Thanks to Mary Williams, SCARC student worker for this post on Dr. Pearl Spears Gray!

Pearl Spears Gray, born August 19, 1945 in Selma, Alabama, worked with OSU as an instructor for the Education Department for the Portland Urban Teach Education Program and the Affirmative Action Director from the years 1973 to 1987.  Her time at the school allowed for great strides in the Affirmative Action program, and aided Oregon State in becoming a more diverse and inclusive campus.

Dr. Gray was born in Alabama but grew up and went to high school in Washington D.C. After graduating she attended Wilberforce University for her undergrad then Antioch Putney University, where she got her Master’s in Secondary Education with an emphasis on African American history. Dr. Gray then went on to teach government, history and sociology at different high schools in the Washington D.C. area from the years of 1968 to 1973. In 1969. She received a grant from Rockefeller Family fund to study at different African universities  such as University College Cape Coast, along with Ghana and University of Ibadan. During this time she met her then husband, Eddie Gray, and had two children, Don and David Gray.

She came to work for Oregon State University as an instructor for the Portland Urban Teaching program in 1973.  This program was a “cooperative effort between the OSU school of Education and the Portland public schools to train minority students in education for teach in urban schools”. After three years, Dr. Gray decided to move to Corvallis and take the position as Affirmative Action officer, where at the time there were 250 African American students. In an article from the Oregon Stater she states, “I view this office as a service to the university…we can broaden the awareness of the university population about what is discriminatory. We can be a source of information, a force of change, and in integral part of this university in terms of developing programs that speak to the needs of women and minorities.” Through her hard work and dedication she the Black Journal placed her on a list called “100 Most Influential Friends” in 1977. Around this same time, she began to create a report for Oregon State’s compliance with Title IX and found that there were some shortcomings in the athletic department, requiring that they change their department to be more inclusive.

During this time Dr. Gray was also working to complete her PhD. Between 1976-1979 she took multiple courses including Statistical Methods, Historiography, Anthropology of Africa, and Adv. Cultural Anthropology Reading & Conference. In 1985, she completed and presented her thesis African-American Folkloric Form and Function in Segregated One-Room Schools, earning her a PhD in Philosophy in Educational Foundations at Oregon State University.

In 1986, Dr. Gray was appointed as ACE Fellow, and was selected to spend most of her fellowship at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Oregon State granted her a two year leave in order to fulfill her fellowship, but she ultimately decides to take position offered to her as Associate Provost for Policy and Assistant to the President at the University of Virginia in 1987.

Dr. Pearl Spears Grey was and extremely active advocate for diversity in academia. During her career she was a part of Delta Sigma Theta and “instrumental in beginning a new chapter…at OSU”, a part of African Heritage Studies Association, National Council for Social Science, Associate for the Study of Negro Life & History, Daughter of Isis, Order of the Eastern Star, Urban League of R.I. (board member), and served on the Governor’s Commission on Black Affairs. She pushed Oregon State University to open the doors to those who were not originally given the opportunity and allowed them to feel accepted on a predominately white campus.

SCARC completed 10 new or updated finding aids in February 2019.  The following is a list and a little information about what we accomplished.  You will see a beer theme for this month!

These finalized finding aids are available through the Archives West finding aids database, and the OSUL discovery system (a.k.a. “the catalog”). These 39 guides represent  ~87 cubic feet of physical materials and 41+ Gbytes of electronic records and include ~2800 photographs.

All of these materials are now available to researchers.

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Collections that were only minimally described and are now fully processed and described:

Herman T. Bohlman Photograph Collection, circa 1890 – 1928 (P 202)

The Herman T. Bohlman Photograph Collection consists of images taken and assembled by Bohlman documenting bird species and his travels, primarily in the Pacific Northwest.  Bohlman was a lifelong friend and collaborator of renowned ornithologist, naturalist, and conservationist William L. Finley.   Many of the photographs are available online in the Oregon Digital collection Reuniting Finley and Bohlman.

Robert Daly Beer Publication Collection, 1978-2004 (MSS Daly)

The Robert Daly Beer Publication Collection is comprised of publications collected by Robert Daly about beer brewing, as well as guides to different varieties of beer found in the U.S. and worldwide. Included among the publications are several issues of the Oregon Brew Crew newsletter, which Daly edited.

 

Friendship Internationale Scrapbook, 1964-1977 (MSS FriendsInt)

The Friendship Internationale Scrapbook documents the programs and activities offered by this organization for the wives of male international students and staff as well as single international female students and staff at Oregon State University.  The organization was founded in 1964 as the Chatter Club and was active until 1979, when it merged with another organization to form Crossroads International.

Hop Research Council Records, 1943-2009 (MSS HRC)

The Hop Research Council Records document its support of hops research projects. Much of the collection pertains to the development of new hop varieties and the management of hop diseases such as powdery mildew. The Hop Research Council was formed in 1979 to fund hop research by soliciting and providing funds for scientific investigation and research related to the agricultural production of quality hops in the United States.

Kenneth C. Minnick Papers, 1945-2000 (MSS Minnick)

The Kenneth C. Minnick Papers document Minnick’s career as the Benton County 4-H Extension Agent from 1947 to 1974 and his establishment of the roadside clean-up program in Benton County in the late 1960s.  Minnick earned B.S. (1939) and M.Ag. (1954) degrees from Oregon State College.

 

New Collections:

Denny Conn Papers, 1998-2017 (MSS Conn)

Denny Conn is a homebrewer, author, educator, and advisor in the Oregon brewing community. The Denny Conn Papers is an all electronic collection and consists of born-digital materials (.mp3, video, documents) and items digitized by Conn. These materials document Conn’s work, including documentation related to Conn’s two books Experimental Homebrewing: Mad Science in the Pursuit of Great Beer (2014) and Homebrew All-Stars: Top Homebrewers Share Their Best Techniques and Recipes (2016).

Bonnie B. Hall Botanical Prints, 1989-2003 (MSS HallB)

Bonnie B. Hall Botanical Prints consist of serigraphic screen prints created by Bonnie Hall, a scientific illustrator and artist.  Hall was well known, particularly for her botanical prints and was a scientific illustrator for the Department of Entomology at Oregon State University from 1963 -1993.

Zoller Hop Company Records, 1900-2006 (MSS Zoller)

The Zoller Hop Company Records consists of records and materials created and assembled throughout the first half of the 20th century. The collection contains records of business operations: correspondence and management files, photographs of fields and community events, and digitized versions of two films.  The Zoller Hop Company was located in Independence, Oregon, the “Hop Capital of the World’ during the first half of the 20th century. The company was later owned by Donal MacCarthy and the name was changed to “D.P. MacCarthy & Son.”  The two films have been digitized and are available online: “Spring hop field operations and fall harvest,” 1931 and “Harvesting and processing,” 1945.

Updated Guides:

William L. Finley Papers, 1899-1955 (MSS Finley)

The William L. Finley Papers document the wildlife conservation work of Finley and his wife Irene, and the photography work of Herman T. Bohlman, who worked with Finley in the first decade of the 20th century. Finley was a photographer, filmmaker, and author who wrote and lectured extensively on wildlife conservation issues. The collection includes published and unpublished manuscripts, lecture and field notes, reports, correspondence, photographs, and motion picture films.  Manuscript items and photographs from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital. All of the films held in the collection are also available online.

Thomas B. Searcy Collection, 1889-2013 (MSS Searcy)

The Thomas B. Searcy Collection documents the land in Sherman County, Oregon, homesteaded by Thomas B. Searcy in 1889; Searcy’s financial interactions with the Moro Grain Growers Association and the Pacific Co-operative Wool Growers Association; and the Searcy family.