Category Archives: Flickr Commons

Watch for it: tomorrow is Wednesday!

We return home this week in Flickr Commons for a much deserved “trip to Mount Hood.” Thirty-five enchanting images that let you travel from Portland’s rose gardens, through Multnomah Falls, and up to the tippy top up the Upper Glacier on the mountain. Black and white or hand-colored, these glass lantern slides are an incredible look at the past…

And, as we’ve found with other sets from the Visual Instruction Department, there was a delightful description of the images for instructors found with the set! And, as an added bonus, we also found that the description booklet included wonderful details for the individual images, which are included in the “Description/Notes” field for each image in the set. If you can tear yourself away from the images, the extra information, written in 1930s-ese, is well worth reading.

Favorites? It’s hard to choose, but make sure you linger on images of the Rose Garden, the harbor scene, Mitchell Point Tunnel, and the glaciers of Mt. Hood!

Watch for it Wednesday!

mills.jpgNew Collection in OSU Archives’ Flickr Commons: The Harold Frodsham Photographic Collection

We’ve seen the natural beauty of the Pacific NW landscape and the view from loggers in the forests, now we turn our focus inside — to the historic mill pictures in the Harold Frodsham Photographic Collection.

Harold Frodsham was the general manager of the commercial and mercantile departments of the Red River Lumber Company in Westwood, California, from the mid-1920s until 1934, when his position was eliminated. Frodsham, from England, died in Susanville, California in 1958 (he had lived in Westwood and Susanville since the early 1920s).

The Red River Lumber Company was organized in 1883 in Minnesota and began acquiring northeastern California timberland in 1894. The Company began construction of Westwood, its company town in southwestern Lassen County, California, in 1912. The lumber mill at Westwood was essentially completed by 1918 and operated until the mid-1950s.

The Harold Frodsham Photograph Collection consists of 19 images of the interiors and exteriors of lumber mills in Oregon during Frodsham’s tour of mills in Oregon and northern California. The original prints are 3.5 x 5.5 inches and are annotated with detailed descriptions. The collection includes images of the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company (Springfield), Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company (Bend), Pelican Bay Lumber Company (Klamath Falls), Shevlin-Hixon Company (Bend), and Silverton Lumber Company (Silverton). You’ll also find photographs showing hauling equipment, stackers, and conveyors, as well as one image of the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company Camp 1 in central Oregon, where Ponderosa pine is being logged.

What else can you tell us?

To read more about the collection, check out the guide to the Harold Frodsham Photograph Collection.

All of the images are available online in the Oregon Explorer Digital Collection of historic photographs.

Watch for it Wednesdays: tomorrow’s launch is a big one…

or-150.jpgTomorrow is the 3rd Wednesday, which means the Archives is releasing a new set into Flickr Commons! While all our launches are special, this one bears a brand and marks a great partnership.

Curious?

For the April 15th launch, we partnered with Oregon Explorer, the natural resources digital library jointly managed by the OSU Libraries and the OUS Institute for Natural Resources, and pulled together 150 of our most stunning historic images of Oregon’s 15 river basins.

Not only are we showcasing natural resources, we are celebrating our state. This collection is more than a collection, it’s an event: our project was also accepted as an official Oregon 150 sesquicentennial project!

Step back in time, explore the state, and tell us what you think.

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs & Oregon State University sign new MOU

p120_4063_warmssprings_planning_committee.jpg

Yesterday, Tribal Council members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and leaders of Oregon State University signed a new memorandum of understanding, renewing and expanding their partnership. The day was full of presentations, sharing, and personal stories, culminating with the signing of the new MOU.

Council members visited the Archives in the morning and poster-sized versions of some of our photos were on display throughout the library. Tribal Council Chairman Ron Suppah found a connection to one displayed on the 5th floor: he was in the picture! What did he see?

suppah1.jpg4-H boys at the winter feed lot, located at the Warm Springs Agency

Beyond this personal connection, Suppah reflected on the larger connection between the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and OSU. “Where this journey began was when the federal government built The Dalles Dam on the Columbia River. Celilo Falls was a major fishing area, and when they closed the gates on The Dalles, we lost that fishing site, and the tribes demanded compensation for that.” The Tribes took this money (over $1 million) and commissioned OSU to conduct a study of tribal resources. Suppah says “The Oregon State study set the course for us as a tribal government.” You can find a copy of this 3 volume report in ScholarsArchive@OSU (Final report: Oregon State College/Warm Springs Research Project: Vol. 1. Introduction and survey of human resources, Vol. 2. Education, Vol. 3. The agricultural economy).

Lots of logs … and a lone sheep?

Sheep

Watch for it Wednesday, April Fools’ Release? No joke, it’s true, there is a new set in OSU’s Flickr Commons account!

John Fletcher Ford, NW photographer and lifelong evangelist, began his life in Minnesota (1862). He became an evangelist early in life, living in Kansas and Iowa, and settled into the life of a pastor in the Pacific Northwest (1893) after conducting a revival in Ilwaco, Washington. Ford was an ardent opponent of liquor, and a vigorous proponent of the temperance movement.

Want a few more personal details? He married in 1882 and had 6 children. Unfortunately, he was stricken with pleurisy during the last year of his life, dying at nearly 53 on February 16, 1914 in Ilwaco. Upon his death, local newspapers praised Ford as “a genial gentleman” and “one of the best known citizens of Pacific County.” As a tribute to his geniality, newspapers also reported upon the impressive numbers of visitors who had come to pay tribute.

However, that’s not why you are here … Of course, in addition to his marriage and ministry, Ford also spent time in the forests, capturing images that document logging practices that will make you gasp—or at least make those viewers who aren’t dare-devils gasp. In his obituary, the Columbia River Sun noted that his “collection of logging and fishing views of the lower Columbia river embraced nearly every camp and fishing ground in the district. These pictures are extremely interesting and valuable and a veritamine of picturesque illustration.” As a side note, he also operated a photography studio called “Foto Studio,” in Portland (1900-1908) with John, Charles, and Richard Ford.

Want to know more about the forest history in the Pacific Northwest? Get ready for a link list!

Know more? Please let us know!

Celebrating the Women of OSU

moving-dorm.jpg Women's Basketball, 1898

Over the last 3 weeks, we’ve written blog posts on the 15 women featured in the “OSU Archives Celebrates International Women’s Day” set in our Flickr Commons account (+ 2 bonus posts about Ida Kerr and Harriet Moore).

You can learn more about IWD on the “International Women’s day 2009” page.

You can see the images we chose on our osu.commons IWD set page. You can also view all the IWD images in the Commons on this page.
You can learn more about the Women’s Center at OSU by visiting them online or in person (they are in the Benton Annex, adjacent to the Valley Library). They have a great “Women in Herstory and Education” section on their Resources page.

You can learn more about sources of U.S. and global women’s history on “Women’s History,” a site developed and maintained by the Women’s Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. Also check out their “Archival Sites for Women’s Studies” page.