Monthly Archives: May 2011

Pride at OSU!

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Pride Month Display

Have you heard of Pride Week, Coming Out Day, and the Lavender Graduation? These are all OSU’s Rainbow Continuum traditions. The organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, and intersex (LGBTQQI) students, and allies meets in the OSU Pride Center. Although the Pride Center opened in 2004, its history and the Rainbow Continuum’s history date back to 1976 when the Barometer ran a small announcement, calling for people to meet at the Women’s Resource Center to discuss “the needs of gay people.”

Want to know more? Come see the display in the 3rd Floor Archives Reading Room and check out the Digital Collection in Flickr!

Want to learn more? Contact Oregon Multicultural Librarian Natalia Fernández at natalia.fernandez@oregonstate.edu

Exhibit curated by OSU University Archives student worker Kelsey Ockert.

Pack your bags, we’re ready to go.

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View of Hood River Railroad depot, O.R. & N. Depot, and Mt. Hood Hotel, 1908

View of Hood River Railroad depot, O.R. & N. Depot, and Mt. Hood Hotel, 1908

It’s the glorious tipping point into warm weather, summer vacations, and parking yourself somewhere other than your office or house. So in advance of our day-tripping through Oregon in June, July, and August with great pictures linked to the centennial of the Extension Services, we’re adding a fun set to the “People Doing Stuff” collection in Flickr Commons — this one carrying the title “People Staying Places.”

Hotels, taverns, bungalows, tents, inns — any place with a bed or close approximation — this set is dedicated to all the people staying in a variety of different places throughout Oregon.

So pack your bags, roll up your sleeping bag, and get ready to go, it’s going to be a wonderful summer of exploration.

Take a walk through history

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BeaverTracks screenshot

Remember last year the OSU Libraries launched BeaverTracks, an interactive mobile guide and walking tour of Oregon State University’s historical locations? As the showers slow and the rhodies bloom, now is a great time to grab your smartphone and head outside! Of course, this is Oregon after all, so if you look out the window and see a storm, you can virtually walk or read about the tour on the OSU Libraries website.

May is Historic Preservation Month and there is plenty to learn about the history of Oregon …

  • The OSU Historic Preservation office, part of OSU Facility Services, has a wonderful site with information and resources about our campus, including the Historic Preservation Plan, Historic Building Map, information about OSU as a National Historic District, and a Photo Gallery with a sampling of images from the OSU Archives Collections.
  • Want to study historic preservation in a more “academicky” manner? The University of Oregon, our neighbor to the south, has a Historic Preservation Program, housed in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, which offers a Master of Science in Historic Preservation as well as an Undergraduate Minor.
  • The City of Corvallis has had a historic preservation program since 1982, and you can learn all about it on the City web site; it is full of great information about May 2011 activities to celebrate the month, as well as information about permits, contacts, resources, and a bit on the three National Register Historic Districts, Avery-Helm, College Hill West, and Oregon State University.
  • The Oregon Heritage Commission is always good for gobs of information related to all things that support heritage, cultural, and historic preservation related activities in Oregon.
  • Finally, one of my favorite resources is the Oregon Historic Sites Database. It is invaluable for the information it provides based on County, city, or address searches! It also lets you refine your search with the option to only display those properties listed on the National Register.

Enjoy — and lace up your shoes for some walking!

Bad Archivists

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Private garden and service area on Lloyd Frank Estate, 1931

‘Round here we shy away from the label “miscellaneous” to describe an assortment of items we can’t really mentally pull together … It’s like archival taboo. In fact, on the ArchivesNext blog post “You guys really don’t like Sharpies–the #badarchivists Twitter meme,” @allysoneb says that “#badarchivists use the word ‘miscellaneous.'”

Not wanting to be a “bad archivist,” I’m going to be a “hair-splitting archivist.”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word miscellany as “A mixture, medley, or assortment; (a collection of) miscellaneous objects or items.”

In the case of the gobs of Peck’s lantern slides we digitized, uploaded, and categorized into Flickr sets, the miscellany here is all that is left. Looking back to the OED you can think of the delightful examples they provide to frame this really random set:

  • Bacon in 1617 used the term to describe “A Miscellany and Confusion of Causes of all Natures.”
  • E. Bulwer-Lytton in 1833 said “Turn your eyes now to the ultra Radicals, what a motley, confused, jarring, miscellany of irreconcilable theorists!”
  • Z. N. Hurston in 1934 offered “John‥returned with a miscellany of weird objects in bottles, in red flannel, and in toadskin.”

As always, enjoy!

Asian Pacific Islander Student Groups at OSU!

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Did you know that there was a Hui O Hawaii Club established in 1951? Did you know that just this Spring Term the Teow Chew Association was established? OSU has a long history of Asian Pacific Islander student groups on campus that host various events to share their traditions and cultures with the student body and Corvallis community as a whole.

Want to know more? Come see the display in the 3rd Floor Archives Reading Room and check out the Digital Collection in Flickr!

Want to learn more? Contact Oregon Multicultural Librarian Natalia Fernández at natalia.fernandez@oregonstate.edu

Exhibit co-curated by OSU University Archives Student Workers Kelsey Ockert and Ingrid Ockert.