Another fabulous addition to the “student experience” collections we have in the archives at SCARC. A small group of things from Alice Fisher came in a couple of weeks ago, and though it is small it is mighty!

Alice Mary Fisher was born in April of 1911 and graduated from high school in Albany, Oregon, in 1928. She enrolled at Oregon Agricultural College for the spring term in 1928 and completed her BS in Vocational Education in June 1932. While at OSC she was active in campus theater productions, including The Three Musketeers and Lady Windermere’s Fan, and completed several theater courses during her student years. Beyond drama, she was involved in many other student activities, including the Memorial Union Board of Directors, Beaver yearbook, Barometer campus newspaper, and the Associated Students of OSC. She was also a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority at OSC and established the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at Colorado College, where she pursued graduate studies in English. Alice Fisher Summers Roberts returned to Albany, Oregon, with her husband John Summers during World War II. She lived in Albany for the rest of her life, where she was an active community volunteer and was named the Linn County Woman of the Year; she passed away in 2014.

Fisher’s time at OSC is already represented in the small “Alice Fisher Community Drama Class Scrapbook” collection, which was donated by Fisher. The book consists of materials assembled by Fisher for the Community Drama class she took spring term of 1931, full of images clipped from magazines and newspapers illustrating clothing and furniture styles from various historical eras. You’ll also find class notes, a copy of her final examination, and a program for a production of My Fair Lady performed in Portland.

This new addition also contains items that she compiled while in school, included are notes from a French class, a Zoology test, a theater prompt book with all her lines, and a paper with the title “Polygamy and its subdivisions.” She also has items saved from a household management class, which is really interesting when you look at budgeting in 1931.

But the thing that brought Collections Archivist into my office to show off what he’d found was a bundle of papers tucked into a file with a label “The Parent/Child Relationship.”

It includes her notes from class, her research, and a “Study of a child at a nursery school.” It’s a personality study and psychological assessment of a 3 ½ year old named Robbie (who is totally adorable).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She’s included physiognomy, psychology, and (as an added bonus) some of his art.

 

It’s time for your monthly update on all the new SCARC collection guides! Eight finding aids were completed or revised during December 2014 and all are available through the NWDA finding aids database, the SCARC website, and OCLC Worldcat. Records for most of them are also available in the new OSUL management and search system (a.k.a. “the catalog” or “Alma/Primo”).

This month’s batch includes guides for one maps collection and six collections for which we previously had only minimal information available online. In addition, one guide was revised during December to incorporate an addition to the collection and reflect better descriptive practice. As of December 31, 2014 the OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center had 802 finding aids in NWDA.

Oregon Timber Tax Maps, 1950-1996 (MAPS TimberTax) 

• http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv72872
• http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/timbertax/index.html

This collection consists of more than 4,000 maps and related documents detailing appraisal information for forest taxes. The collection includes annotated township maps, data sheets on timber volume, as well as many other pieces of information regarding the valuation of timbered lands in Oregon during the 1950s-1970s. 

Dolph, Nixon, and Dolph Letterbooks, 1894-1899 (MSS Dolph)

• http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv55172
• http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/dolph/index.html

These letter books document the professional activities of attorneys Joseph Dolph, Richard Nixon, and Chester Dolph between 1894 and 1899. Included is administrative correspondence and legal counsel regarding land disputes, immigration hearings, divorce proceedings, debt remittance, and other civil and criminal lawsuits. Litigants include the Oregon Gold Mining Company, the Last Chance Mining Company, the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, the American Loan & Trust Company, and others. 

Morris, Jimmie, Papers, 1920-2008 (MSS MorrisJ)

• http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv42337
• http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/morrisj/index.html

The Jimmie Morris Papers reflects Morris’ life-long interest in broadcasting, his decades of service to KOAC radio and television, and the broader evolution of the station itself.  The collection is particularly strong in its documentation of the emergence of television as a tool for statewide education, a development that came after much debate in the mid-1950s. An Oregon Agricultural College graduate, Morris was on the staff of KOAC from 1932 to 1963 and is the author of a history of the station, The Remember Years … , published in 1972. The collection includes a variety of material formats including photographs, reel-to-reel sound recordings, a motion picture film, and a vinyl sound recording.

Orange Owl, 1920-1928 (PUB 010-13c)

• http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv50946
• http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pub010-13c/index.html

The Orange Owl was a college humor magazine published by the Orange Owl Chapter of the Hammer and Coffin National Honorary Society at Oregon Agricultural College during the 1920s. The magazine included humorous and satirical pieces as well as cartoons and pen sketches created by students. All 43 issues are available online: http://oregondigital.org/sets/orange-owl/ 

Patterson, Joan, Collection of Historic Oregon Houses Lantern Slides, circa 1935 (P 102)

• http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv16870
• http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/p102/index.html

This collection consists of 17 lantern slides of homes and other structures in Oregon assembled by Patterson, probably for teaching. Joan Patterson was a Professor of Clothing, Textiles, and Related Arts at Oregon State University from 1936 until her retirement in 1969. An item-level list of the images is part of this guide. 

Stout, Ray, Photograph Collection, 1895-1940 (P 103)

• http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv12838
• http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/p103/index.html

This collection of about 30 portrait photographs was assembled by Stout during his student years at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) in the early 1900s. The images depict primarily OAC students. Stout graduated from OAC in 1905 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. An item-level list of the images is part of this guide.

Vincent, C.A., Photograph Collection, 1908-1912 (P 109)

• http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv41067
• http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/p109/index.html

These photographic postcards document student life at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC). Chester Andrus Vincent attended OAC in 1906-1910 and earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1910. An item-level list of the images is part of this guide.

Updated finding aid: Betzel, Irwin, Papers, 1911-1920 (MSS Betzel)

• http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv47886
• http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/betzel/index.html

The Betzel Papers are comprised of materials assembled and generated by Irwin Betzel during his years as an Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) student and an OAC Instructor of Pharmacy.  The collection includes two scrapbooks, a photograph albums, several loose photographs, three pharmacy notebooks, and a small collection of pharmacy ephemera.