1939), co-authored Consumer Standards (1941), and wrote Product Standards and Labeling for Consumers (1940).
However, Edwards was not all bugs, beasts, baking, or buttons! In 1925, as a member of the World Student Christian Federation, she traveled to Europe with a group to encourage and coordinate the work of existing national student Christian movements after the devastation of World War I.
Alice Leora Edwards moved back to Oregon in 1951 and died in Corvallis, Oregon on July 4, 1962.
To learn more about Alice Edwards and the archival items we have in our collection, check out the guide for her personal papers. Take the time to read through the “Scope and Content Note” section, which describes the biographical materials, correspondence, Oregon State specific materials, diaries, and photographs you’ll find in the collection. Since we’re always big fans of photos in the Archives, it’s interesting to note that included in this collection is a group photograph of the opening of the Celilo Canal on the Columbia River in 1913, with Oregon Senator Nathan Whealdon and L.N. Edwards in attendance. Again, it’s all connected! She’s also saved pictures of the OAC senior class of 1906, the OAC campus, the Washington State College campus (Pullman, WA), various photographs taken during her trip to Europe in 1925, and family photographs.
We don’t know much about the woman in this picture, apart from the fact that it was taken in 1946 and she is a Japanese American field worker in Ontario, Oregon.
In general, people working the land in Malheur County came from diverse backgrounds. During World War II, when many American farm workers left the farm for the battlefield, OSU Extension agents traveled through Oregon with large-format cameras to document wartime farm workers. We are quite lucky to have their pictures in our Extension and Experiment Station Communications photo collection (P120).
During World War II, the federal government forced West Coast Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans to leave their homes for internment camps or inland states. Because of an acute agricultural labor shortage, Malheur County was the only place in Oregon where Japanese were allowed to live outside of internment camps. So, in May 1942, Malheur County became one of the first counties to recruit Japanese American evacuees for farm work. Some of the evacuees remained in Eastern Oregon after the order excluding them from the West Coast was lifted in January 1945; the 1960 census reported that 1,136 people of Japanese heritage were living in Malheur County.
In the spring issue of Oregon’s Agricultural Progress magazine, the magazine of the OSU Agricultural Experiment Station, Bob Rost wrote an excellent article on Malheur County, featuring a piece about WWII workers.
“Prisoners of war, primarily German, worked the fields in Malheur County and were largely responsible for planting and harvesting 7500 acres of potatoes, 3500 acres of onions, and 3000 acres of lettuce in 1945.
Braceros were Mexican citizens who provided most of the international migrant labor in Oregon through a wartime labor agreement between the U.S. and Mexico.
Japanese American citizens who had been forcibly removed from their homes during World War II were welcomed to Ontario by the city’s mayor, Elmo Smith, at a time when other communities around the nation shunned them because of their Japanese ancestry. Most of the displaced Japanese Americans lost their homes and businesses during their internment, but many remained in the Ontario area following the war to rebuild their lives, becoming leaders in the community and the agricultural industry, and giving Malheur County the state’s largest percentage of Japanese Americans.”
There is also a great article on the Oregon History Project page!
Given the power of our information sharing yesterday (think Obama and the White House lawn), we continue the WWII farm service theme. Today, however, our focus shifts to the images of Mrs. Dorothy Burleson, who was a Walla Walla nurse at the Athena and Milton-Freewater farm labor camps. In these pictures, she is treating a patients in her trailer “Clicnic,” a dispensary at the Athena camp.
For those who haven’t read the last two Women’s History Month posts, between 1940 and 1943 the number of farm workers in the United States noticeably decreased — the armed forces manpower requirements and competition with higher paying jobs in the defense industries were the cause. Of course, at the same time, farmers were asked to increase production to support the war effort. By 1943, the nation’s food supply was in jeopardy.
So, on April 29, 1943, the 78th U.S. Congress approved “Public Law 45, the Farm Labor Supply Appropriation Act,” to “assist farmers in producing vital food by making labor available at the time and place it was most needed.” Each states’ agricultural extension services held responsibility for their emergency labor programs; their primary duty was coordinating and overseeing labor recruitment, training, and placement of workers.
In Oregon, the Emergency Farm Labor Service was established by the Oregon State College Extension Service. Between 1943 and 1947, there were over 900,000 workers placed on the state’s farms, thousands of trained workers of all ages, and nine farm labor camps. The farm laborers in our state were a diverse bunch, including urban youth and women, soldiers, white collar professionals, displaced Japanese-Americans, returning war veterans, workers from other states, German prisoners-of-war, and migrant workers from Mexico and Jamaica.
It’s true, the Obamas will install a vegetable garden on the White House lawn– read all about it on the green fork blog and Obama Foodorama.
And yes, it’s true, this blog changes the world… One post at a time.
As you may remember from the post yesterday, the Women’s Land Army (WLA) was part of a national effort during WWII to supply desperately needed laborers to U.S. farms. During the war, farmers throughout the Pacific Northwest and the nation experienced a serious labor shortage. Farmers increased production to meet the demands of European allies and American troops. At the same time, many people who had been farm laborers were offered higher paying jobs in the national defense industry — building ships and airplanes for the war effort — or joined the military service.
Locally, the Oregon State College Extension Service established the Emergency Farm Labor Service to place women, children, and Mexican nationals on Oregon farms to thin and harvest crops. The state also paid Japanese American internees and German prisoners-of-war to work as farm laborers.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica article on the WLA:
“Radio stations and newspapers made urgent pleas for volunteers to help with the harvest. Women with little or no agricultural experience answered the call and, on an informal basis, saved countless crops from rotting in the fields. It soon became clear, however, that the situation required a more organized approach if the nation was to mobilize a reliable force of farmworkers. By 1943 the U.S. Congress had allocated funds for the Emergency Farm Labor Service, which included the recruitment, training, and placement of a female corps of farm laborers to be known as the Women’s Land Army, a subdivision of the United States Crop Corps. Recruits were not expected to have farming experience, but the WLA specified that applicants be physically fit and possess manual dexterity, patience, curiosity, and patriotism.
The WLA recruited more than a million female workers, drawn from the ranks of high-school and college students, beauticians, accountants, bank tellers, teachers , musicians, and many other occupations. The women worked long hours driving tractors, tending crops, and even shearing sheep. Most laborers received an unskilled worker’s wage—25 to 40 cents per hour—out of which they were to pay for their denim overall uniforms and their meals and lodging in temporary camps, summer cabins, and private homes. Most workers did not join the WLA to make money but wanted to contribute to the war effort. By the end of 1944, the WLA had more than proved itself as an indispensable brigade of hard workers, and farmers were eager to enlist their services in the upcoming season. Women continued to volunteer their services in the immediate postwar period (in Oregon through 1947).”
In 1943, more than 15,000 women worked as seasonal laborers on Oregon’s farms. Many Oregon women also found work in the shipbuilding companies in Portland and Vancouver, Washington.
We hear a lot about kitchen gardens these days, with calls in the US and UK for the President and Prime Minister to set up their own plots, but how much do we think back to the Victory Gardens or Emergency Farm Labor Service of WWII? While men fought overseas, there was a general call to service at home as well — in this case, support the troops and the war effort by working the land!
Oregon farmers were facing back to back bad crop years in 1941 and 1942, as well as a worker shortage after many Oregon men had left the workforce to fight in World War II. In the spring of 1942, state officials registered nearly 100,000 women who said they wanted to join a different kind of army — to work on Oregon farms. The greatest need was in the Willamette Valley, so the state recruited and trained women at Oregon State College (now OSU) in Corvallis and, from 1943 until 1945, worked with the Women’s Land Army (WLA) to place more than 78,000 women on Oregon farms. (Oregon Encyclopedia Project)
“The WLA was part of a World War II national effort to supply desperately needed laborers to U.S. farms. Locally, the Oregon State College Extension Service established the Emergency Farm Labor Service to place women, children, and Mexican nationals on Oregon farms to thin and harvest crops. The state also paid Japanese American internees and German prisoners-of-war to work as farm laborers.” (Oregon History Project)
Soon after passage of Public Law 45, statewide responsibility for the WLA was given to Mabel Mack, nutrition specialist for the OSC Extension Service. In order to enroll, applicants had to be at least eighteen years old and healthy. The pay wasn’t very good, in Oregon members of the WLA earned between sixty and ninety cents an hour, and the work was hard with women getting seasonal and permanent jobs weeding, harvesting, canning, and operating farm machinery.
“Most women worked on a ‘day haul’ basis, which meant they lived at home and were transported to farms by personal cars, growers’ trucks, or school buses. They hoed, weeded, thinned, and harvested crops of all kinds. Many supervised youth platoons, especially teachers out of school for the summer. A few worked year round, especially on poultry and dairy farms. Others worked in canneries or were leaders for recruiting other women. Nearly 135,000 placements of women were made in Oregon from 1943 through 1947.” (Oregon State Archives)
Tomorrow morning you’ll be treated to 47 of Ralph I. Gifford’s amazing WWI pictures of Ireland’s Whiddy Island on our osu.archives Flickr page.
More about Whiddy Island
An island off Bantry Bay, Ireland, Whiddy Island is about 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. According to the Wikipedia article on the island, “As late as 1880 it had a resident population of around 450, mainly engaged in fishing and small-scale farming. It currently has a permanent, resident population of around 20 people, although there are many visitors in the tourist season, many staying in self-catering accommodation, in the form of several restored traditional island cottages. The island is linked to the mainland by ferry, with return trips several times a day. There is one pub, The Bank House, which opens at weekends and also serves food during the summer months. The local economy is mainly fueled by the fishing and farming industries.” While it now has a large oil terminal for berthing supertankers, in the last few months of World War I it was the site of a US naval air station. And that’s where Ralph Gifford’s pictures come in!
More about Ralph Gifford
Gifford was born in Portland, Oregon in 1894. As a young boy he worked in his father’s photography studio, accompanying his father on photography trips around Oregon. He married Wanda Muir Theobald in 1918 and spent the last part of World War I in the U.S. Navy– stationed on Whiddy Island. Gifford took over the family’s Portland-based photography business around 1920, selling it 8 years later to go into the motion picture business with F. C. Heaton. In 1936, Ralph became the first photographer of the newly established Travel and Information Department of the Oregon State Highway Commission. His landscape views of Oregon’s natural beauty were used for many years to promote tourism in the state; he also took motion pictures for the Highway Commission, including the 1941 color version of The New Oregon Trail (which you can watch by clicking here) and the 1947 Glimpses From Oregon State Parks, released shortly before his death. Ralph was also a commercial photographer, and many of his commercial shots were taken at the same time as his Highway Commission photos; his photographs could be purchased as postcards, view sets, individual prints, and photo-plaques.
More about the Gifford Collection
The Gifford Collection consists of photographs taken by Ralph I. Gifford; his father, Benjamin A. Gifford; his wife, Wanda M. Gifford; and his son, Ben L. Gifford. The pictures taken by Ralph and Wanda Gifford make up the bulk of this collection, with shots of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest from the 1910s through the 1950s. Between 1936 and 1947, Ralph Gifford extensively photographed the Oregon Coast, Crater Lake, Silver Falls, Mount Hood and Timberline Lodge, the Pendleton Roundup, the Wallowa Mountains, and the Snake River Canyon. Many of his photographs were made into postcards or view sets, which were sold at souvenir shops throughout the state. And, of course, his collection also includes several photographs he took while stationed at Whiddy Island during World War I. To read more, check out OSU’s collection guide. The Oregon Historical Society also has a large collection of Gifford pictures; however, its focus is on those of Benjamin A. Gifford.
More about how great it is that everything is connected
As it happens, there are also some great Gifford images on the Oregon Historic Photograph Collections site, which is managed by the Salem Public Library. Dating back to the mid 1800s, this site provides access to thousands of photographs of Oregon from the Library’s digital collections. Doing an advanced search bring up 127 Ralph Gifford images, including six from Celilo Falls! Those of you connecting the Flickr account dots will remember that the last release on the OSU Archives Commons account was a set of 43 images of Celilo Falls taken from the Gerald Williams Collection.
Check these out!
Another fun fact
Alan Phelan was inspired by these images of Whiddy Island, creating an exhibit in 2007 entitled Ralph Eamon Odo Barbara.
More about Oregon
Born on November 27, 1884 in Macon, Missouri, Ava Milam Clark was one of five daughters of Ancil and Louisa Milam. She taught two years in a public school (1902-1904) and then spent three years teaching at Blees Military Academy in Macon, Missouri (1904-1907). Clark returned to school, this time as a student, obtaining her Ph.B. (1910) and A.M. degree (1911) from the University of Chicago. While working as an instructor of Foods and Nutrition at Iowa State College in the summer of 1911, she was hired to be a professor and head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Oregon Agricultural College (1911-1916).
She was named Dean of Home Economics in 1917, the youngest dean in college history, and under her leadership the program became nationally known. In 1932, she was made Director of Home Economics for the Oregon State System of Higher Education.
Clark was known for her international travels, focusing on establishing home economics programs in Asia. In 1922, Clark went to China to help establish a home economics department at Yenching University (Peking), introducing the study of home economics to China. She left OSC for a year in 1931 to work as a consultant in home economics at various universities in Asia. In the summer of 1937, Clark returned to Asia with Alma Fritchoff, conducting a home economics tour of both China and Japan. For five months in 1948, she acted as a consultant in home economics colleges in Korea and China, making an educational survey in the Philippines for the Foreign Missions Conference of North America. Finally, from 1950 to 1952 Clark served as a home economics advisor to the governments of Syria and Iraq for the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). She retired from OSC in 1950 and was made Dean Emeritus. In 1966, she received the Distinguished Service Award from OSU, two years later she received the same award from Yonsei University.
Clark wrote many articles for various professional magazines as well as two books: A Study of Student Homes of China (1930), and her autobiography, Adventures of a Home Economist, with Kenneth Munford (OSU Press, 1969). To see a more complete list of her publications, click this link to see the Open Library project site.
Ava Milam married J.C. Clark on November 1, 1952. Nearly 25 years later, on August 14, 1976, Clark passed away.
In 1915, a charming bungalow on Corvallis’ NW 26th Street was built for Clark. She remained in this house for over four decades, spanning her remarkable career. In her autobiography, Ava Milam Clark wrote this about her house: “Early in 1915, I decided to build a home of my own in which to live and entertain students, faculty, and other friends. When my parents came for an extended visit that summer, Father helped me choose a lot a few blocks from the campus. Mother helped me develop plans, while Father talked with the carpenter. In a time when large houses were the custom, many people thought I was building a doll’s house when I built one just large enough to accommodate myself, a college girl to live with me, and a guest or two from time to time” (p. 105). To learn more about the house and read more about its evolution, visit the City of Corvallis site to read the Oregon Inventory of Historic Properties form. To see some great pictures, especially of Clark when she was young, click here.
Coming on the heels of last month’s announcement that the Historical Society was cutting the equivalent of 15 full-time staff positions, most of those cuts at the research library, the board of trustees for OHS has approved funding for two positions in the library through June.
The library is considered to be a vital resource for anyone researching the history of our state, holding a vast collection of historic photographs, films, manuscripts, and oral histories about Oregon.
To read more, see the OPB news piece “Oregon Historical Society Funded To Keep Research Library Open Through May.”