SCARC completed two new or updated finding aids in September 2020. The following is a list and a little information about what we accomplished. 

These finalized finding aids are available through the Archives West finding aids database, and the OSUL discovery system (a.k.a. “the catalog”). All of these materials are available to researchers.

---

A new collection that was previously not available to researchers:

Roman Schmitt Papers,  1961-1988 (MSS Schmitt)

The Roman Schmitt Papers are comprised of materials generated and collected by chemistry professor Roman Schmitt that document his research and instruction. Among the materials in this collection include: article reprints, committee records, a grant proposal, lecture notes, photographs, and research data. Schmitt worked for Oregon State University from 1966 until 1999 in a joint appointment with the Chemistry Department and the OSU Radiation Center. Specializing in the field of cosmochemistry, Schmitt used neutron activiation analysis in the research of moon rocks collected as a part of the NASA Apollo Sample Return Program.

A finding aid for a collection that was previously under-described with an incomplete guide: 

Western Small Fruit Pest Conference Records, 1968-1999 (MSS WSFPC)

The Western Small Fruit Pest Conference Records document the establishment and annual meetings of the organization.  The first meeting of the Western Small Fruit Virus Disease Conference was held in Portland, Oregon, in January 1950 for breeders, plant pathologists, and entomologists to report on the detection, identification, and control of small fruit viruses, especially of raspberries and strawberries.

One of our favorite Oregon Archives Month events is “Taste of the ‘Chives.” This exploration of recipes past, is both tasty and not so tasty, but either way it is a great way to experience the past and learn about changes in the foods we eat on a daily basis.

Since we’ve gone virtual with all our events, this year we’re bringing you a recipe every Friday. One of our archivists will try it out and review it, complete with pictures!

---

Quick Aprecan Loaf                                                    

3 cups flour                                        ½ cup chopped pecan meats
1/3 cup sugar                                     ½ cup dried apricots, cooked
4 teaspoons baking powder            1 egg                                                   
1 teaspoon salt                                  1 ½ cups milk  

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add the pecan meats and the dried apricots cooked and cut in pieces. Beat the egg slightly and to it add the milk. Stir the liquid lightly into the dry ingredients. Bake in a moderate oven 350 degrees F, about one hour. Remove the loaf from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.                       

(Source: 1945 “Cooking Club Tested Recipes” Wall Calendar)

---

This loaf surprised me! I was hesitant to bake something without any fat (No butter? No oil? How is that possible?!?), but it turned out just perfect (even though they look quite anemic). It tastes like a pancake..slightly sweet and nice and fluffy! I would love to try this with other add-ins.

Things are different this year… But we are still excited to share our treasures and connect with you all.

Enjoy student imagination with a showing of student produced films transferred from KBVR-TV! These short films, some of which were assignments for a New Media Communication class, feature action sequences, toys that come to life, and trees with eyes!

• Register in advance

Hops have grown many places in the US, but since the 1890s, the Pacific Coast has dominated production. Learn about hops history and watch a short 1931 film about spring field operations and fall harvest.

• Register in advance

Kenneth I. Helphand, author of Hops: Historic Photographs of the Oregon Hopscape book launch, in conversation with Tiah Edmunson-Morton, curator of the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives.

• Register in advance

Valeria Dávila shares her preservation work experiences with “Farmers of the Sea,” a film documenting aquaculture practices. Blog post and behind the scenes images on October 27. 

All month long you can explore the past through favorite recipes from Tastes of the ‘Chives past! Recipes and photos posted every Friday across our social media.

• #timetraveltuesday
• #womenwednesday
• #waybackwednesday
• #tbt
• #throwbackthursday
• #flashbackfriday
• #foodfriday
• #WDAVH
• #archivesmonth

SCARC completed 7 new or updated finding aids in July and August 2020. Following is a list and a little information about what we accomplished. 

These finalized finding aids are available through the Archives West finding aids database, our website, and the OSUL discovery system (a.k.a. “the catalog”). I have provided a link below to the guide in Archon. Links to the guides in Archives West and the catalog are available on the a-d slack channel.

• Two of these guides are for new collections:
• Five of the guides are enhanced finding aids for collections that were previously under-described with preliminary or incomplete guides.  

All of these materials will be available to researchers when SCARC resumes full reference services.

---

Finding aids for new collections:

Fermentation Science Program Records, 1955-2017 (RG 296)

The Fermentation Science Program Records consists of publications collected to support program faculty and students in teaching and research.

Food science and studies on fermentation have long been a part of research at Oregon State University. In 1996, the Department of Food Science and Technology became home to the nation’s first endowed professorship in Fermentation Science. It was also one of the first colleges to initiate a Fermentation Science degree and quickly grew into an internationally renowned graduate brewing research program. The Fermentation Science program, one of just a handful in the nation, has always focused on “hands-on” applied science, including the use of microorganisms as processing agents in the production of wine and beer, as well as a variety of other fermented foods such as cheese, yogurt, soy sauce, pickles, breads and fermented vegetables.

The Lavender Network Newsmagazine, 1986-1992 (MSS LavenderNetwork)

The Lavender Network Newsmagazine collection contains copies of the newsmagazine The Lavender Network, a monthly publication focused on the LGBTQ+ communities of Oregon, published by Ronald B. Zahn.

Finding aids for collections that were only minimally described and are now fully processed and described:

Grace Gramms Scrapbook, 1937-1941 (MSS Gramms)

The Grace Gramms Scrapbook consists of materials documenting her activities as a student at Oregon State College in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Grace Gramms graduated from Oregon State College in 1941 and was a drum majorette with the ROTC Cadet Band.

Hattie Hanna and George B. Hovenden Collection, 1880-1932 (MSS Hovenden)

The Hattie Hanna and George B. Hovenden Collection is comprised of materials assembled by alumni Hattie Hanna and George B. Hovenden that document their experience at Corvallis College. This collection is made up of commencement programs, diplomas, newspaper clippings, photographs and a handwritten manuscript of George’s graduation speech. Hattie graduated in 1880 and George in 1883. The two married in 1893.

Percival Nash Collection, 1870-1929 (MSS NashP)

The Percival Nash Collection consists of copies of Nash’s diary of his time spent as a fur trapper and trader in the Yukon Territory in Canada (1904-1906); two pieces of correspondence, including a 1903 letter from Percival Nash to his stepbrother Gifford Nash; article manuscripts by Nash; and copies of photographs of Percival Nash in the Yukon and of Nash Family members. Percival Nash attended the State Agricultural College of Oregon between 1888 and 1893, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture.

Oregon Sea Grant Communications Videotapes and DVDs, 1977-2011 (FV 185 SG 1)

The Oregon Sea Grant Communications Videotapes and DVDs consist of multimedia recordings either created or collected by Oregon Sea Grant staff. The materials generally concentrate on topics related to ocean research, marine resources and coastal life, though items related to rivers, forestry and land management are included as well. In addition to finished educational productions meant for a mass audience, the collection also features video recorded lectures, raw research footage, conference proceedings and annual reports. A large portion of this collection, including all of it DVDs, has been digitized and made available online.

Milton O. Stemmler Student Diary, 1891-1896 (MSS Stemmler)

The Milton O. Stemmler Student Diary consists of a typed transcript of a day-by-day record of experiences as maintained by Stemmler, an Oregon Agricultural College student in 1892-1895.  Stemmler earned an agriculture degree from Oregon Agricultural College in 1895. 

SCARC completed 7 new or updated finding aids in June 2020. Following is a list and a little information about what we accomplished. 

These finalized finding aids are available through the Archives West finding aids database, our website, and the OSUL discovery system (a.k.a. “the catalog”). I have provided a link below to the guide in Archon. Links to the guides in Archives West and the catalog are available on the a-d slack channel.

• Six of these guides are for collections that were only minimally described and are now fully processed and described.
• One of the guides is for a new collection.

All of these materials will be available to researchers when SCARC resumes full reference services.

---

Finding aid for new collection:

Mt. Angel Abbey Hops Photographs, circa 1925 – circa 1960s (P 349)

The Mt. Angel Abbey Hops Photographs consist of pictures from the Abbey dating from circa 1925 and circa 1960s. They show the hop process from planting to harvest. The Mt. Angel Abbey was founded just outside of Mt. Angel, Oregon in 1882. This collection consists of digital images scanned from original negatives owned by the Mt. Angel Abbey and loaned to Oregon State University for digitization. All of the images are available in Oregon Digital.

Finding aids for collections that were only minimally described and are now fully processed and described:

Robert Crookham and Marjorie Enos Scrapbook, 1937-1943 (MSS CrookhamEnos)

The Robert Crookham and Marjorie Enos Scrapbook contains materials collected by alumni Robert Crookham and Marjorie Enos that document their student experience at Oregon State College. Both Crookham and Enos studied business and earned undergraduate degrees in 1941 and 1944, respectively.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Oregon State University Student Chapter Records, 1913-1985 (MSS IEEE)

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers OSU Student Chapter Records consists of materials documenting the activities of this and affiliated student organizations. The OSU student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers was originally established at Oregon Agricultural College in 1908 as the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; it was renamed the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1963, in keeping with the name change at the national level.

Charles H. Martin Papers, 1939-1942 (MSS MartinC)

The Charles H. Martin Papers consist of three narrative research reports on garden symphylids compiled by Martin while he was a researcher at the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station.  Martin joined the faculty of the Oregon State College Department of Entomology in 1946.

Hugh E. Morrison Papers, 1937-1974 (MSS Morrison)

The Hugh E. Morrison Papers document Morrison’s research on vegetable crop and hop pest control, symphylids, and the application of pesticides including DDT.  Morrison was a research entomologist with the Oregon State University Agricultural Experiment Station from 1937 until his death in 1967.

John Owen Papers, 1971-1987 (MSS Owen)

The John Owen Papers are comprised of materials generated and collected by Electrical Engineering Professor and College of Engineering Dean John Owen. This collection documents Owen’s research activities and is made up of article reprints, research reports, and grant proposals. Owen worked for Oregon State University from 1977 to 1997.

Barbara B. Peck Papers, 1922-1987 (MSS PeckB)

The Barbara B. Peck Papers consist of essays and publications written and collected by alumna Barbara B. Peck that reflect her involvement with the American Home Economics Association. Peck graduated from Oregon State College with a degree in home economics in 1932.

These finalized finding aids are available through the Archives West finding aids database, our website, and the OSUL discovery system (a.k.a. “the catalog”).   I have provided a link below to the guide in Archon.  Links to the guides in Archives West and the catalog are available on the a-d slack channel.

• Six of these guides are for collections that were only minimally described and are now fully processed and described.
• One of the guides is for an essentially new collection that was formed from a substantial donation received in 2017 that was added to earlier smaller transfers received in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
• One of the guides is an update to reflect a major addition to the collection.

All of these materials will be available to researchers when SCARC resumes full reference services.

---

Finding aids for a new collection received since 2015:

T.J. Starker Papers, circa 1890-1996 (MSS Starker)

Starker earned an undergraduate degree in forestry from Oregon Agricultural College in 1910 and returned to campus in 1922 to assume a faculty position in the School of Forestry. At OSC, Starker worked as an instructor and researcher until 1942, when he left to pursue his private forestry and nursery business fulltime. The company formed by Starker, Starker Forests, Inc., continues to operate today as a family-owned business. Starker died in 1983.

The T.J. Starker Papers consist of materials generated and collected by alumnus, forestry professor, and timber businessman Thurman James (T.J.) Starker. This collection documents Starker’s forestry instruction and research at Oregon State College, management of a diverse range of property holdings, involvement in community and professional organizations, family life, student experience, work with the United States Forest Service, and writings on various subjects. Among the materials included in this collection are correspondence, lecture notes, meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, maps, photographs, research data, and scrapbooks.

Finding aids for collections that were only minimally described and are now fully processed and described:

Haskell C. and Sarah E. Carter Memoir, 1982 (MSS Carter)

The Haskell C. and Sarah E. Carter Memoir was written by Haskell C. Carter and documents his upbringing, college experience, marriage to Sarah Eidal, career, travels, and family.  Haskell Carter graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in 1923 with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering.

Pete Dunlop Papers, 1852-2020 (MSS Dunlop)

The Pete Dunlop Papers consists of both born digital materials and electronic copies, which were assembled by Dunlop in the course of researching and writing the book Portland Beer: Crafting the Road to Beervana. Dunlop is a Portland resident and has an active blog calledBeervana Buzz where he talks about Oregon’s micro breweries.

Florence Gradon Scrapbook, 1920-1926 (MSS Gradon)

The Florence Gradon Scrapbook was assembled by alumna Florence Gradon and is comprised of materials that document her student experience at Oregon Agricultural College. Gradon graduated from OAC in 1924 with a degree in home economics.

Heart of the Valley Homebrewers Records, 1982-2004 (MSS HOTV)

The Heart of the Valley Homebrewers Records are comprised of a wide variety of materials that document the club’s activities and outreach. The Heart of the Valley Homebrewers club was founded in Corvallis, Oregon in 1982.

William F. Herrin Papers, 1872-1910 (MSS Herrin)

The William F. Herrin Papers consist of an essay and several orations written and delivered by Herrin.  William Franklin Herrin graduated from Corvallis College in 1873 with a B.S. in Agriculture.

Leander N. Liggett Papers, 1869-1873 (MSS Liggett)

The Leander N. Liggett Papers are made up of two school composition journals containing essays written by alumnus Liggett as a student at Corvallis College. Liggett attended Corvallis College from 1869 to 1873.

Finding aid for a collection with major addition:

Buena Maris Mockmore Papers, 1916-2010 (MSS Mockmore)

The Buena Maris Mockmore Papers consist of materials created and assembled by Buena Margason Maris Mockmore Steinmetz documenting her life and work, both at Oregon State College (OSC) and Iowa State University, and her work for the Manhattan Project. Mockmore earned a Master of Science degree in Home Economics at OSC in 1939, and taught family relations and child development at Oregon State until 1941, when she became Dean of Women, a position she held until 1948. In 1943, Mockmore was asked to serve as the “Director of Women’s Activities” at the Manhattan Project site in Hanford, Washington, and took a yearlong leave of absence from OSC.

In late fall 2019, Sujittra Avery Carr, approached us about doing an internship. We had various projects in the brainstorm phase for the Suffrage Centennial in summer 2020, but besides a Wikipedia editathon to improve or add articles on Pacific Northwest women and a vague idea for an exhibit, we were wide open for whatever she wanted to do. Little did we know what was on the horizon. A series of cancellations and closures for physical events, but limitless options for online projects.

Carr put together a terrific exhibit on women in medicine and two very talented graphic design students helped bring color to her content. The full exhibit can be found in ScholarsArchive, our institutional repository, but the text of this post contains her introductory panel.

• Beyond Suffrage: Giving Voice to Oregon’s Unsung Women in Medicine

This exhibit was designed to increase awareness of the stories and voices of women who are not heard enough in our Oregon history of women’s rights. Systemic white supremacy, racism, and sexism combine to render some women less visible than others in our history. These women might not have been written about in their own time; past historians, researchers, writers, and archivists may have overlooked them or de-prioritized them; or the information about them, whether plentiful or scarce, may have come from biased perspectives. By bringing the voices and stories of these women into the forefront of our history, it is possible to show that we, as a society, value the experiences of women like them, both in the past and in the present. While this exhibit is linked to the commemoration of the centennial of national women’s suffrage, it is also important to recognize that not all women were able to vote following the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920.

The curation and the development of Beyond Suffrage: Giving Voice to Oregon’s Unsung Women in Medicine has taken place almost exclusively remotely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was done using born digital or digitized archival materials. We recognize that it’s impossible to represent everyone within the scope of this exhibit and that the work of including traditionally underrepresented voices in Oregon’s history is an ongoing collaborative effort.

We also acknowledge that Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR is located in the traditional territory of the Chepenefa (“Mary’s River”) band of the Kalapuya. After the Kalapuya Treaty (Treaty of Dayton) in 1855, Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to what are now the Grand Ronde and Siletz reservations, and are now members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

We would like to acknowledge the work done by the Oregon Historical Society and the Century of Action – a project of the Oregon Women’s History Consortium, as well as the work done by our archivists Tiah Edmunson- Morton and Natalia Fernández, our graphic designers Kallie Hagel and Emma Pattee, and our intern who led the development, curation, and writing of this exhibit, Sujittra Avery Carr. This exhibit would not be possible without them.

You can find information about the following women in the online exhibit!

Dr. Sarah Chan, Chinese Medicine Doctor, 1857-1924

Dr. Harriet Lawrence, Pathologist, 1883-1974

Dr. Lena Kenin, OB/GYN and Psychiatrist, 1897-1968

Dr. Mae Cardwell, Physician, 1853-1929

Dr. Joanna Cain, Physician, Teacher, Researcher, 1950-present

Mary Thompson, Pioneer Doctor, 1825-1919

Willie Mae Hart, Nurse, 1915-2017

Post by Karl McCreary, Collections Archivist

An elfin Ariel playfully peering down from her rocky ledge to meet the eyes of a bespectacled and bearded Prospero looking upwards at her with a rather pedantic glance.

This photograph from a 1989 production of The Tempest staged at Oregon State University enchanted me from the very moment I accessioned the print as an addition to the University Theatre Photograph Collection (P 112). The image resides among several thousand other views of campus theater productions here in the holdings of the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center. Other archival items documenting OSU’s lively and rich legacy of theater include scrapbooks, play programs, posters, director prompt books, and letters to theater faculty from their former students with updates of their acting careers.    

Little of this history would have been preserved were it not for a long and fruitful relationship between the Archives and Professor Emerita of Theatre Arts Charlotte Headrick. With a deep respect for the study of history and 35 years of directing and acting on campus, Charlotte has been a true advocate for our work to ensure that the stories from the OSU stage be saved and shared.  

A longtime friendship with Charlotte has placed me in the role of her research assistant many times. So when she approached me last summer for help in researching the history of Shakespeare productions at OSU for a presentation, I donned a very familiar hat and eagerly dove into collections I knew well! Among the resources I uncovered were a set of photographs depicting Charlotte’s 1989 staging of The Tempest, one of Shakespeare’s most memorable plays. The images, taken by Charlotte and another OSU staff member, beautifully captured a production full of energy and color with vibrant costumes, monumental set design, and expressive faces.  

It is little wonder then, that when Charlotte agreed to reprise her Shakespeare at OSU lecture as an event for Oregon Archives Month, I remembered the Tempest images fondly and decided to feature a shot of that magical encounter between Ariel and Prospero (described above) on the poster publicizing Charlotte’s presentation. 

After Charlotte’s fun and fascinating talk, which was recorded and is available online for download, I began the process of preparing the slides and prints depicting the Tempest performance for digitization. In the expertly capable hands of my colleagues Kevin Jones and Brian Davis, all 139 images became available for viewing on the Oregon Digital in February of this year and can be accessed online. To add more dimension to the scenes and characters reflected in these images, I’m sharing in this blogpost some of Charlotte’s stories about the production. So here are some of the tales of the 1989 Tempest at OSU!   

For those who saw the curtain rise for the 5-night run of The Tempest at the Mitchell Playhouse in April 1989, the stage resembled a stony landscape of blues and greys with a series of cliffs and corridors. The play is set on an island where magic and reality are intertwined by spells cast by the exiled Duke of Milan Prospero and a sprite, Ariel, who conjures up a storm to shipwreck a group of travelers upon the isle with ties to the Prospero’s past. 

Charlotte vision’s for staging this interplay of characters (realized by set designer Richard George) was reserving the upper “plateau” of the rocky stage as the magical realm where Ariel flits about and sends enchantments (at the command of Prospero) to those on the earthly plane below. Prospero resides down on the “terrestrial” level of the stage interacting with both worlds. While he confers with Ariel above, Prospero is also communicates face-to-face with daughter Miranda and the many shipwrecked “guests” he brought to the island.   

Charlotte gave the character of Ariel a unique twist in this production by casting two students, Julyana Soelistyo and Soomi Kim to both play the same role. The scenes were carefully directed to have only one Ariel appear on the stage at a time, requiring Soelistyo and Kim to coordinate a sort of choreography where they alternately darted back and forth onto their rocky bluffs. The images of the show depict the silvery-suited Ariel(s) in a constant state of motion, casting spells and spying on the islanders unaware of her presence above. As one of the images reveals, Kim used this kinetic role to highlight some of the moves she picked from her experience on the OSU Gymnastic Team. 

To enhance the magical ambience of the production, Scott Gilbert in his role as Prospero incorporated a few slight-of-hand tricks and employed a little flash powder to give his stage presence a little added magic.

For the overall look of the characters in the show, Charlotte wanted a Renaissance feel inspired by the sumptuousness and vibrant colors captured in the paintings of the 19^th century Pre-Raphaelite artists. Miranda’s white dress was directly modeled on a subject in a Pre-Raphaelite work Charlotte saw in a London exhibition. That costume designer Marie Chesley was able to painstakingly reproduce the beautiful draping quality of this garment is still one of Charlotte’s favorite memories of her Tempest production. 

Staging The Tempest required a sizable cast and among the 28 actors and technical crew members who made it possible were what Charlotte affectionately referred to as the “three Pauls.”  This trio was made up of J. Paul Hopkins (Stephano), W. Paul Doughton (Caliban), and Paul Seipp (one of the mariners). For the power in his facial expressions and movement Doughton was a clear standout in the cast as the roguish and anguished character of Caliban. Playing a character that is essentially indentured to Prospero on the island, Doughton vividly conveyed Caliban’s sense of feral rage, guile, curiosity and self-pity. The images also highlight Doughton’s mastery of physical comedy in Caliban’s zany interactions with the characters of the drunken butler Stephano (one of the other Pauls!) and the jester Trinculo (played by Brent Norquist).   

For many of the “alumni” of this production of The Tempest, there would be many more roles to come after 1989. Both Soelistyo and Kim have had active careers on stage in a diverse range of productions in New York City, Seattle, and Denver. Soelistyo has gone on to play the character of Ariel two more times. One of these performances, at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada, won wide acclaim (with Christopher Plummer as Prospero) and was profiled in the Winter 2011 issue of the Oregon Stater. Kim, who describes herself as a performance artist as well as an actress, returned to OSU in April 2014 to give a weekend workshop in the Lab Theatre. Other Tempest actors Michael Lowry (Sebastian) and Jorji Knickrehm (Ceres) have appeared in a variety of stage and TV productions since their days at OSU.   

These colorful glimpses of the Bard on the OSU stage is a reminder that life is made up of fleeting moments of amazing and intense experiences that can be captured. And in sharing these fun images of historically staged drama available, perhaps we can make our current drama a little more bearable.

This morning I send this query to Rachel Lilley, Public Services Archivist, “Who’s Graf? Walking challenge.”

Here’s what she found!

Designed by architect John Bennes, Graf Hall was completed in 1920 for a total cost of $134,933 (it would have costed $1,729,766 today); it originally included a materials lab, a hydraulics lab, and a steam and gas engine lab, all served by a 5-ton electric crane. Samuel Herman Graf, for whom Graf Hall is named, was born in Portland, Oregon – technically speaking, Bethany, Oregon, a small community northwest of Portland –  August 4^th, 1887 to Samuel Graf and Emilie W. Schlueter Graf.

Graf matriculated at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) in 1903 to study engineering, graduating with his first degree – in Electrical Engineering – in 1907. He would go on to complete four more degrees at OAC: a post-baccalaureate degree in Electrical Engineering, and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, both in 1908; a Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering in 1909; and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, also in 1909. Between 1909 and 1954, Graf held several faculty positions in Engineering at Oregon State, beginning as an Assistant in Mechanical Engineering in 1908 while still taking classes. From 1909 to 1912, he was an instructor in Mechanical Engineering; from 1912 to 1920, he was the head of Experimental Engineering; he served as head of the Department of Mechanics and Materials from 1920 to 1934, and of the Department of Mechanical Engineering from 1934 to 1954. Graf additionally served as Director of Engineering Research from 1928 to 1944, and the Director of the Engineering Experiment Station from 1944 to 1954.

Not long after graduating from OAC, Graf married his first wife; the couple had two sons, Thomas (1913) and Ralf (1915). After his first wife’s death, Graf married Blanche Ann Edlefsen, and the couple had two children, Therese and Samuel, together. Blanche died April 28, 1952, and Graf remarried a third and final time (Violet).

In addition to his teaching and research, Graf served as American Society of Mechanical Engineers(ASME) chapter representative for all states west of Colorado, and later served as the Western Regional Vice President of ASME. Graf was a member of the State Board of Engineering Examiners for 22 years, and served as the Board’s President from 1939 to 1949. In 1949, Graf was named an honorary member of the Professional Engineers of Oregon, an honor conferred to those members of the society whose “achievements and service to engineering have been outstanding.” In 1955, Graf was chosen to serve on the Board of Trustees for Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon; the science building at Linfield – also Graf Hall – was later named in his honor.

Samuel Graf died July 22, 1966 following a stroke.

This post is the last in a series on the effects of the “Spanish Flu” pandemic in 1918 and 1919. In light of the recent situation with COVID-19, SCARC archivists Anna Dvorak and Larry Landis explore how past epidemics and pandemics have impacted the Oregon State and Corvallis communities.

---

The 1918-19 influenza pandemic was well documented, in part because of broad newspaper coverage, photography, and advances in medical science. Despite the pandemic’s detrimental effect in Oregon, where tens of thousands of people became ill and more than 3,600 succumbed, earlier disease outbreaks and pandemics proportionally had a greater impact, especially among Native communities. Most major diseases ravaged Oregon and the Pacific Northwest at one time or another in the late 18^th and 19^th centuries, including smallpox, malaria, measles, influenza, cholera and typhoid fever. Some of the diseases recurred periodically, sometimes on an annual basis.

Although disease was common among the mostly white emigrants on the Oregon Trail, historian William Lang has concluded that most outbreaks occurred prior to their arrival at Ft. Laramie in Wyoming. Many of the disease outbreaks in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries transformed into epidemics that decimated the region’s Native populations, due to their lack of immunity because of no prior exposure. It is estimated that between about 1780 and 1850, 97 percent of Oregon’s Native population perished due to introduced diseases. Anthropologist Robert T. Boyd estimated that the population of two western Oregon Native groups, the Chinookan and the Kalapuyan peoples, declined from a pre-contact population of 32,000 to approximately 2,100 by the late 1830s. By the 1850s, disease outbreaks and epidemics had reduced Native populations to a fraction of their pre-contact numbers. However, many chronic diseases, such as tuberculosis, continued to affect the survivors in those communities.

According to Boyd’s Oregon Encyclopedia essay on disease in Native communities, a smallpox epidemic around 1781 was the first documented in Oregon. The documentation included oral tradition from the Clatsop Tribe on Oregon’s north coast and entries in the journals of Lewis and Clark noting pockmarked people in various Native communities. It is likely that this smallpox epidemic spread among many indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest. 

Subsequent smallpox epidemics occurred almost each decade through 1870. A smallpox epidemic in 1853 struck the lower Columbia River region, wiping out as much as half the Native population in some communities. It was the last major epidemic among Native communities, as those populations had already suffered enormous population decline over the previous seventy years. Among non-Native communities, a smallpox epidemic in 1862 was particularly hard on the Aurora Colony. Jacksonville experienced a significant smallpox outbreak in 1868-69, and in 1870 western Oregon experienced a smallpox epidemic.

Outbreaks and epidemics of malaria, called “fever and ague,” in the early 1830s may have been even more virulent and destructive to Native communities than smallpox. It also greatly affected the Anglo population in the area; at one point in 1830, seventy-five people at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver were ill with the disease, though proportionately far fewer died than among the Native population in the region. In 1832 a malaria outbreak at the fort affected an estimated 137 out of 140 people, though few apparently died.  Malaria also affected the Willamette Mission near Salem, established in the mid-1830s. Boyd speculates that the malaria epidemics of the 1830s may have been accompanied by influenza, possibly accounting for the high mortality rate since pneumonia is a complication of both diseases. An influenza epidemic in 1836 on the central Oregon coast and an 1844 outbreak of dysentery on the Lower Columbia also took many lives in Native communities. 

A major measles epidemic in the Pacific Northwest in 1847-48 ravaged the Cayuse Tribe in the mid-Columbia River region, especially its children. This epidemic had a connection to the Whitman Massacre at Waiilatpu in the Walla Walla Valley in 1847, as it is thought that Marcus Whitman was killed by a band of Cayuse because of his inability to cure tribal members of the disease. The epidemic affected Native communities as far north as Sitka, in present-day Alaska, and south into the Willamette Valley.  This was the first recorded measles epidemic in the Pacific Northwest, though the disease may have been present in the region as early as 1812.

The last major pandemic of the 19^th century was an influenza pandemic in 1889-90. It was commonly called “La grippe” and later known as the “Russian influenza.” An estimated 1 million people succumbed to it worldwide, 13,000 in the U.S. It appeared in Oregon in December 1889, with initial newspaper reports of outbreaks in Astoria, Portland, Pendleton and Albany.  Statistics for Oregon on the extent of the disease, the number of people affected, or the number of deaths are not known. The 1889-90 pandemic was a foreshadowing of what was to come less than twenty years later.

---

For additional reading on epidemics in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest among Native communities, see Boyd’s Oregon Encyclopedia essay, “Disease Epidemics among Indians, 1770s-1850s” and his Oregon Historical Quarterly article, “The Pacific Northwest Measles Epidemic of 1847-1848” (Vol. 95, no. 1, Spring 1994).

---

This post was contributed by Larry Landis, Director of Special Collections and Archives. Larry Landis is the director of OSU’s Special Collections and Archives Research Center, and has worked as an archivist at OSU since 1991. He is the author of A School for the People: A Photographic History of Oregon State University. Larry is retiring from OSU on July 1.