Category Archives: Main Page

More Sound Recordings in Best of the Archives!

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We have added newly digitized versions of 20 sound recordings (all original 78 rpm disks) to the Best of the Archives. Many thanks to Nathan Georgitis at the University of Oregon for his work in the sound lab to digitize these recordings and to OSU’s Linda Kathman for loading them to Best of the Archives.

  • KOAC Records (RG 015)
    Foresters in Action, 1939: Alouette, Cruiser’s Song, George W. The Dean
  • Music Department Records (RG 148)
    Oregon State Marching Song (undated) & the Oregon State College Band’s OSC Medley, A Tribute to Beard (circa 1947)
  • Alumni Relations Records (RG 035)
    Songs of Oregon State College, circa 1950 (including Oregon State Creed, Hail to Old OSC, and Alma Mater) & Songs of Oregon State College: Within a Vale of Western Mountains, circa 1953 (including Alma Mater, Mighty Beavers, Storm King, Toast to the Team, and more)

Happy listening!

Congratulations to Monique Lloyd!

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Please join us in offering our heartfelt congratulations to Monique Lloyd! She has received the Society of American Archivist’s 2008 Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award, which recognizes and acknowledges outstanding minority students. To be considered, the student should be full-time, with a minimum GPA of 3.5, and enrolled in a graduate program focusing on archival management. She will receive full funding to go to the SAA conference this August, which will be held in “sunny” San Francisco.

Monique is an Emporia State University graduate student who worked as a student assistant in the Archives last year, an intern in the Archives in the fall, and is now part of the Library’s on-call pool. To hear more from Monique, please visit her Adventures in Library School blog.

New month, new exhibit in the Archives!

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Barack Obama eating at American Dream Pizza? Chelsea Clinton speaking at the MU? Yes, it must be that time again when we get those special visitors & make our voices heard with our votes! But presidents and presidential hopefuls aren’t new to OSU…

Stop by the Archives Reference Room and see our May display “US Presidential Sightings at OSU,” put together by our own student assistant, Kristina Wick.

Chautauqua Program: Event at Heritage Museum in Independence, OR

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Pat Courtney Gold presents “Innovators and Traders: Indigenous People of the Columbia River”

Pat Courtney Gold now devotes her time to creating art and lecturing on Plateau Cultural Art. The Wasco traditional art of full-turn twined baskets with geometric human figures and motif unique to Columbia River area was a dying art. Pat revived this art form, and her goal is to preserve the technique and record the traditional designs for future generation.

She has been an artist in Resident at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City, New York. The Peabody Museum commissioned a basket from Pat and asked to write an article about her work and the Wasco basket collected by Lewis and Clark in 1805 for cataloging accompanying “Northwest Native Weavers: Honoring Our Heritage.”

Pat’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Highlights in Oregon include The Governor’s Office in Salem, Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, the Littman Gallery at Portland State University, the Museum at Warm Springs, the Portland Art Museum, the University of Oregon, and Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center.

Her program will show how like to days hot topics of international commerce, diplomatic relations, cultural exchanges and tourism are important to the northwest; it was just as important nearly twelve thousand years ago among the indigenous people who lived along the Columbia River. These civilized and prosperous nations developed a marketplace that, by the 1700’s included trade with Russia, Spain, England, China and America, yet their story is often untold in histories of the region.

Pat Courtney Gold, a Wasco native enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon, discusses the rich heritage of cultural and financial commerce conducted up and down the Columbia River. Just as questions of sustainability affect modern commerce, Gold will show how native people’s relationship to the land provided our first environmentally friendly model of commerce.

This free Chautauqua Program will be presented on Saturday, May 10 @ 1:30, Heritage Museum. 112 S. 3rd St., Independence, OR.

For more information, contact Julie Baxter (503)838-4989

Adventures at OLA/WLA: Hunting for history and sharing the search

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It’s been a big week for outreach!

Thursday morning, student worker Christy Toliver and archivist Tiah Edmunson-Morton traveled to Vancouver, WA to share their poster depicting the “Adventures in the Archives: Hunting for History” scavenger hunt from summer 2007.

The hunt was an activity for Adventures in Learning, which “combines stimulating academic and social opportunities in a fun-filled 10-day experience” for “gifted, talented, and creative” 6th and 7th graders who are “interested in fast-paced, challenging opportunities.” Fast-paced and challenging? That’s us!

Last summer, we hosted 10-12 students for a 2-day scavenger hunt in the University Archives and throughout our fantastic campus! On the first day, students searched through historic yearbooks, catalogs, microfilm, and pictures looking for clues centered around the life of Wayne Bagley, an OSC student from the late 1920s. Those clues led them into their second day, an outdoor adventure designed to have them explore the campus, run out their sillies, and connect the past & present.

They’ll be back again this year– and now we’ll be ready with our fancy display!

OSU Archives Presents: Calling all Extension Offices!

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This week the Archives staff was invited to talk to a group of staff from the Extension Offices. This post includes links and files from that presentation.

Their site says it best: “The Oregon State University Extension Service engages the people of Oregon with research-based knowledge and education that focus on strengthening communities and economies, sustaining natural resources, and promoting healthy families and individuals.” The collections at OSU Archives document the long and important history of how the Extension offices have impacted their communities; additionally, the individual character of those communities is reflected in the records.

Please click here for all the presentation slides, handouts, and links.

Calling All Nominations! Last Call for Library Awards

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cheerleaders1.jpgAward Details: Totten

Students are eligible for either the Totten Graduation Award ($750) or one of six Totten Scholarships ($250).

Totten Graduating Student Award

  1. Nominated student must have been employed by the OSU Libraries for at least two academic years.
  2. The student must have demonstrated outstanding work performance.
  3. The Recognition Committee will also consider leadership skills, initiative, ambition, a strong customer service ethic, and reliability.
  4. Students must be graduating seniors or graduate students (graduating or graduated fall, winter, spring, or summer of the current academic year).

Totten Scholarships: Six $250 Scholarships

  1. Nominated students must have been employed by the OSU Libraries for at least three consecutive terms (spring term can be the third term).
  2. Students must have at least one full term remaining after spring term in which to use the scholarship.
  3. The Recognition Committee will also consider leadership skills, initiative, ambition, a strong customer service ethic, scholarly attitude, and reliability.

Award Details: Performance

There will be 3 categories of awards given: Classified, Faculty, Project. Up to 5 awards (total) will be given out, allowing for multiple awards in each category.

Outstanding Faculty and Outstanding Classified Employee Nominees should have:

  1. worked to exemplify and advance one of the three goals of the library;
  2. developed a new project or program or simplified a process; or
  3. fostered and promoted a collaborative work environment.

Outstanding Project Nominations should have done at least one of the following:

  1. Worked to change the information landscape at OSU by providing faculty and students with the information they require– wherever and whenever it is needed.
  2. Partnered with OSU colleges and programs by contributing to the academic success and life-long learning of OSU students.
  3. Partnered with Oregon communities to foster economic development.
  4. Developed an innovative program, activity, or service; provided a dynamic or distinctive solution to a problem; or reached a special population through a unique program.
  5. Completed a project, a new initiative, or any other distinct activity that results in improved services or increased efficiency.

Outstanding Project Nominations should have been initiated, worked-on, or completed during this academic year.

Recipients are ineligible for two years following their awards.

Any member of the OSU Libraries may nominate another person or project that fits the criteria.

Individuals may choose to nominate someone or a project from their own department or another department within the Library.

New Exhibit in the Archives

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home-management-house.jpgPlease visit the Archives Reference room on the 3rd floor of the Valley Library to see the new exhibit featuring the “home management babies.”

It is estimated that 50 children served as “practice babies” for the roughly 1,500 students enrolled in the six-week mandatory Household Administration Program of the College of Home Economics from 1926 to 1947. The OSU Archives has collections of photographic prints and records relating to the Kent and Withycombe Home Management Houses, which were operated as the practice homes for the Household Administration Program.

OSU’s program was part of a larger movement in the field of Home Economics. It was thought that by establishing these “practical home laboratories” for young women, the universities could give the students a “chance to practice at homemaking before she tries it on her own with a husband” (Oregon Sunday Journal, Jan. 25, 1949).

In 1919, the University of Minnesota started a pilot program in the Home Economics Department that introduced “real life” child care into the home laboratory. The program quickly spread to twenty other universities across America; within a few years, places like OSU, Cornell, Drexel, Iowa State, Tennessee, the Carnegie Institute, New York State Teachers College, and others followed the University of Minnesota’s lead and established their own programs. These schools set up dozens of home management cottages, houses, and apartments; hundreds of babies became teaching tools.

As part of this effort to teach female students about child care, babies were taken from orphanages or single mothers and moved to the home management house. The children usually remained at the house until they were two; at that time, they would be returned to the orphanage, adopted, or, in rare cases, given back to their biological mothers. In most programs, the girls would act as the child’s caregiver for a week; when their week was finished, responsibility for the care of the child would shift to the next student in line.

Welcome Back to Corvallis! Archives & Maps Reference Desk: Spring Term Hours

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apples-on-a-tree.jpgDespite the chilly weather, spring term has finally arrived and our regular business hours have returned for the University Archives.

We are open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m-5:00 p.m. Our 3rd floor desk also provides reference services for maps, microforms, and government documents Monday through Thursday 9am – 9pm, Friday 9am – 5pm, Saturday 1pm – 5pm, and Sunday 1pm – 9pm.

The OSU Archives encourages the use of University Archives’ collections in graduate and undergraduate classes. Instructors interested in using the Archives in their classes should contact us at (541) 737-2165, archives@oregonstate.edu, or the “Ask An Archivist” form. Please allow several weeks for us to make arrangements.

Additionally, we are also available to provide general instruction to faculty, staff, and students on how to use archival materials, as well as specialized tours, classes, and orientations for K-12 students.