Monthly Archives: April 2014

Layers: Past & Present

We love it when students use our collections creatively.  In Winter term Julia Bradshaw, Assistant Professor in the Art Department asked Ruth Vondracek to conduct a class for Art 399: Concepts In Digital Imaging.   The students learned how to use the SCARC finding aids and had fun picking out photos at the same time. As one student said, “… it was very intriguing to see all of the old photographs and to learn what is offered through the archives.”

The student’s assignment was to find an archival photograph of a Corvallis location in the SCARC collections, re-photograph the same location and blend the old and the new.  We think you will agree that the results draw the past evocatively into the present.

Watch for our exhibit of the student’s photographs to be held in the Valley Library later in Spring term.

Amy Ortwein

Amy Ortwein

My primary interests lay in nature. I originally searched through the Digital Archive online for pictures of the Willamette River and found one from Mary’s River that was of good quality. I am not sure of the exact date of the original photograph or of the original spot.  I did though have a faint idea of where the original image was taken because of the location of Mary’s Peak in the background.  I ended up taking over a hundred photographs of the area; I then made a collage in order to create an image similar in style to the original large format image.

Jerome Stretch

I chose a photo from 1970 looking along 3rd Avenue in Corvallis.  The photograph was actually mislabeled as “Looking north on 4th Ave”, but through talking to a classmate and going to the site of the photo, I determined that it was actually 3rd avenue.  I decided to use the image because I thought that it was interesting that the Safeway has not changed locations since 1970.  I am also interested in street scenes and so the photograph spoke to me.  The fact that I had to figure out where it was taken, and the history behind it, was also pretty neat. 

Teresa Yoshiura

My photo project was about the comparison of 1980s and modern Women’s Basketball.  I chose this theme because I wanted to try something different from landscape or building, which were the themes for everyone else.

Tomas Patlan

I chose an image from the first Oregon State graduation held in Gill Coliseum because I wanted to create an eerie and ghostly image of the past. As the student population ever increases at Oregon State, the venues of graduation have also changed. Before having graduation in Gill, it was held in the pool area of Langton. Now, the student population is so large that the only area to house thousands and thousands of graduates is the Reser football stadium.

Stirling Gorsuch

I chose to make a photomontage of the original “Campus Store” combined with the present day location on Monroe St. I find it interesting how the space has changed into the “University Center” of today, which houses Dutch Bros. Coffee and office spaces above. I also cropped out most of the vintage photo’s surrounding environment, which shows how the town has developed immensely since then. . I thought it was clever to have a couple people bicycling; I is almost as if they are biking into the world of when the Campus Store existed in this location. There is certainly a nostalgic feeling in the Campus Store photo. We can see how the area has changed, but also see from where the University has come. It was fun to see this come to life!

Heather March

I chose this picture because of the subject matter, Fairbanks Hall, and the interesting elements in the image, created by the walkway and the trees along the left side. I’m not sure when it was taken, but I think sometime around the thirties based off other images I saw that looked to be taken at the same time and the look of the outfits of the people in the photograph. Looking through all these pictures showed me how much campus has changed.

Jackie George

The photo I picked was of Weatherford Hall from 1941. I have always heard stories about the building, since most of my family has attended Oregon State. I knew that it used to be the ROTC building, but didn’t know much else about it. I thought that it was so interesting that the building itself looks exactly the same, but the inside and the surrounding areas have changed so much. I wanted to show that the building used to be just in the middle of an open field and how now it is surrounded by buildings. I did this by making a panoramic photo and layering in the old photo.

Merri Lewis

I chose to photograph the McAlexander Fieldhouse because I am an Army ROTC cadet and the building is a big part of my life here at OSU. I absolutely loved looking through the boxes of the old photographs of the building and found that it was originally an Armory. My project represents a balance between the past and the present and how both are necessary pieces of the whole. In Army ROTC, history is an important part of our learning in developing leadership so it was really fun to be able to blend history into the present with this building since it such a big part of my life right now.

Rachel Boucher

I ended up choosing a photo of the Benton County Courthouse. I chose this photo because that building has always interested to me due to its old architecture. When composing my piece it was interesting to see the lack of changes to the building. Besides some slight changes, the building has remained the same. In contrast to the courthouse, the outer environment has changed drastically with new additions of paved roads and power lines.

Kaylee Weyrauch

The four photographs I chose were of places on campus. The first one is of Azalea House, then “Lover’s Lane”, then Campus Way and the last photo was of Fairbanks Hall. I picked these four because when they are put together, they show the route I take every day to school. They mean something to me and were fairly easy to locate in the Archives.

Shae Williams

I chose this image for my project because it depicted Benton Hall. I spend a lot of my time in Benton and I know it is one of the oldest buildings on campus. Though the building has changed little (on the outside) everything around it has been greatly altered by time. The view from which the original photo is taken is now almost completely obscured by trees. It was cool to compare the original image with the image I ended up taking from the same spot side by side.

Emily Lyons

I chose to use this photo of E.E. Wilson because it seemed to capture the essence of Oregon State through both the architecture and the human activity. Before this assignment, I had no idea that Benton Hall had been a part of Oregon State’s history for so long. I felt compelled to use it in my work. Another reason why this photo grabbed my attention was because of the man on the bicycle. Riding a bike on and through campus is a mode of transportation which students and faculty alike use on a daily basis today and I was surprised to see that it was just as important in the early 1900’s. When originally making the decision about the image, I was drawn to the postcards; I loved the nostalgic qualities and tactility. I paired the photo with the old postcard format. I then meshed an original photo I took with the older one and created a postcard which could possibly be sent out through the university for some occasion.

Manasa Adajian

I choose the courthouse because it’s a magnificent building and I walk by it every time I am downtown. I think it an important landmark in Corvallis. Also, I think it’s pretty tight to see how things have changed over time.

Tiffany Cha

For my project I used the photos of the Lady in the Fountain, and it was great to learn about some of the history of OSU. It was heartbreaking to hear that the fountain was repeatedly vandalized and eventually destroyed only about 20 years after being at OSU, but it was reassuring to see that there were students who cared and guarded the statue.  It’s great that you have these photos that show a part of the history of OSU that is no longer here. Seeing this statue almost a century after it was destroyed is amazing, and I’m glad that I got to see and learn about it.

 

Friday Feature: more finding aids!

Following is a list of 9 finding aids for SCARC collections that were completed during March 2014. All are available through the NWDA finding aids database as well as on the SCARC website. MARC records for the collections are available through the OSU Libraries’ Catalog, Summit Navigator, and Worldcat.

This month’s batch consists of guides for 5 “new” collections that were received in 2013 and 4 maps collections. As of March 28, 2014 the OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center had 749 finding aids in NWDA.

Tripp, Rodney, Collection, circa 1870 – 2001 (MSS Tripp)

Rodney Winfield Tripp, ca 1940.

These materials document Tripp’s association with Oregon State University and consist primarily of ephemera, memorabilia, and artifacts. A life-long resident of Albany, Oregon, Tripp earned a BS in Secretarial Science from Oregon State College in 1940.

Andrews, Carol, Papers, 1991-2012 (MSS Andrews)

These materials were generated and assembled by Andrews in the course of her work on website design and construction for Oregon State University, including the University’s first web page in 1995.

Booth, Claud L., Photograph Album, 1919-1973 (P 300)

This photograph album includes 66 photographs assembled by Claud L. Booth to document his student years at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC); the photographs depict student activities and athletic teams and events. Claud Lorraine Booth attended OAC in 1919-1923 and 1926-1927 and earned a BS in Industrial Arts in June 1928.

Forestry Media Center Slide Collection, 1942-2000 (P 299)

This extensive collection of color slides (approximately 18,800 images) were created, assembled, and maintained by the Forestry Media Center as a source of images for instruction and outreach in the Oregon State University College of Forestry. The collection also includes slides created by W.F. McCulloch, Dean of Forestry from 1955 until 1966. The slides depict forests and landscapes in North America; timber management, harvesting, and processing; and College of Forestry students and faculty.

Carey L. Strome, 1916.

Strome, Carey L., Papers, 1911-1914 (MSS Strome)The

Strome Papers document his agriculture courses at Oregon Agricultural College in the early 1910s. The Papers include class notes, course materials and class assignments, and publications. Strome earned a BS in Agronomy at Oregon Agricultural College in 1916.

Bureau of Land Management Maps of Oregon, 1944-1993 (MAPS BLM)

BLM map segment of the Prineville Unit, 1970.

This collection of 100 maps includes maps published by the Bureau of Land Management for the public as guides for outdoor recreation and prepared for management of forest lands, primarily in western Oregon.

Forest Type Maps of Oregon, 1900 – circa 1995 (MAPS ForestType)

Detail from a map of the northern portion of the Cascade Range Forest Reserve, 1901.

The Forest Type Maps document forest composition at the county, region, and statewide level in Oregon from 1900 to the mid-1950s. They were prepared by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. The maps depict type and quality of timber in a given area as well as non-forested and de-forested land. The collection includes 95 maps.

 

 

General County Highway Maps, 1951-1963 (MAPS CountyHwy)

This collection of 70 highway maps were prepared by the Oregon State Highway Department in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads. Maps for Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Curry, Douglas, Harney, Lane, Lincoln, Polk, Tillamook, and Yamhill Counties are included.

Willamette Valley Sketch Map, 1851 (MAPS WVSketch)

This map depicts purchases and reservations made by the Board of Commissioners with Native Americans in Oregon. The map was prepared by George Gibbs and Edmund A. Starling. Gibbs was a geologist and ethnologist who participated in treaty negotiations between the U.S. Governments and native tribes. This collection consists of three reproductions of the original map, which is held in the National Archives.

 

Friday Feature: SCARC updates

A lot has been happening around SCARC lately!

We are in the midst of installing a new exhibit on the Obo Addy Legacy Project and Milagro (officially known as the Miracle Theater Group) in the 5th floor foyer. OMA curator Natalia Fernandez will write more about the exhibit in the Oregon Multicultural Archives blog, but here are some fun shots I took this morning.

History of Science librarian Anne Bahde had the Oregon Master Beekeepers program in for a visit this afternoon, but her big work over the past two weeks is a collection accession that will remain somewhat shrouded in mystery, but she reports that her favorite thing recently was bringing in a bag of irradiated dirt collected from Hanford in the 1970s. Here’s the teaser to the mystery – these boxes are now full – but not of dirt. Stay tuned for updates!

Of course my favorite thing from the past week was the OHBA prom launch party — Tap into History.

McMenamins Mission Theater marquee

But I also travelled to Monterey a few weeks ago to present a poster at the National Council on Public History and was interviewed for Library Journal.

Peter Kopp & Tiah Edmunson-Morton, OHBA poster