Category Archives: Flickr

Garden Art in Its Many Forms…

Arbor between orchard garden and rose garden

Bushy shrubs, pots of pansies, shade trees, and border of begonias may add splendor to the spring garden — but in the middle of the winter in Oregon we need four things:

  1. The clouds to break, even just for a moment.
  2. Pictures of bright, cheery, bountiful blooming gardens.
  3. Full-spectrum lamps.
  4. Garden art to add flair to the otherwise mossy and foggy landscape.

The clouds and light bulbs may be absent from the “Garden art in its many forms” set, but it is overflowing with flowers and chock full o’ art.

Rushing Waters and Steadfast Stones


Rushing Waters and Steadfast Stones

Great title for a great set! It’s the 3rd Wednesday and we’re celebrating that greenest of all events with a bunch of rocks and waves. You’ll find some gorgeous shots of the Oregon Coast, including hand colored postcards like this one with sea side “activity” in Seaside:

and this placid water on Cannon Beach:

Want to see some falls?

Or some blue?

Or maybe just a lighthouse or two?

Enjoy! And for those of you wanting a hit of Ireland, check out the Flickr set we released last year of Ralph Gifford’s Whiddy Island images.

Salmon, Beavers, & Ducks?

Is this a university archive or a petting zoo?

OSU’s campus is all a flutter — and covered with orange and black, of course. Why? Today is the big day: Civil War 2009! Tonight’s winner goes for Roses … That’s right, for those of you who haven’t heard because you’ve been hiding out to avoid the rain and/or 29 degree temperatures, the winner will be in the Rose Bowl!

Hasn’t this happened before? According to OSU’s Game Day Central, the answer is no.

It looks like it has, but it really hasn’t. The winner of the 113th Civil War will know that it has clinched the Pac-10 title and a berth to the Rose Bowl when the clock shows 0:00. It’s the first time that both teams have entered the game with the “winner take all” scenario. The Beavers entered the 1957 season finale 6-1 in the league, while the Ducks were 5-2 – Oregon won that game 20-0 to share the title, but the Beavers knew that they were out of the Rose Bowl going in, due to a no-repeat clause – OSU played in the ’57 Rose Bowl (’56 season).”

The rivalry between the two schools, especially that pig skin rivalry, goes waaaay back. To read all about it, and see lots of great pictures from the UO Archives and Special Collections, check out Anne Peterson’s article for KPIC news. Here’s a teaser to get you reading…

While this season’s Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State has been called the biggest game in the rivalry’s history, there have been plenty of significant – and just plain strange – Civil Wars in the past. Case in point: 1983’s “Toilet Bowl,” a 0-0 rain-drenched exercise in futility.

No rain tonight, just Jack Frost and his chilly dew.

The OSU Archives got in on the historic photo action as well! Check out our Civil War set in Flickr. Want to see more football pics? Check out the Football at OSU set. And yes, it includes a picture of a goat.

While you are there, check out the new Flickr Commons set on salmon fishing in Oregon. Everyone is swimming on over, don’t be left at the gate…

OSU Archives: Powered by Orange?

What do Dad’s Weekend, pumpkin bread, poached salmon, and a bunch of guys in gear rattling an inflatable helmet have to do with the OSU Libraries? And how does Doug Schulte fit into the mix?

Saturday brought Sue Kunda, Tiah Edmunson-Morton, and (super famous) student employee of the year for Oregon (Doug) to the President’s Breakfast and fancy football game suite! Joined by his dad, Doug spoke to a small gathering of student and university leaders in the Alumni Center, reflecting on both his experience in ROTC and the limitless fun he has working for the OSU Archives. After filling ourselves with a delicious breakfast, we headed over to the VIP entrance of the stadium and up to the exclusive 4th floor suites, where we ate more, drank a little, and enjoyed the blowout game against the Huskies — all from the comfort of our movie theater style chairs, covered in Beaver orange blankets, with the sun warming us behind the retractable windows.

All glitz and good food aside, it was an honor to be there with Doug and his father to recognize the great contributions he has made to the Archives. We are really lucky to have such a talented bunch working here, and I was proud to introduce Doug, who is certainly Powered by Orange, to an even wider audience!

And yes, there is a Flickr set… See the Flickr set.

Read all about WASAE’s Student Employee of the Year Award

Getting “Powered by Orange” — Flickr-style!

“People up and down the Willamette Valley celebrated Powered by Orange on Monday as events in Portland and Corvallis brought people together to celebrate the many contributions of Oregon State University. From free cupcakes in the Memorial Union Quad to a night of jazz at Jimmy Mak’s in Portland, the day was full of ways to demonstrate how Oregon is Powered by Orange!”

And, in keeping with all of OSU’s love of Flickr … There is a great set of images from the Oregon State University’s account from Monday’s events!

What’s Powered by Orange?

“You are Powered by Orange – the students, alumni, faculty and friends of Oregon State University – making a positive difference in Oregon and beyond. Conserving our natural resources. Finding better ways to generate clean energy. Addressing climate change with sensible science. Promoting healthy living and disease prevention. Feeding a hungry world. Protecting our water supplies. Driving innovation to create new products, new companies and greater prosperity. And living the land-grant mission to provide education and opportunity for all Oregonians.”

Want to know more? Check out OSU’s Powered by Orange site!

We’ve been busy riding!

Check out our new set “OSU Libraries Staff: Flickr Folks Ride!” — it’s our nod to the BTA Bike Commute Challenge…

Why? Many of the folks who work at the OSU Libraries bike to work, though we come at “commuting” with a slightly different bent… Some are committed throughout the rainy season (Larry Landis and Chris Petersen are foul weather riders), some ride loooong distances to reach their desk (Terry Reese rides many, many, many, many miles each day, all year), some only ride in the sun (okay, not really, this is Oregon after all), some cart boxes full of archival documents (that’s me)!

So when I read about the Bike Commute Challenge, a friendly competition to see who can get more people biking to work in September, I thought it might make a fun Flickr set to take pictures of all the biking folks that grace our stacks. And really, it’s easy, fun, and free, so we decided to give it a try! But, never one to miss an opportunity to show off our great archival collections, I thought I’d give it a try with a “Then & Now” twist… Enjoy!

Want to know more about the Bike Challenge? Check out their site.

It’s the birthday party that never ends!

coast.jpg dune.jpg ferry.jpg

Happy Birthday, again, Oregon– you don’t look a day over 150. Okay, really you do (2 months, 1 day over 150), but it’s been a tough few months for us…

For the April 15th launch, we’re looking in new directions, exploring new pictorial frontiers, zooming through time and place, and partnering with Oregon Explorer to pull together 150 of our most stunning historic images of Oregon’s 15 river basins.

It gets better! Not only are we showcasing natural resources, we are celebrating our state. This collection is more than a collection, it’s an event: our project was also accepted as an official Oregon 150 sesquicentennial project!

or150_web_badge_small.gifNo, that’s not all! Because the Oregon Explorer is all about places and spaces, we’ve also geo tagged these photos, when and where we could, so check it out! To learn more about geo tagging in Flickr, visit the GeoTagging Group.

Step back in time, explore the state, and tell us what you think.

Watch for it Wednesdays: tomorrow’s launch is a big one…

or-150.jpgTomorrow is the 3rd Wednesday, which means the Archives is releasing a new set into Flickr Commons! While all our launches are special, this one bears a brand and marks a great partnership.

Curious?

For the April 15th launch, we partnered with Oregon Explorer, the natural resources digital library jointly managed by the OSU Libraries and the OUS Institute for Natural Resources, and pulled together 150 of our most stunning historic images of Oregon’s 15 river basins.

Not only are we showcasing natural resources, we are celebrating our state. This collection is more than a collection, it’s an event: our project was also accepted as an official Oregon 150 sesquicentennial project!

Step back in time, explore the state, and tell us what you think.

Coming for St. Patrick’s Day!

Tomorrow morning you’ll be treated to 47 of Ralph I. Gifford’s amazing WWI pictures of Ireland’s Whiddy Island on our osu.archives Flickr page.

More about Whiddy Island

An island off Bantry Bay, Ireland, Whiddy Island is about 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. According to the Wikipedia article on the island, “As late as 1880 it had a resident population of around 450, mainly engaged in fishing and small-scale farming. It currently has a permanent, resident population of around 20 people, although there are many visitors in the tourist season, many staying in self-catering accommodation, in the form of several restored traditional island cottages. The island is linked to the mainland by ferry, with return trips several times a day. There is one pub, The Bank House, which opens at weekends and also serves food during the summer months. The local economy is mainly fueled by the fishing and farming industries.” While it now has a large oil terminal for berthing supertankers, in the last few months of World War I it was the site of a US naval air station. And that’s where Ralph Gifford’s pictures come in!

More about Ralph Gifford

Gifford was born in Portland, Oregon in 1894. As a young boy he worked in his father’s photography studio, accompanying his father on photography trips around Oregon. He married Wanda Muir Theobald in 1918 and spent the last part of World War I in the U.S. Navy– stationed on Whiddy Island. Gifford took over the family’s Portland-based photography business around 1920, selling it 8 years later to go into the motion picture business with F. C. Heaton. In 1936, Ralph became the first photographer of the newly established Travel and Information Department of the Oregon State Highway Commission. His landscape views of Oregon’s natural beauty were used for many years to promote tourism in the state; he also took motion pictures for the Highway Commission, including the 1941 color version of The New Oregon Trail (which you can watch by clicking here) and the 1947 Glimpses From Oregon State Parks, released shortly before his death. Ralph was also a commercial photographer, and many of his commercial shots were taken at the same time as his Highway Commission photos; his photographs could be purchased as postcards, view sets, individual prints, and photo-plaques.

More about the Gifford Collection

The Gifford Collection consists of photographs taken by Ralph I. Gifford; his father, Benjamin A. Gifford; his wife, Wanda M. Gifford; and his son, Ben L. Gifford. The pictures taken by Ralph and Wanda Gifford make up the bulk of this collection, with shots of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest from the 1910s through the 1950s. Between 1936 and 1947, Ralph Gifford extensively photographed the Oregon Coast, Crater Lake, Silver Falls, Mount Hood and Timberline Lodge, the Pendleton Roundup, the Wallowa Mountains, and the Snake River Canyon. Many of his photographs were made into postcards or view sets, which were sold at souvenir shops throughout the state. And, of course, his collection also includes several photographs he took while stationed at Whiddy Island during World War I. To read more, check out OSU’s collection guide. The Oregon Historical Society also has a large collection of Gifford pictures; however, its focus is on those of Benjamin A. Gifford.

More about how great it is that everything is connected

As it happens, there are also some great Gifford images on the Oregon Historic Photograph Collections site, which is managed by the Salem Public Library. Dating back to the mid 1800s, this site provides access to thousands of photographs of Oregon from the Library’s digital collections. Doing an advanced search bring up 127 Ralph Gifford images, including six from Celilo Falls! Those of you connecting the Flickr account dots will remember that the last release on the OSU Archives Commons account was a set of 43 images of Celilo Falls taken from the Gerald Williams Collection.

Check these out!

Another fun fact

Alan Phelan was inspired by these images of Whiddy Island, creating an exhibit in 2007 entitled Ralph Eamon Odo Barbara.

More about Oregon