Monthly Archives: November 2012

Friday Feature: rolling in the new accessions

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It’s that special time of year when archivists get all sorts of wonderful gifts. This year we had an especially good haul from the Facilities Services department, which added many boxes of campus building plans!

Want to know more about campus planning?

In addition to the Facilities Services Records, 1888-2003, there are also several great places to look for information. The Memorabilia Collection includes brochures and general information about Facilities Services, about individual structures, and materials pertaining to campus planning. More detailed information about the construction of some major buildings is available in the records of the corresponding office or department; for example, information about construction and remodeling of the Valley Library (and its predecessors, the Kerr Library and Kidder Hall) are available in the Library Records (RG 009).

Capital Construction Funding Records, as well as other materials pertaining to buildings and facilities, are part of the Business Affairs Records (RG 017). Additional correspondence from Gordon V. Skelton is available in the Civil Engineering Department Records (RG 030).

We also have several great online exhibits for your viewing pleasure including OSU Building Construction and Holsteins, Horses, and Hogs: the Barns of Oregon State. Another resource is the Chronological History of OSU, which is invaluable for those landmark dates, developments, and events.

 

New Flickr Commons set full of images from the Santiam Valley

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There is so much to love about Oregon… And so much to love about the fabulous pictures in the Gerald Williams collection! Heading into the Santiam Valley, our newest Flickr Commons set has images from all seasons and all sorts of locales (and of all sorts of locals). Enjoy the waterfalls, front porches, camping grounds, highways, and a little bit of snow.

Two Men Boating on the Santiam River, circa 1910

Want to learn more about what’s in the Williams Collection? Check out the finding aid!

Want to see more Flickr C images from the Williams Collections? We have those too.

And, of course, there are many more on ourSCARC digital collection site!

OSU v. University of Oregon Civil War Football Facts & Figures

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OAC v. Oregon, 1908

Oh how I love a bullet point list…

  • The first Civil War game was played on November 3, 1894 in Corvallis, and won by Oregon Agricultural College (OAC), 16-0.  The teams ate a post-game meal together at Alpha Hall, the women’s dormitory.
  • After that 1894 victory, OAC Regent John R. N. Bell started a ritual of throwing his top hat into the Marys River after each football victory over the University of Oregon.  Bell Field, the home of Oregon State football from 1913-1953, was named in his honor.
  • The teams played each other twice in one season during two seasons, 1896 and 1945.  No games were played in 1900, 1901, 1943 and 1944.
  • A riot broke out after the 1910 game, resulting in no athletic competition between the two schools in 1911.
  • In order to avoid a repeat of the 1910 riot, Civil War games in 1912 and 1913 were played in Albany, which was considered a “neutral” site.
  • The 1915 game included 47 punts.
  • The OSU-U of O game was not called the Civil War until about 1929, when the term appeared in a few newspaper stories prior to that year’s contest.  The term was first used in the yearbook in the 1938 volume (1937 football season).
  • Seven Civil War games were played in Portland at Multnomah Stadium (now Jeld-Wen Field), the first in 1908.
  • The Civil War game was Oregon State’s homecoming game from the 1910s until the late 1930s.
  • Ten Civil War games have ended in a tie; in six of them the score was 0-0.
  • The most recent 0-0 tie was in 1983 at Autzen Stadium.  This game was dubbed the “Toilet Bowl” as the two teams combined for 11 fumbles, 5 interceptions and 4 missed field goals.
  • The 1937 game, won by Oregon State 14-0 in Eugene, resulted in a riot between about 500 fans from both schools, two days after the game.
  • In 1941, Oregon State beat the Ducks 12-7 to secure its first Rose Bowl berth.  The game, against Duke, was relocated to Durham, NC, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Oregon State upset the favored Duke Blue Devils, 20-16.
  • In 1946, Oregon State students kidnapped Puddles, the U of O’s live mascot.  In 1960, a U of O student kidnapped Oregon State’s homecoming queen.
  • The last game played in Bell Field was the 1953 freshman Civil War game.  Unfortunately the Beavers lost.
  • Starting in 1959, the winner of the Civil War game was awarded the Platypus Trophy, created that year by U of O art student Warren Spady.  After being stolen and lost, as well as disinterest in the trophy, the schools are trying to revive the award and make it part of the schools’ Civil War tradition.
  • Rich Brooks, who played with Terry Baker on OSU’s 1962 team which beat the Ducks 20-17, became Oregon’s head football coach in 1977.
  • The 1998 game, won by Oregon State in double overtime 44-41, was considered by Oregon Stater editor emeritus George Edmonston, Jr., to be the greatest Civil War game of all time.  The Beavs scored on running back Ken Simonton’s thrilling run in the second overtime period to upset the 15th ranked Ducks.  Many consider this game to be the turning point in OSU’s football fortunes after 28 consecutive losing seasons.
  • In 2000, both teams were ranked in the top 10 coming into the Civil War game, the first time that had ever happened.
  • The 2009 game was the first to guarantee the winner the Pac-10 berth in the Rose Bowl.
  • The OSU-U of O Civil War game is the 7th most played rivalry football game in the U.S.
  • The U of O holds the series lead, with 59 wins, 46 losses and 10 ties.

Information compiled from the Oregonian, Oregon Stater, Wikipedia and other sources.

Friday Feature — on a Wednesday

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For the sake of dietary balance, it would be delightful to have a Flickr set with tofurkeys and turkeys… Meaty drumsticks and tempeh wings next to platters of roasted Brussels sprouts and garlicky green beans… Boats of gravy and heaping bowls of super sweet sweet potatoes. But no one seems to take pictures of meatless Thanksgiving wonders, so instead we’ve pulled together a gobbling good set of turkey pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Enjoy – and save some room for pie.

Civil War Madness!

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Wave your flag with pride!

Ready for some nail biting? This weekend’s Civil War game is right around the corner and I’ve heard a rumor research is a good distraction… Want to know when the Civil War started? What the score record is? What Benny did at half-time? Stop by the 5th floor reading room this week between 8:30 and 5 for some good old fashion historical research!

And, just as an extra enticement, we have use copies for these games…

  • OSU vs. University of Oregon, 1946
  • OSU vs. University of Oregon, 1948
  • OSC vs. University of Oregon, 1949
  • OSC vs. University of Oregon, 1950
  • OSC vs. University of Oregon, 1951
  • OSC vs. University of Oregon, 1960
  • Liberty Bowl and 1962 football season highlights
  • Terry Baker, 1962
  • OSU vs. University of Oregon, 1966
  • OSU vs. University of Oregon, 1967
  • OSU vs. University of Oregon, 1970
  • OSU vs. University of Oregon, 1976

Want something to see online?

  • Rose Bowl Homecoming Banquet, 1942. (7:16) Includes footage of the Civil War football game between Oregon State College and University of Oregon in November 1941, the campus celebration that followed Oregon State’s win, and the Homecoming Banquet for the 1942 Rose Bowl team. Footage of card stunts, the marching band, and several plays in the Civil War game are included. The post-game campus celebration shows students gathering in the Memorial Union quadrangle and the front steps of the Memorial Union, yell leaders, and Coach Lon Stiner. The footage of the Homecoming Banquet includes Oregon Governor McKay, F.A. Gilfillan, Coach Lon Stiner, other dignitaries, and the players.
  • Rose Bowl Pre-Game Activities, 1942. (3:58) Includes footage of team’s arrival in Durham, North Carolina; coaches and players on the Duke University campus before the game; pre-game warm-ups, and coin toss. Oregon State players are wearing orange jerseys.
  • Rose Bowl Game Footage, 1942. (15:08) Game footage of the 1942 Rose Bowl football game between Oregon State College and Duke University that was played in Durham, North Carolina. Oregon State players are wearing jerseys with dark numerals and dark helmets.

Friday Feature: cutting the cake

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So who would have known that we’d find a delightful little gem in the Atmospheric Sciences  (that’s P 138 for those keeping track).

The Atmospheric Sciences Department Photographs collection consists of images of department staff and graduate students, the remodeling of department offices, classroom scenes, and the Climatic Research Institute building. The building is in Corvallis at 811 Jefferson Avenue — take a field trip and see if you see the resemblance!

Welcome to the West: the Roland Holmes Postcard Collection

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Sometimes you need a little Technicolor fun!

Enjoy our latest Flickr set “Welcome to the West: the Roland Holmes Postcard Collection,” which is a marvelous sampling from the Roland G. Holmes Collection of Oregon and Washington Postcards. Full of wonderful photographic and picture postcards, as well as photographic prints of Oregon and Washington scenes, about a third of the photographs in the collection show scenes of the Columbia River Gorge and Columbia River Highway, including waterfalls, Vista House, highway viewpoints, and Beacon Rock.

Images of many other notable Oregon and Washington landmarks are part of the collection, including Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, and Three Sisters; Silver Creek Falls; Crater Lake; the Pacific Coast in Oregon and Washington; and the cities of Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. And, note to yourself, most of the images of the Columbia River Gorge and Highway were taken by Ralph I. Gifford.

The postcards and photographic prints were sent to Roland Holmes’ father, Sylvester, by Fred Stump, a member of Sylvester’s wife’s family, who assembled the postcards while living in Oregon (Beaverton). The collection was later given to Roland by his father.

Learn more about the collection and Holmes!

Friday Feature: Dance!

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These delightful little 1940s gems showed up in our archive this week. Yes, they are our newest dance card additions!

What’s a Dance Card?

In the bygone days of formal courtship, dance cards played a large role in matching young couples. Dance cards were used to record and “reserve” dances between members of the opposite sex. The dance cards noted which songs were to be played and in what order. A man, or a woman, could then request a partner to dance during different songs with them. At the end of the evening, the dance card would be filled with the names of people who the student had danced with – or at least the people that had promised to dance with a student. A peek inside this dance card, from a 1926 junior prom (pictured next page), gives us an idea of what a dance card would have looked like by the end of the evening. If these dance cards are to be believed, there were some exciting people who showed up at OSU’s dances including Marie Antoinette, Marie Curie, Pochantas…

The dance cards themselves ranged from simple scraps of papers to the elaborate pamphlets. Often, they would come attached with little pencils so that students could easily “pencil” themselves into a certain dance slot. String or ribbon would also be attached to the dance card so that it could be worn around one’s wrist whilst dancing. The oldest cards in the University Archives date from the late 1890s – these are mainly from military balls. Dance cards really became popular at OSU in the early 1900s, when Americans experienced a ballroom craze. Young couples flocked to dance halls to learn the foxtrot, waltz, and two step.

Many of these dances were held at the MU – and students went all out to decorate it. For a Hawaiian themed dance in the 1950s, big glass tanks were brought in and filled with hundreds of gold fish. In 1951, the MU transformed was into the merry land of OZ. Students constructed miniature cities and towns for the enjoyment of their classmates. Instead of the Emerald City, students were invited into the Orange City – and were invited to view the world through these Orange Color glasses, which doubled as a dance card. Gradually, though, dance cards lost their edge and weren’t cool. By the 1960s, they were gradually made to commemorate dances given by fraternities and sororities. The last dance card was made in 1967.

Thanks to former student workers Kelsey and Ingrid Ockert for providing all these fabulous dance cards details! If you want to learn more about dance cards see more photos, check out the “Shall We Dance” set.

Oh what fun we have…

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It’s a drizzly day in the mid-Willamette Valley. Fortunately, being an archivist who loves to take pictures means that I get to spend some time scrolling through the recent past and enjoy the remembering!

And yes, we’d be out of business if people didn’t do exactly what I do…

New Exhibit! “Manuscripts to Molecules: the 4 signature collecting areas of SCARC”

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Come by the 5th floor alcove to see our new exhibit “Manuscripts to Molecules: Signature Areas of SCARC.”

Enjoy this visual tour highlighting our signature areas (natural resources, the history of science, University history, and Oregon’s multicultural communities).  Exhibited are a selection of books, artifacts and documents designed to give viewers an entrée into the wide variety of materials held in each of our signature collections.

As the repository for and steward of the Libraries’ rare and unique materials, this exhibit explores the many ways that the Special Collections & Archives Research Center stimulates and enriches research and teaching endeavors through the use and preservation of historical collections and unique materials. Our collections include manuscripts, archives, rare books, oral histories, photographs, ephemera, audio/visual materials, and digital records.

Make sure we’re open when you stop by! Our reading room hours are Monday – Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.