Category Archives: Flickr Commons

Join us in celebrating International Women’s Day, March 8th

alice-biddle-1870-graduating-class.jpgNationally and internationally, this is the month to celebrate the wide-ranging accomplishments of women all over the world. As a Flickr Commons member, we’re joining with the other Commons institutions to put up photographic sets that recognize and commemorate International Women’s Day. Want to see what we’ve put together? Go to Flickr Commons and do a search for the tag “womensday,” which is what all the institutions have used to identify those photographs that are part of this observation, or take a short cut by clicking here. You can read about the flurry of activity on the indicommons blog. And, if you just want to go straight to our set, check out OSU Archives Celebrates International Women’s Day March 8th. Remember, viewing is good, commenting is better — we want to hear from you, so log in to Flickr and use that comment box!

It’s never enough to put up pictures, so for the next 15 days, we’ll be posting a little bit about each of the women featured in our Flickr set, starting with Alice Biddle. And who better to quote than George Edmonston when celebrating Ms. Biddle, the first woman to graduate from OSU?

“Alice Biddle, from Corvallis, was actually one of three students in Oregon State’s first graduating class in 1870. The other two were men with the last names of Currin and Veach, but Alice is the one we most remember. Perfect grades. Perfect attendance. OSU’s first woman graduate. To top it off, a Bachelor of Science degree in the liberal arts. And she was only 16.”

Want to know more? George has written a wonderful piece on Biddle, which can be found on the Oregon State University Alumni Association page.

OSU Archives in The Commons: Images of Celilo Falls

Look for more from the Gerald W. Williams Collection Wednesday March 4th

On March 10, 1957, the Columbia River pooled behind the newly constructed Dalles Dam, effectively drowning a five-mile stretch of cascades known as Celilo Falls. The rising water flooded one of the most prolific salmon runs in North America; it was also an area that had been occupied by Pacific Northwest Indians for at least 10,000 years.

Continuing our focus on photographs from the Gerald W. Williams Collection, we’ve decided to show you all some of the images he collected of Celilo Falls. Many of the pictures you’ll find in this set were taken by Williams’ father, Jack Williams, in September 1956 — only a few months before the falls were inundated.

For thousands of years, Celilo Falls was a traditional fishing spot for mid-Columbia tribes, producing millions of pounds of salmon each year; but the area was much more than a “favorite fishing hole.” Nearby Celilo Village was also trading hub for tribes from California, Montana, and Canada, with an active and lively market that saw local salmon traded for medicines, dried meats, and hides from the East and cedar, shells, and beads from the Pacific Coast. Noted by the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805, the explorers said they found a “great emporium…where all the neighboring nations assemble,” and a population density unlike anything they had seen on their journey —historians have called the Celilo area the “Wall Street of the West.” However, even beyond commerce, the area was a place where “friendships were renewed, and men found brides.”

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) began work on The Dalles Dam in 1952 as a means of harnessing the Columbia River and providing “clean, sustainable, and cheap” hydroelectric power to Portland and Seattle . Between 1952 and 1955, ‘USACOE and representatives from the Warm Springs, Umatilla, Yakama, and Nez Perce reservations negotiate a monetary settlement for the loss of fishing sites resulting from construction of The Dalles Dam.” It was completed it five years later. Records and recollections say that Big Eddy was under water in less than an hour and Celilo Falls in six.

Where to go for more?

To watch the Oregon Field Guide “Celilo Fishing” video, which features a color film shot by the Army Corps of Engineers, click here. To see a detailed picture of the bottom of the Columbia River at Celilo Falls, check out the sonar data from the Army Corps of Engineers, check out the “Celilo Animation” video found here.

YouTube also has many videos of Celilo Falls, with a search for “Celilo,” you’ll find plenty! For example, there are some great historic photos of the people of Celilo Falls in the “celilo finished 0001” YouTube video by clicking here.

Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon Territory program called “Celilo Falls,”which aired March 3, 2007 is worth a viewing. Find out more here.

Katrine Barber’s 2005 book Death of Celilo Falls is another excellent resource for information on the both the cultural and political history of the area. “This book examines the negotiations and controversies that took place during the planning and construction of The Dalles dam and the profound impact the project had on both the Indian community of Celilo Village and the non-Indian town of The Dalles.”

Sites Consulted:

Happy Presidents’ Day!

williamsg_ccc_kitchen_crew2.jpgThe big OSU Archives Flickr Commons launch happened Friday evening— and over the weekend we had nearly 8000 views on our photos!

Please join us for our official launch open house celebration today from 2:00PM to 4:00PM in the Autzen classroom on the 2nd floor of The Valley Library. We’ll be there to answer questions about The Commons and the Archives, show off our images, set you up with a Flickr account, and learn from you. Please drop by and introduce yourself!

Hope to see you all this afternoon.

The Flickr Commons

The Oregon State Archives sends out a soggy “hello” to the Flickr world from the Pacific Northwest—it’s good to be here!

Today, as we head home for that most romantic of holidays and Oregon’s 150th birthday celebrations, the Oregon State University Archives will become the 21st institution to join The Commons.

[Yes, it’s true, it really still is Friday the 13th … But rather than court disaster, we’re pretending it’s tomorrow!]

Not only are we joining noteworthy North American institutions like the Library of Congress, Smithsonian, New York Public Library, and George Eastman House, we will sit next to international libraries and museums such as the National Library of New Zealand, the Powerhouse Museum, National Galleries of Scotland, and Bibliothèque de Toulouse. If that wasn’t exciting enough, the OSU Archives is the first university to join The Commons!

Please join us for our official launch open house celebration on Monday, February 16th, 2009 from 2:00PM to 4:00PM in the Autzen classroom on the 2nd floor of The Valley Library. We’ll be there to answer questions about The Commons and the Archives, show off our images, and learn from you—please drop by and introduce yourself!

What will you find here?

Our contribution to Flickr Commons will focus on the history of conservation, natural resources, and agriculture. This is a history OSU is proud to celebrate; a complex story with chapters on forestry, geology, environmentalism, and the people that have inhabited and worked this land. As time passes, the OSU Archives will be digitizing and releasing other images in our collections that showcase some of the amazing items that illustrate the complicated intersection of culture, natural resources, and history.

We’re delighted to start our Flickr Commons adventure with a set of depression era images of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from the Gerald W. Williams Collection. The photographs in the Williams Collection reflect a range of amazing images, we plan to highlight in the coming months, including the photos of CCC camps and activities; shots of the WWI era Spruce Production Division; Northwest Oregon logging photos taken by John Fletcher Ford; and slides of Celilo Falls taken by Williams’ father, Jack Williams, in September 1956 — only a few months before the falls were inundated by The Dalles Dam.

How did we get here?

In order to celebrate and publicize photographic collections that showcase Oregon State University’s rich heritage, the OSU Archives joined Flickr in the summer of 2008. We found it was a great place for pictures of current events, virtual tours and instructions for using microfilm machines, and assorted historic photos; though after seeing the real impact the historic photographs in The Commons were having on both Flickr users and the larger community, as well as the great personal connections between people and pictures that emerged, the OSU Archives was more than eager to join the project.

We’re always uploading more online images, and Flickr gives us another avenue to share our remarkable collections. You’ll find images specific to forestry and natural resources on our Flickr Commons page, current and historic images related to OSU on our osu.archives Flickr page, and a wonderful assortment of digital collection projects on the OSU Digital Collections page.

Still Can’t Get Enough?

Check out some of our other resources.  We love them — and you just might, too.