Fabulous new collection guide now available online! Horner Museum Oral History Collection 1964-1992

We love it when Elizabeth N. describes something as the “granddaddy of them all” for our oral history collections … not one to use superlatives lightly, when Elizabeth does use one, she means it!

So why is this so special?

The Horner Museum Oral History Collection consists of approximately 290 oral history interviews conducted or assembled by the Horner Museum. The run the gamut, covering a variety of topics including the OSU campus community and development of academic departments, Corvallis and Benton County, the diversification of a “resource-based economy” in Bend and Deschutes County, Native Americans and other ethnic minorities in the region, and the establishment of the CH2M Hill engineering firm.

For those of you who like the numbers, this collection is 17.75 cubic feet, including 681 audiocassettes and 200 photographs — yes, that’s 34 boxes worth. And for those of you who delight in details, there is a preliminary container list available (linked from the collection guide).

Want to know more? Elizabeth has written a wonderful background history for the collection, including more about on the physical details and other related collections for companion research projects.

Interested in where the physical artifacts found their home?

You can find the contents of the Horner Museum in Philomath at the Benton County Historical Society and Museum.