Monthly Archives: March 2009

Dr. Snell and the College of Home Economics

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Margaret Comstock Snell was known as one of the truly great faculty members in the history of OSU. Respected and admired by everyone who knew her, Snell’s greatest contribution was the establishment of the first college of home economics in the West — and she did so with 24 students, no assistants, almost no budget, and a lone classroom on the third floor of Benton Hall.

She was born to Quaker parents near the town of Livingston, New York, in 1843, attended Cedar Grove Academy, and graduated from Grinnell College. After teaching in Iowa City from 1872 to 1879, Snell moved to Benicia, California, to establish a school for young women; she called it the Snell Seminary. Snell developed an interest in medicine and was admitted to the medical school at Boston University, where she graduated with honors in 1886, specializing in homeopathy or household economy. After returning to Oakland she was recruited North to Corvallis by Board of Regents member Wallis Nash and his wife Louisa.

Want to know more about her time at OSU? George Edmonston has written a fine article on Snell, full of details and great quotes!

Helen Margaret Gilkey

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Helen Margaret Gilkey epitomized the Pacific Northwestern botanist of the first half of the Twentieth Century.

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Born on March 6, 1886, in Montesanto, Washington, she and her family moved to Corvallis in 1903. She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from OSC and completed her PhD, “A Revision of the Tuberales (truffle fungi) of California,” in 1915 with W.A. Setchell at the University of California at Berkeley. From 1915 until 1918, she worked as a scientific illustrator at Berkeley.

In 1918, she returned to Oregon State to work as the curator of the University’s herbarium, a position she held until 1951; she later became a professor of Botany. She had 44 publications to her credit, 10 on vascular plant taxonomy and 10 on Tuberales. According to the Oregon State University Mycological Collection, “She played an essential role in establishing Oregon State University as the center for taxonomic and systematic research of hypogeous fungi. Her collection is still actively used and serves as the foundation for systematic research of hypogeous fungi in North America.” The consummate academic, retirement didn’t slow her research; she remained active until her death in 1972.

To learn more about Dr. Gilkey, read our March 13th, 2007 blog post.

There is also a wonderful Oregon Encyclopedia article on her — well worth the read!

A Benton County Leader

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Whether she’s fighting for civil rights or natural resources, Annabelle Jaramillo is known as a strong voice in Oregon, and a leader who represents Benton County.

She’s worn many professional hats: in addition to being re-elected to a third four-year term as Benton County Commissioner on November 4, 2008, she’s also been the Citizens’ Representative for Governor Kitzhaber; a research botanist; a development director; a civil rights advocate; a teacher; and a diversity, motivation, employment, and computer trainer.

Jaramillo has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees of Science from Portland State University, working as a research botanist for the USDA Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station at the Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, from 1974 until 1987. She served as both the President of National Image Inc., a national Hispanic civil rights organization, and the Executive Director of the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs. From 1995 to 2000, she served as a senior staff member for Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber’s as his Citizen’s Representative, responding directly to citizen concerns. In 1997, Kitzhaber named Jaramillo to the National Environmental Justice Advisory Board (NEJAC), an EPA body that assists federal agencies in the development of environmental justice strategies. Jaramillo’s service with NEJAC ended in 2001.

She was elected as a Benton Count Commissioner in 2000, 2004, and 2008.

Want to know more?

What’s Cooking? OSU Grad Mercedes Bates… aka Betty Crocker!

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It’s true! But those of you who have been regular readers of this blog probably knew that after seeing this post in 2007.

Want to know more about the woman? Check the Wikipedia article on Mercedes Allison Bates.

Love the woman, but want to know more about the icon? Wikipedia has a great article on Betty Crocker, with wonderful links at the bottom!

Focus on Faculty: Ida Burnett (Callahan)

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Today we’re going to shift from students to faculty, featuring a short biography of Ida Callahan– although, she was also an 1881 OSU grad!

And again, thanks to George Edmonston for all his work on the history of OSU on the Alumni Association site, he makes my job easy …

“One of the legendary faculty members in the history of OSU, Ida Burnett was a standout student while in school and was hired immediately after graduation by President Arnold to assist W. W. Bristow in the preparatory department. She is the only woman pictured in one of the earliest known photos of the Oregon State faculty, taken in 1883. She rose to become assistant professor of English at OAC and during the early 1920s was president of the Oregon Federation of Women’s Clubs. She was much sought after at alumni reunions for many years, and it was an honor among women returnees to be photographed with her. Today, a women’s residence hall just east of the Kerr Administration Building is named in her honor.”

Join us in celebrating International Women’s Day, March 8th

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alice-biddle-1870-graduating-class.jpgNationally and internationally, this is the month to celebrate the wide-ranging accomplishments of women all over the world. As a Flickr Commons member, we’re joining with the other Commons institutions to put up photographic sets that recognize and commemorate International Women’s Day. Want to see what we’ve put together? Go to Flickr Commons and do a search for the tag “womensday,” which is what all the institutions have used to identify those photographs that are part of this observation, or take a short cut by clicking here. You can read about the flurry of activity on the indicommons blog. And, if you just want to go straight to our set, check out OSU Archives Celebrates International Women’s Day March 8th. Remember, viewing is good, commenting is better — we want to hear from you, so log in to Flickr and use that comment box!

It’s never enough to put up pictures, so for the next 15 days, we’ll be posting a little bit about each of the women featured in our Flickr set, starting with Alice Biddle. And who better to quote than George Edmonston when celebrating Ms. Biddle, the first woman to graduate from OSU?

“Alice Biddle, from Corvallis, was actually one of three students in Oregon State’s first graduating class in 1870. The other two were men with the last names of Currin and Veach, but Alice is the one we most remember. Perfect grades. Perfect attendance. OSU’s first woman graduate. To top it off, a Bachelor of Science degree in the liberal arts. And she was only 16.”

Want to know more? George has written a wonderful piece on Biddle, which can be found on the Oregon State University Alumni Association page.

Update: Student of the Year for Oregon from the OSU Archives!

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Just when we thought winning Doug Schulte winning Student of the Year for OSU was great, we found ourselves with the Student of the Year for the state of Oregon!

Doug is now competing for the Western Regional title, and then will (undoubtedly) be competing for the national title! And, after that, it’s on to bigger, better, and inter-planetary things…

February Finding Aids

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The following 13 finding aids for OSU Archives collections were completed or updated in February 2009. They have been loaded to the NWDA finding aids database and have a PDF on the OSU archives’ website and a catalog record in the OSU Libraries’ catalog, Summit, and Worldcat. Seven (7) of these are for collections acquired in 2008; four (4) are for collections for which there was previously no information available online. We now have 381 finding aids in NWDA.

Alpha Epsilon Oregon Upsilon Chapter Records, 1978-1995

Alumni Association Records, 1888-2008 (RG 035)

American Society of Agricultural Engineers Oregon Student Branch Records, 1955-1989

Belcher, Jerry D., Collection of Agricultural College Track Photographs, 1905 (P 128)

Elmore, Pitts, Photographs, 1921-1922 (P 123)

Forestry, College of, Moving Images, 2007 (FV P 061)

Klamath County Timber Cruising Records, 1952-1955

Liberal Arts, College of, Records, 1952-2008 (RG 143)

McCulloch, W.F., Collection, 1936-1968

Moore, Willetta, Photograph Album, 1913-1930 (P 269)

Pride Center Records, 1993-2008 (RG 236)

R.H. Robinson Papers, 1889-1968

  • http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv16702
  • http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/archives/archive/mss/documents/ORErobinson.pdf
  • This collection documents Robinson’s research on insecticides, fungicides, and spray residues conducted as a chemist with the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, a position he held from 1911 until his retirement in 1951. The papers includes correspondence, article reprints and publications, research data, reference materials, and publications. The Robinson Papers were acquired by the OSU Libraries in the late 1980s and transferred from Special Collections to the Archives in 2008. This is a preliminary collection-level description with a link to a preliminary container list.

Wright, Marshall S., Photograph Album, 1915-1928 (P 276)

If you have any questions about the collections, just let us know!

2009 OSU Student Employee of the Year Award recipient: he’s one of ours!

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Congratulations to Doug Schulte (and to those of us who work with him). Doug was given the OSU Student Employee of the year award this year, and we couldn’t be happier! Not only is he a great all-around employee, his work on the Flickr Commons project was exemplary—in fact, I think it is safe to say that without his work, there wouldn’t be a Flickr Commons project…

Here is part of the award announcement, which really speaks to how much ALL of our student workers contribute to making our professional lives better, easier, and more enjoyable:

“Student employees comprise the largest group of employees at Oregon State University. Each year, outstanding students are recognized by their employers by nomination for the Student Employee of the Year Award. Universities across the nation select one of those nominees from their school to represent them at their state, region and the national competition level.

This year, OSU employers nominated 23 students for the award.

The nominee selected as the OSU 2009 Student Employee of the Year is Doug Schulte, Head Student Assistant in University Archives. Doug will receive an Award Certificate, a $100 gift certificate, and will be entered in the state competition representing OSU.

Congratulations to Doug on his selection and congratulations to all the nominees for their exceptional service to OSU as outstanding student employees.”