SCARC student worker Susanne was drawn into a new accession this week that was chock full of home design and fashion fun… The collection of alumna Dona Dinsdale Papers (1942-1947).

Coming to Oregon State College in 1943 from Portland, Dona Shirley Dinsdale majored in business with a focus on secretarial science. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 1947 and her 0.75 cubic foot collection if full of materials created and collected by Dinsdale during her time as a student at Oregon State College. Mostly made up of course materials, class notes, and term papers, you’ll also find items such as circular letters, event programs, grade reports, newspaper clippings, receipts, student identification cards, publications, and a scrapbook. The latter is a treasure trove! Assembled by Dinsdale for a class in house furnishings, the scrapbook contains images clipped from magazines and samples of furniture fabric. Not to be forgotten, the publications she collected included Oregon Stater alumni magazines, copies of the Beaver Snuffer student monthly publication, and annual college fashion previews published by the Meier and Frank Company.

Why does she love these sorts of collections? Susanne says “I am not a fashionable person but looking at how fashion has changed (hopefully for the better) makes me feel fashionable. It is worth the smile and giggle.” She goes on to say that “somebody put a large amount of thought and care into designing a fashionable/stylish home (as seen in that scrapbook even down to the clothing swatches) that with the turning of the ever turning tide of trends most people would not want to be caught dead in. Fashion royalty soon turns to fashion victim with the steadily unchanging hands of time.”

Want to know more? We have plenty of collections for you to explore your inner designer!

• College of Home Economics and Education Records, 1913-2000 (especially Series 20: Architectural drawings/book plans 1920-1976)
• Apparel, Interiors, Housing, and Merchandising Department Records, 1918-1967
• College of Home Economics Photograph Collection, 1925-1998
• Home Economics Extension Photographs, 1939-1998
• Maud Wilson Papers, 1929-1950

You may know that we have great History of Science archival collections and great book collections, but do you know about our book collections?

Granta 16: Science.

I was reminded again this week of how awesome the “History of Science Books and Dissertations Collection, 1575-2002” and “History of Atomic Energy Collection, 1896-1991” are is as I watched our resident scholar pore over stacks of books in our reading room.

Cart full o’ books

The History of Science collection documents the development of science and technology within the past 150 years, with a particularly strong focus on quantum physics and chemistry. Highlights of the collection include Niels Bohr’s doctoral thesis; the first edition of Marie Curie’s Traite de Radioactivite; and the first and only edition of Avogadro’s Hypothesis.

• How big is it? 237 linear feet — 2,512 items — and still growing!

The History of Atomic Energy Collection, containing more than 3,000 items, is a valuable resource for research on the development of nuclear technologies in the twentieth century. Highlights of the collection include the first published account of the discovery of radioactivity in 1896 by Nobel Prize winning physicist Henri Becquerel; writings on the Manhattan Project; materials concerning the congressional hearings of J. Robert Oppenheimer; and formerly classified government reports. Cultural aspects of the atomic age are also explored through fictional works, poetry, drama, and music.

• How big is it? 231 linear feet — 3,108 items — and still growing!

If you don’t go through our Rare Books portal, you can find most of these books in the OSU Libraries’ online catalog. When you search for a title look for a location that says “Valley SpCol HistSci” or “ValleySpCol Atomic Energy” [see below for a visual aid].

Catalog record with “Valley SpCol HistSci” location