Yes, it’s that time of year when we pull out the virtual suitcases! The OSU Archives is taking a trip this summer via our Flickr Commons set “Take a Trip: Traveling and touring with the Visual Instruction Lantern Slides Collection,” and the bloggers at indicommons posted today on “Traveling Photography” from the New York Public Library’s “Japan / Kimbei Kusakabe” set.

And while you are there, also check out the set “Photochrom Travel View” from the Library of Congress and the jaunted.com blog post “Taking In Museums Through the Flickr Commons.”

Any other gems you’ve seen? Leave a comment and let us know!

We’re releasing a new set on the Flickr Commons.  It’s a great look at some of the places along the Shasta and Sunset Routes.  Here’s a look at one of the photos.  Check out our Flickr Commons account on Wednesday, 15 July to see the rest!

Image Title: Palace of Fine Arts-San Francisco, California

Original Format: Lantern slides

Original Collection: Visual Instruction Department Lantern Slides

Item Number: P217:set 023 025

Restrictions: Permission to use must be obtained from the OSU Archives.

Click here for further information or a high resolution copy of this image.

Click here to view The Best of the Archives.

Click here to view Oregon State University’s other digital collections.

We’re happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of The Commons; however, certain restrictions on high quality reproductions of the original physical version may apply. To read more about what “no known restrictions” means, please visit the OSU Archives website.

We’re going back in time … The latest set in the “Take a Trip: Traveling and touring with the Visual Instruction Lantern Slides Collection” is dedicated to early Oregon images.

Our history is full of fascinating people and places: beautiful rivers, complicated relationships, and some great houses! This set is from the “Early Settlement of Oregon” lantern slide collection, though the land was certainly inhabited long before Oregon was named “Oregon,” boundary lines were drawn, and territorial governments were formed. The following quote (yes, the long one below…) comes from the lecture booklet that accompanied the slides, and although no exact date is given on the booklet, we can assume it was written in the 1920s or 1930s – it is an interesting look at the cultural and social assumptions and conceptions of the times.

“The earliest use of the word Oregon of which we have record was by Jonathan Carver who had, previous to the Revolutionary War, explored much territory westward from the Great Lakes. In 1778 he applied the name -Oregon- to the ‘River of the West’ and said that he had heard Indians living near the east slope of the Stony Mountains (Rockies) call the river by that name in 1766. In 1812, the poet Bryant, wrote: ‘The continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound Save his own lashings.’ The name was readily taken up and soon came to be applied to the vast region drained by the ‘River of the West,’ later the Columbia. When Oregon began to assume boundary lines, in the minds of Americans, it extended from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific and from about 42° North latitude, the northern boundary of Spanish America to 60°, the southern boundary of Russian America. These pictures emphasize a number of important people, places, and events in the settlement of Oregon.”

For a more 21st century history of Oregon, please visit these links:

• Oregon Encyclopedia Project
• Oregon – Wikipedia
• Oregon Historical Society
• Oregon Blue Book
• Travel Oregon
• Excursion to the Oregon