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
