08 | February | 2019 | Special Collections and Archives Research Center

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We are so excited to be hosting the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) exhibit “Catching Birds with a Camera: Finley, Bohlman and the Photographs That Launched Oregon’s Conservation Movement” from February – July 2019!

OHS curated and hosted the exhibit in 2018 as an extension of a joint grant project between OHS and SCARC. During 2016-2017, both institutions collaborated on the project “Reuniting Finley and Bohlman” to make more than 40 years of photographs, manuscripts, publications, correspondence, and other materials created by William Finley, Irene Finley, and Herman Bohlman available online. The digitization effort allows the collection, which is physically divided between the OHS and SCARC to be united in its entirety for researchers and conservationists to access online. Included in the project are nearly 7,000 images and over 8,000 pages of manuscript materials that are available at digitalcollections.ohs.org and oregondigital.org/sets/finley-bohlman

William L. Finley’s interest in wildlife conservation began when he and his boyhood friend, Herman T. Bohlman, began photographing birds around Oregon at the turn of the twentieth century. Photos and manuscripts by noted conservationist William L. Finley, his wife Irene, and Herman T. Bohlman helped in establishing wildlife refuges in Oregon. The photographs include Finley and Bohlman’s trips to Malheur Lake, the Klamath Lakes, and Three Arch Rocks on the Oregon coast – and, these photographs played a key role in President Theodore Roosevelt’s decision to create wildlife refuges at those locations. A fourth wildlife refuge in Corvallis was named in honor of William Finley. More information about Finley can be found on The Oregon Encyclopedia

In addition, the project included a public lecture tour, “On the Road with Finley and Bohlman,” in which the exhibit curator and OHS’s digital services librarian, Laura Cray, gave a lecture series in various locations across the state. A recording of one of the lectures, along with a panel discussion and Q&A featuring Bob Sallinger, Tom McAllister, and Worth Mathewson, can be found online via OHS’s website “On the Road with Finley and Bohlman: Portland” In addition, Cray wrote an article for the Oregon Historical Quarterly “Finding Finley: Reuniting the Works of Naturalist William L. Finley through Digital Collaboration”

If you stop by SCARC and have interest in checking out our collections, be sure to review:

Also, we’ve blogged quite a bit about Finley’s work, so be sure to peruse our many Speaking of History blog posts about Finley

And now, photos of the exhibit!

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