This term we’re starting a new blog series where we highlight the perspectives of our student archivists. Our students are essential in doing the work that we do, from processing collections to helping pull items from our stacks for researchers. Their involvement also means that they get to see a lot of cool things, so we thought we would share their experiences with you!
Post contributed by Helena Egbert, SCARC Student Assistant
I am currently going through the manuscript collection of the OSU Mother’s Club Records. Accessions, or additions have been made to this group of records a few different times over the years. Many of the accessions haven’t been arranged in any understandable or meaningful way, so at times sorting through it been at times overwhelming and confusing. Within any archival chaos however, there are chances for fun discoveries.
I came across several pictures of two women, one of them holding what appears to be a very large Raggedy Ann doll. Without context, these photos don’t really mean anything. I decided to look for mention of a doll as I continued to look through these documents. It didn’t take long until I came across a flyer for a “Scholorship Doll” raffle (spelling mistake included!), proceeds going to the OSU Mom’s Club scholarship fund. The flyer listed the drawing as taking place at the Annual Salad Bar Luncheon in Hermiston.
With a little bit of digging, I found documents related to this event. This event was held in the spring of 1982 on April 16th for the Umatilla branch of the OSU Mother’s Club. A correspondence dated April 17, 1982 includes thanks to Sherry Johnson for “another darling doll,” leading me to believe that Sherry Johnson made the doll for the raffle. This same document describes that over 1,300$ had been raised for the scholarship program.
After these discoveries I found another photo of a different, but similarly styled doll, labeled as “1980 Doll, made by Sherry Johnson for OSU Mom’s Luncheon” leading to an educated guess that at least for a couple years, the OSU Mom’s Luncheon included the raffle of a homemade doll.
When this collection is done being processed and is available to the public, these photos and documents will be available in the MSS OSU Mother’s Club Records, Series 10: Pendleton (Umatilla County) Unit.