Marisa Chappell, Associate Professor of History

The twenty-four students in History 363: Women in U.S. History spent the final three weeks of Fall Quarter 2023 in OSU’s Special Collections and Archives Research Center exploring women in Camp Adair’s history. Archivist Tiah Edmonson-Morton made archival collections, oral histories, and other primary sources available for students to examine. She also shared her infinite enthusiasm, patience, and knowledge with the students, both in class presentations and frequent individual consultations. Students worked in groups of three to explore the sources, identify a historical question/focus, and find and read scholarship to help them contextualize what they were discovering. In the end, they produced new knowledge about the history of women at Camp Adair and Oregon State College.

Three groups were especially intrigued by portrayals of women in the Camp Adair Sentry, the camp’s official newspaper. A February 1943 front-page article about a PX Girl contest served as a starting point for all three groups, who were struck that a military training camp during wartime was holding what seemed like a beauty and popularity contest. The article led students groups in distinct directions. Two groups decided to further explore images of women in the Sentry. Bakhshoudeh, Hawes, and Kirschenbaum followed the PX Girl story and used it to discuss “Women’s Objectification in the Camp Adair Sentry.” Merims-Johnson, Lerner, and Johnson focused on the newspaper’s photographs more generally, using them to think about how media producers during the war grappled with the new opportunities available to women, in their post, “Mixed in Classification: The Paradox of Gender Roles in Media and the Mobilization of Women at Camp Adair.” Finally, Alam, McMillan, and Scalet wanted to learn more about “PX girls” and other kinds of women’s labor at Camp Adair, resulting in their post, “Image versus Reality: Women in the Camp Adair Sentry.”

In a related post, Collins, Cunningham, and Lake discuss the prominence of women as entertainers for servicemembers both at Camp Adair and at Oregon State College. In “Dances, Bands, and Pageants: Women and Entertainment at Camp Adair,” they argue that whether as nurturers reminding of the comforts of home or as objects of femininity, beauty, and sexuality, they found, women were enlisted during the war to maintain soldiers’ morale. Meanwhile, an exploration of the Oregon State Barometer led another group to focus on campaigns to promote women’s physical fitness at OSC during the war. While not directly about Camp Adair, the post “Promoting Physical Heath for Women at Oregon State College during World War II” by Blair, Matteo, and Zhang highlights yet another way that the war affected both ideas about and the experiences of women. The group found significant urgency around women’s physical conditioning, both as a way to fulfill wartime labor demands and as a general duty.

Moving forward in time, two groups were drawn to explore women’s roles at the first Adair Village, which the area was dubbed when it housed married OSC students in the late 1940s and early 1950s. They started with Dan Poling’s 1956 dissertation about that first Adair Village, which mentioned a Mothers Club. Students noted Poling’s reference to a newsletter, The Community Spirit, which archivist Tiah Edmunson-Morton uncovered in SCARC’s collections. McCarville, Buresh, and Howell, in their post “The First Adair Village: Women at OSC’s Postwar Married Student Housing,” noted its homemade quality, which was starkly different from the more professional, military-produced Camp Adair Sentry. Students in both groups documented the activities of the Mothers Club as evidenced in The Community Spirit and a 1949 Adair Village Directory. Bransetter, Kreitzer, and Miller looked for evidence of the club and its officers in OSC yearbooks and the Barometer and they were surprised to find little. They conclude therefore that most members were wives of male students rather than students themselves. They also suggest in their post “Adair Village Mothers Club: Invisible Community Builders in the Postwar Era,” that women’s community-building activities, while crucial to the well-being of Adair Village families, did not seem to qualify as news on campus. Both groups’ findings raised questions about the longer history of women’s community building labor. Under what circumstances have government and public institutions committed to providing social supports for families and for which families, for example, and how has community building changed as women’s roles have changed?

At the end of class, we discussed how students’ findings related to the broader content of the course, which emphasized how women’s lives and ideas about gender have always shaped and been shaped by been shaped by race and ethnicity, sexuality, class, and other axes of difference. There is still much to discover about the mostly white, economically secure, and able-bodied women whose lives intersected with Camp Adair. At the same time, it will take a different set of methods and sources to find women who do not fit those categories. I look forward to engaging new groups of students in this work.

During spring term Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

This post was written by Soraya Trujillo.

 When it comes to understanding the activism of students at OSC during WWII, scrapbooks are an exciting way to examine the events that took place. One example of this is the scrapbook of the Oregon State University chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta. The scrapbook itself is considerably large (around 2’x 1’) and has rounded edges. Several pages are falling out, as are some of the glued-in letters and photos, but nonetheless, it is chronologically organized and presented in a formal fashion. This scrapbook is an ideal example of the activism of female student-led organizations at OSU during WWII.

Formerly known as Oregon State College (OSC), there were many events that took place during the war years. For instance, during the school years of 1943-44 and 1944-45, the scrapbook highlights Victory Drives and harvest help that the chapter organized. Victory drives were fundraisers held by the nation as a whole, Oregonians, and college students at OSC to help with the war effort in the United States. These drives asked citizens to ration, collect, and recycle certain goods in order to supplement resources being allocated to the war effort. Using the Alpha Lambda Delta scrapbook, this post explores student activism during WWII, especially female-student activism, as well as the overall sense of community that emerged after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

When it comes to student participation in the war effort, the enrollment size of OSC during the war years is important to note. The decrease in enrollment at OSC during 1943-1944 shines a light on why student-led organizations, like the Alpha Lambda Delta chapter, were important on a local and national level in regards to supporting the domestic fight against the Axis powers. The war impacted the size and composition of student enrollment, especially male enrollment. Moreover, nationally, there was a 14 percent decrease in enrollment in colleges. In other words, OSC’s decrease in enrollment was normal.^[i] However, there is a significant variation in the population of Alpha Lambda Delta members during this time.

The scrapbook includes an exciting graph titled, “Graph showing the fraction of Alpha Lambda Delta members that have graduated for the years 1933-1942.” The data shows a relatively constant increase in members during the years 1940 to 1942. By the 1941-1942 academic year, the organization had grown to 59 members.^[ii] Why did the Alpha Lambda Delta chapter grow despite enrollment declines at OSC during the war years? One could infer that the increase is due to Alpha Lambda Delta being an exclusively female student organization. In March 1943, the Oregon State Barometer published an article titled, “OSC Enrollment Records Drop of 23 Percent: Women Almost Equal Men in Numbers Excluding Engineers,” which explains that overall registration had dropped from 3586 students to 2753 students, a 23 percent decline. This number did not include “army engineers on the campus” who were being educated to actively serve in the military through programs at OSC.^[iii] Although there was a decrease in civilian male students due to war and military-related education, OSC experienced an overall increase in women’s enrollment. 

The local support that Alpha Lambda Delta mentions in their scrapbook leads to other avenues of interest. With the national war effort starting after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, national-level drives that involved everyone in the US, such as the “National Victory Scrap Drive” of October 1st to November 15th in 1943, could have ignited the need to create local drives at OSC.^[iv] Alpha Lambda Delta members responded by creating their own campaigns and aid for farmers. The scrapbook, for example, contains clippings of an article titled, “Alpha Lambda Delta Sponsors Farm work.”^[v] Female student-led organizations at both OSC and the nearby University of Oregon participated in various Victory drives, such as the “Victory Book Drive” mentioned in the Oregon Daily Emerald  (the University of Oregon’s newspaper) in 1943, and helped local farmers with harvesting or tending to land.^[vi] They too wanted to be a part of the overall national support.

Much of the student body at OSC during WWII supported the fight against the Axis powers, and female-led organizations led the charge when it came to supporting the local community. Female students helped local farmers in Corvallis and the greater Willamette Valley. A 1945 article in the Oregon State Barometer titled, “Coeds to help Harvest Beets: Alpha Lambda Delta Will Recruit Workers,” urged female students to volunteer to help local farmers. It was important, the article explained, that “each women’s living organization should be represented by at least three girls.”^[vii] This article indicates that other female student organizations, in addition to the Alpha Lambda Delta chapter, were helping. More than ever, girls from each living organization at OSC needed to tend the land and harvest vegetables which would be shipped beyond the Pacific Northwest, due to the labor shortages in the war.^[viii]

Adding to the broader roles of females during the war, female faculty at OSC also helped in the fight against the Axis powers. According to historian Marty Branagan, “Women’s resistance ranged from actions adopted en masse as a gender to the work of women’s groups and individuals.”^[ix] An example of this is the work of female administrators at OSC: Ava Milam, Lorna Jessup, and Maud Wilson during the war years. Ava Milam, the Dean of the School of Home Economics for more than 30 years, contributed to the nutritional program at OSC. Lorna Jessup, assistant to the Dean of Women, and her secretary created ration books for the student body. Maud Wilson, a female faculty member of the Agricultural College organized war guests into different homes around OSC.^[x]  These are just some of the various ways in which the female student body and faculty members at OSC contributed to the wartime effort.

Universities across the country participated in philanthropic efforts as well, a reality that created a bond between institutions. Historian George Zook explains that this bond emerged after the US government asked higher education institutions to be more involved in the war effort. Zook explains that the National Committee on Education and Defense and the United States Office of Education, “undertook to sponsor what turned out to be the largest and most representative conference of university and college executives that had ever been assembled in this country, at Baltimore on January 3-4, 1942.”^[xi] This large representation of university executives at the National Committee on Education and Defense shows that universities were actively participating and wanted to help the country in any way possible.

The poster campaigns that the US military developed were also a significant reason for the profound amount of support from the home front. Why and how did this support happen? Terrence Witkowski explains that the American government used poster campaigns that exaggerated the need for certain supplies to encourage both moderation and donations. Witkowski states, “Perhaps the single largest group of frugality-themed posters was sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and asked Americans to forgo their immediate consumption and instead buy war bonds and defense stamps.”^[xii] War bond posters may explain why Victory Drives and harvestings were common at OSC during the war, especially for female students who could not actively serve in the war.

Adding onto the war bond posters, the War Manpower Act and the War Manpower Commission both effectively created a bond between the military and universities and additionally addressed female citizens as well. William Robbins explains in The People’s School: A History of Oregon State University that the US government used the War Manpower Act to enlist the help of universities. Robbins states, “Gilfillan’s inquiry on behalf of his seven young staff members elicited a response when the War Manpower Commission reiterated that all young men with scientific training should register [to actively serve the country].”^[xiii] The War Manpower Act, according to the American National Archives, was established to recruit, “labor for war and essential civilian industries” which implies that the government needed male students for the war. In addition to male students needed for the war, other students and civilians could still support the nation through different means.^[xiv] Although men were wanted for actively serving, other women and men who did not serve actively and were students are also highlighted in the War Manpower Commission on August 19, 1942, which states, “the War Manpower Commission plans of guidance which will help the students where they can make the most effective contribution to the war effort, including essential supporting activities.”^[xv] This highlights how universities nationally could potentially help with wartime efforts as seen by the national Victory Drives or, in the case of OSC, aid to local farmers.

Whether inspired by the poster campaign or the Manpower Act, female students at OSC participated in the war effort. Much like other colleges and institutions around the nation, OSC was no exception to the increasing effort to help the war front through local support. In this perspective, the examination of the Alpha Lambda Delta Scrapbook during the war years is a great example of how female activism in colleges was part of a larger home front effort. Through this lens, we begin to see examples of how students helped during the war despite the setbacks they faced.  For further research, finding student females and their narratives from this time period would broaden the understanding of their roles at OSC and overall define the roles of women during WWII.

Bibliography

Primary sources:

1. “Colleges Cooperate in Victory Book Drive,” The Oregon Daily Emerald, January 30, 1943. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2004260239/1943-01-30/ed-1/seq-6/#words=Colleges+Drive+Victory.
2. Haskin, Frederic J., 1942. “Haskin’s Answers to Questions.” Evening Star, December 21. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
3.  “OSC Enrollment Records Drop of 23 Percent: Women Almost Equal Men in Numbers Excluding Engineers,” Oregon State Barometer, March 24. https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj62w.
4. Oregon State College Chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta Scrapbook, 1933-1952, Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Alpha Lambda Delta- Oregon State University Chapter Records, 1933-1999, Box 3, Folder 1.
5. “Records of the War Manpower Commission [WMC],” United States National Archives, (record group 211): 1936-47, 211.1. https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/211.html
6. “Throw Your Scrap Into the Fight,” The Marion Progress, October 8, 1943. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91068695/1943-10-07/ed-1/seq-6/.
7. Zook, George F. “How the Colleges Went to War.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 231 (1944): 1–7. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1023159.

Secondary Sources:

Branagan, Marty. “Women and Nonviolent Resistance to WWII Nazism,” Social Alternatives, 41 No. 3, (2022), 68-75. https://web-s-ebscohost-com.oregonstate.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=c9b57986-310f-42de-a096-ea551819454e%40redis

Robbins, William. The People’s School: A History of Oregon State University. (Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press, 2017).

Witkowski, Terrence. “World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers,” Journal of Advertising, 32 No.1, (2003), 69-82. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4622151

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^[i]Frederic J Haskin, “Haskin’s Answers to Questions,” Evening Star, December 21, 1942: A-10, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

^[ii] Graph showing the percentage of Alpha Lambda Delta members who graduated between the years 1933-1942, Oregon State College Chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta Scrapbook, 1933-1952, Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center (hereafter SCARC) Alpha Lambda Delta- Oregon State University Chapter Records, 1933-1999 Box 3, Folder 1.

^[iii] “OSC Enrollment Records Drop of 23 Percent: Women Almost Equal Men in Numbers Excluding Engineers,” Oregon State Barometer, March 24, 1943: 6,  https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj62w.

^[iv] “Throw Your Scrap into the Fight,” The Marion Progress, Oct. 7, 1943, 6, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91068695/1943-10-07/ed-1/seq-6/.

^[v] “Farmers aided by Oregon State Co-eds: Alpha Lambda Delta Sponsors Farm work,” Oregon State College Chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta Scrapbook, SCARC, Alpha Lambda Delta- Oregon State University Chapter Records, 1933-1999, Box 3, Folder 1.

^[vi] “Colleges Cooperate in Victory Book Drive,” Jan. 30, 1943, https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2004260239/1943-01-30/ed-1/seq-6/#words=Colleges+Drive+Victory.

^[vii]Oregon State College Chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta Scrapbook.

^[viii] Oregon State College Chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta Scrapbook.

^[ix] Marty Branagan, “Women and Nonviolent Resistance to WWII Nazism,” Social Alternatives, 41 no. 3, (2022): 71.

^[x] William Robbins, The People’s School: A History of Oregon State University, (Corvallis, Oregon: OSU Press, 2017), 162.

^[xi] George Zook, “How the Colleges Went to War,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 231 (1944): 3.

^[xii] Terrence Witkowski, “World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers,” Journal of Advertising, 32, no. 1, (2003): 77.

^[xiii] William Robbins, The People’s School: A History of Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon: OSU Press, 2017), 152.

^[xiv] “Records of the War Manpower Commission [WMC],” United States National Archives, Record group 211:1936-47, 211.1, https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/211.html.

^[xv] Zook, “How the Colleges Went to War,” 4.

During spring term Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

This post was written by Keaton Kahn.

Many of the Americans who served and died in the conflict of World War II are being forgotten; this tragic occurrence is nearly as devastating as their initial deaths. In the months and years following WWII, the War Department worked to provide universities with more information about the students and faculty who had died in the war by sending information about their deaths to their universities. The Department also worked to answer any questions families may have had about their lost loved ones. While the hundreds of thousands of brave Americans who died in World War II are all deserving of our remembrance, I will be focusing on William H. Bartlett Jr. and his legacy as it connects to Oregon State University.

With the outbreak of WWII in 1939, many American college students viewed the United States’ entry into the war as an inevitable outcome. College students had to consider a possible draft and decide whether they would try to defer their enlistment until after completing their degree so that they could enter the service as officers, or try to find a way out of the conflict completely. Many students dutifully finished college and filled the military’s needs by fitting into specialized roles such as doctors or engineers while others decided to enlist before they completed their degree.

A good example of one student who was too eager to wait for graduation is our soldier of focus, William H. Bartlett. Bartlett decided to enlist after only being in school for one year as an engineering major.[i] Like many of his fellow soldiers, Bartlett Jr.’s family had a proud tradition of patriotism and service to the U.S. Armed Forces. Bartlett’s father was a colonel in the army and served during WWII. He received the Silver Star Award in 1945 for his heroic actions in Thuringia, Germany; Bartlett Sr. had exposed himself to small arms fire to set up a forward observation post.[ii] This forward post allowed him to direct artillery fire which resulted in the assault force taking the city of Suhl with minimal casualties, a feat that would not have been possible without Bartlett Sr.’s heroic actions.[iii] Perhaps the elder Bartlett was battling grief as he did these heroic feats; he had learned of his son’s death only a few months earlier.[iv]

Tradition and heritage led many students like Bartlett Jr. to proudly enlist, allowing themselves to be fuel for the fires of the war machine. Unfortunately, this military fervor resulted in many OSC being killed before they could return home either to finish their degrees or use their expertise for something other than fighting. Such was the fate of our soldier of focus: Bartlett Jr. died fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in 1945, just months before his father, perhaps in his son’s name, risked his own life to save the lives of his soldiers.[v]

According to records held by the Special Collections and Research Center (SCARC) at Oregon State University, on February 12th, 1946 Bartlett Jr.’s father wrote to the president of Oregon State College informing him of his son’s service, telling the president that in letters he had written to his father and family, Bartlett Jr. expressed a “great regard for the glorious history made by his 95th Division.”[vi] Bartlett’s Division was a part of the Third Army, which earned numerous awards during the war. While Bartlett Jr.’s unit was conducting a night march in the Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge, he was killed as the Third Army was trying to secretly maneuver to a more opportunistic position.[vii] Private Bartlett was awarded the Purple Heart for his sacrifices during his service and was buried in Holland, along with 17,000 other Americans who, as Colonel Bartlett explained to OSC President Strand, “gave their lives to ensure the Great American Victory of the Battle of the Bulge.”[viii]

 Colleges around the nation found their campuses drastically different than they had been in the past. With over ten million young men being sent to the war effort, females made up the majority of students on most campuses. The military had drafted a significant number of male students, and the only men remaining on campus tended to be those who obtained a deferment or were undergoing military training through the school. The lack of male students left a void in college attendance that was filled by those training for military service. Many colleges contributed to the war effort by allowing the military to conduct training on their campuses and holding events to help the war effort. Even before most men left campuses, many colleges incorporated mandatory exercise and drill training for men, as they were expected at some point to enter military service.[ix] College curriculums were streamlined, and free time, like summer break, became a thing of the past. Males in college were there only to learn their job and go serve the needs of the nation or the war effort.[x]

 Oregon State University has a long and proud history of military training and excellence. Since 1872, the U.S. Military has had a relationship with what was then called Corvallis College, and students have been involved with various practices and programs since its partnership, such as the ROTC program and numerous military tournaments and drilling competitions throughout the life of this partnership.[xi] During the Spanish War of 1898, the college trained many soldiers and officers to fight: the start of a proud tradition of students at what is now Oregon State University serving their country through military service.[xii] The college became so proficient at supplying trained individuals to the service that in 1917 the War Department acknowledged it as a “distinguished” institution.[xiii] From 1911 into at least the 1930s the military regularly held tournaments at Oregon State, giving students the opportunity to participate in events that showcased their military training and even win cash prizes.[xiv] This extreme dedication to supplying trained individuals to the military earned the college the nickname “The West Point of the West.”[xv] During WWII, the institution was instrumental in training cadets for military service. The institution hosted and trained 4812 cadets (Junior officers) who were on campus through the Army Specialization training program—more than any other non-military institution.[xvi] And many students such as William Bartlet Jr. voluntarily enlisted, along with students who enter the service today and are continuing this tradition of dedication and proud sacrifice.[xvii] The ROTC continues to recruit and send students into the military: well-trained and ready to represent the proud legacy of service at Oregon State University.

Third Detachment at “Retreat” outside Strand Hall, which would have been built just three years previous (May 9, 1916).[xviii]

This photo is from a pamphlet on military history at OSC, published by the Agricultural College on Dec 9, 1921.[xix] It displays the Corps of Cadets training at OSC. At that time, one of the uniforms they were wearing would have cost $16.[xx]

This photo is from a pamphlet (May 29, 1926) announcing an upcoming military tournament at OSC, shows a Pony Express Race, an event in which four teams of three from each cavalry unit compete. This event plays out a lot like a baton pass relay race, where they have a mailbag that they pass to the next person and so on; the first team to get the mailbag across the finish line wins.[xxi]

Above left: William H. Bartlett Jr. Above right: Colonel William H. Bartlett Sr.

Next Memorial Day, if you have no one else to remember, remember them: the brave Americans who died fighting in a distant land.

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[i] “BARTLETT, William H Jr.,” Fields of Honor Database, accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.fieldsofhonor-database.com/index.php/en/american-war-cemetery-margraten-b/50175-bartlett-william-h-jr. Letter from Colonel William H. Bartlett to OSC president A.L. Strand, February 12, 1946, Special Collections and Archives Research Center (hereafter SCARC) Oregon State College History of World War II Project Records (MSS ODCWW2), Box 1, Folder titled “Completed war service record forms 1940-1946 Agee-Kirk.”

[ii] “William Bartlett – Recipient -.” Military Medals Database: Find Recipients of U.S. Honors, accessed May 25, 2023. https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/86173.

[iii] LYONSJ9, “Uniform of Colonel William H. Bartlett,” U.S. Militaria Forum. last modified December 7, 2020, https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/350806-uniform-of-colonel-william-h-bartlett/.; “William Bartlett”, Silver Star.

[iv] “William H J Bartlett Jr.” Honor States Website, accessed May 24, 2023, https://www.honorstates.org/profiles/103360/.

[v] “William Bartlett Jr..” (Honor States).

[vi] “Letter from Colonel H. Bartlett to A.L. Strand,” 1.

[vii] “Letter from Colonel H. Bartlett to A.L. Strand,” 1.

[viii] “Letter from Colonel H. Bartlett to A.L. Strand,” 2.

[ix] James Tobin. “The Campus at War.” University of Michigan Heritage Project, accessed June 7, 2023, https://heritage.umich.edu/stories/the-campus-at-war/.

[x] “College Life During World War II Based on Country’s Military Needs,” The Harvard Crimson, December 7, 1956, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1956/12/7/college-life-during-world-war-ii/.

[xi] “History of the Military Department,” Oregon State Agricultural College Pamphlet, 7, stamped December 9, 1921, SCARC Memorabilia Collection, Box 106, Folder 17.

[xii] “History of the Military Department,” 9.

[xiii] “History of the Military Department,” 13.

[xiv] “Military Tournament of the Corps of Cadets O.A.C.,” 5, May 29, 1923, and “Military Tournament” January 21, 1911, SCARC: Memorabilia Collection, Box 106, Folder 17.

[xv] Department of Naval Science, accessed May 29, 2023, https://nrotc.oregonstate.edu/.

[xvi] Larry Landis, “Oregon State University,” The Oregon Encyclopedia, accessed June 1, 2023, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oregon_state_university.

[xvii] Luther Cressman, “War Service Record – World War II – Oregon State College,” February 12, 1946, SCARC, History of World War 2 project, (MSS ODCWW2). Box 1, folder 1.

[xviii] Pamphlet titled “Oregon Agricultural College, Education for Enlisted Men,” December 15, 1918, SCARC Memorabilia Collection, Box 106, folder 17.

[xix] “History of the Military Department,” 8.

[xx] “History of the Military Department,” 8.

[xxi] “Military Tournament of the Corps of Cadets O.A.C.,” 3. May 29, 1926. SCARC: Memorabilia Collection, Box 106, folder 17.

[xxii] “William Bartlett Jr.” (Honor States).

[xxiii] LYONSJ9, “Uniform of Colonel William H. Bartlett.”

During spring term Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

This post was written by Garrett Workinger.

Although battles and military victories may dominate histories of WWII, it was—at its core—a war of resources. As the United States scrambled to react to its involvement in the global crisis of WWII, many economic and cultural changes came about in the name of winning the war effort. The war effort on the domestic front created a national culture of conserving, creating, and rationing valuable resources such as food and raw materials. Communities, counties, cities, and universities across the nation became deeply involved in the domestic war front. Oregon State University (then Oregon State College) took quick action to help relieve the demand for resources that the nation felt. OSC and its extension program aided the war effort by promoting student and state involvement in Victory Gardens, food self-sufficiency, and raw material collection.

While looking through wartime documents preserved in Oregon State University’s Special Collections and Archives Center, I stumbled upon an Oregon State Extension Bulletin article located within a pamphlet subtitled “A Wartime Emergency Handbook for Community and Neighborhood Leaders.” Printed in 1943, the pamphlet was created to teach Oregon residents about how to handle food resources at home.  At the top of the front page it states, in large letters “Victory Begins at Home.”[i] OSU Extension Service created this document to inform the local community about what they should grow in their own gardens so that rations could be reserved for the war effort. The article emphasizes Oregonians’ need to be self-sufficient at home in order to save commercially packaged goods for the troops overseas. This publication informed readers about a variety of topics, including how much to ration and what food to grow or store. For example, the bulletin stated that a family of five needed to store 1200 pounds of vegetables and 25o pounds of fruit for the year 1943.  Other bulletins went into detail about how to grow a Victory Garden, or even how to can and preserve the produce that had been grown.

This OSC Extension Bulletin is part of a larger collection of bulletins that OSC Extension Services—still an important component of Oregon State University—has issued throughout its long existence. The OSC extension program was created in 1914 by the Smith-Lever Act which provided federal funding to land grant universities in order to further research in agriculture, home economics, and governmental policy.[ii] During WWII the OSC Extension Service printed these informational bulletins regularly. They contained information that the general public could use to expand their knowledge about agricultural topics and updated Oregonians about the country’s food and resource needs.

The Extension Service’s wartime bulletins provide a window into OSC’s involvement in the Victory Garden Program. The Victory Garden Program was a national movement created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Its goal was to increase the production of healthy food for the civilian population, as well as allow the troops to use the majority of commercially packaged food. Community gardens were often encouraged to people in cities who did not ample space to grow a productive garden. People in rural areas, or people who had farms, were urged to start their own Victory Garden on their own property. Victory Gardens could also take the form of a school garden.

OSC used the Extension Program to encourage Oregonians living in cities and rural communities to plant their own Victory Gardens. The Victory Garden Program at Oregon State College was part of the larger victory movement at Oregon State that included a number of different Victory Programs. Oregon State was involved in 267 different wartime Victory Programs that were created to help the war effort. Aside from increased food production through the Victory Gardens, these programs focused on collecting raw materials needed for wartime production such as rubber and metal, increasing agricultural productivity, and researching the nutrition people needed.^[iii] For example, the OSU Extension Service provided charts for families that laid out exactly the amount of food they would need in a year so families could preserve, can or freeze, the estimated amount they would use in a year.^[iv]

The Victory Gardens and nutritional information were a significant part of Oregon State College’s agricultural Extension Service. The 1941-1942 Biennial Report of Oregon State College outlined five “broad fronts” that the OSC wartime extension programs were working on. The third “front” was the need to teach nutrition and home management to rural and farm homes.^[v] The OSC Extension Service acted on this front by publishing curriculum such as a Food for Victory program for Marion County Schools. The curriculum’s objective was to provide children with an understanding of the contributions Oregon farmers were making toward the war through food production. The program provided teachers with songs, class activities, and stories they could use in the classroom.^[vi] Curriculum and influence on rural homes apparently worked. By 1943, 90 percent of Oregon farms were cultivating Victory Gardens.^[vii]

Victory Gardens were part of a national Victory Program movement. The National War Food Administration, along with the United States Department of Agriculture, initiated the Victory Garden Program. The Victory Gardens were a large part of the government’s WWII propaganda posters.[viii] These posters were distributed nationally with the hopes of bringing attention and support to different war efforts. Even the Science News-Letter, a national publication, provided readers with important Victory Garden information in 1943. The letter outlined the importance of joining a community Victory Garden, or if you had ample space, starting a Victory Garden at home. Also, the letter stated that gardens should allow plenty of space for the “most important soldiers in the Victory Vegetable army”—tomatoes.[ix]

Nationally, just as in Oregon, there was a sense of urgency in educating the youth about home gardening, self-sufficiency, and rationing. Schools from all over the nation participated in the Victory Garden Program by creating community gardens. For example, in early 1942, soon after America’s entry into war, teachers from Highland Park Schools in Michigan, aided by the Michigan Recreation Department, started a Victory Garden program for school students throughout the state. The program started because the teachers believed that home gardens were not enough to meet the needs of the war, and community gardens were needed in Highland Park. Over 100 students had an opportunity to work on their own gardens that were 4ft by 24 ft.[x] The production of food, and education of the youth in self-sufficiency skills, were a priority all over the U.S.

While Extension Services played a lead role in championing Victory Gardens at OSC and throughout Oregon, faculty and students throughout the college contributed to these Victory Programs. Victory Programs were any program that was organized to aid in the collection of resources or materials for the war effort. The Oregon State Barometer encouraged female students to donate their rubber and metal beauty items because “any little thing you give will help to win the war.”[xi] The need for metal was so extensive during the war effort that shop owners closed down their businesses to help with a scrap metal drive. OSC class presidents requested all of the men’s living group presidents to bring five men each to the drive that occurred in October of 1942 in Corvallis. The students were challenged by Dave Buam, an organizer of the scrap drive, and chairman of the Oregon Defense Council, to try to load more scrap metal than the working-class men who were also helping with the scrap metal drive.[xii]

Students and staff took great pride in their contributions to these programs. For example, Dorothy Gerling noted in the 1943-1944 Coed Code how all activities on campus were “directed toward the Victory Program.”[xiii] The Coed Code was an annual OSC women’s publication. OSC faculty member Dean Salser likewise told the 1944 Beaver, the college yearbook, that he had no time for other hobbies because “teaching and his victory garden have occupied most of his time.”[xiv]

Oregon State College’s efforts on the home front during WWII were extensive and successful.  The Victory Gardens and other war effort programs that the OSC Extension Service organized helped create a culture of production, self-sufficiency, and with the local community. OSC was a small part of the national war effort movement, but its programs embodied the goals and culture of the domestic front that aided the Allies in winning the war. 

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[i] “Victory Garden and Family Food Supply” in Oregon State College Extension Service Bulletin 551-650 (Corvallis: Oregon State Systems of Higher Education, 1943), Extension Bulletin 615.

[ii] Michele Scheib, “OSU Extension History,” OSU Extension Service, January 25, 2023, https://extension.oregonstate.edu/about/osu-extension-history

^[iii] Oregon State College President’s Biennial Report, 1943-1944, pages 42-43, OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx71d3919  

^[iv] Mabel C. Mack, “Planning Your Families Food Supply” in Oregon State College Extension Service Bulletin 551-650 (Corvallis: Oregon State Systems of Higher Education, 1944), Extension Bulletin 588.

^[v] Biennial Report of Oregon State College, 1941-1942, page 98, OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx71d395d

^[vi] OSC Extension Ag. Economics, April 1943, “Food for Victory: A unit of Work for the Schools of Marion County, Oregon,” OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Extension Service Records 1903-2011, RG 111, SG 2, X, Projects, Extension Specialists.

^[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Terrence H. Witkowski, “World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers,” Journal of Advertising 32, no. 1 (2003): 76.

[ix] Frank, Throne, “Victory Gardens,” The Science News-Letter 43, no. 12 (1943): 186.

[x] M. A. Russell “Highland Park’s School Victory Gardens,” The American Biology Teacher 6, no. 8 (1944): 171–74.

[xi]  “Clean Your Drawers, Gals for Uncle Sam Takes All,” Oregon State Barometer, October 7, 1942: 3, OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nh47k

[xii] “Merchants Set to Aid Campus Scrap Drive,” Oregon State Barometer, October 20, 1942: page 1, OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nh87j

[xiii] Coed Code, 1943-1944, page 6, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx71cm43k

[xiv] The Beaver Yearbook, 1944, page 92, OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center,  https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/zk51vh18n