In her last post, SCARC intern and History of Science graduate student Elizabeth Maureen Nielsen referred to Maxwell’s mathematical solutions for many of the theoretical problems facing mid-nineteenth century physics.

In her latest post, Nielsen continues this exploration, looking at one of the most frequently recurring problems in physics was the problem of light, and how light travels. Can light – or sound, or any other ephemeral wave – travel in a vacuum? Can it travel through space?

Read more about Maxwell, Michelson, and Morley at http://osurarebooks.tumblr.com/post/144273316091/maxwell-michelson-and-morley.

Baseball great Jackie Robinson, speaking at an Urban League of Portland meeting, 1955. Edwin C. Berry, Director of the Urban League, is seated second from left.

Following is a list of 5 new or updated finding aids for SCARC collections that were finalized during April 2016. All are available through the Archives West finding aids database, our new Archon finding aids interface, and the OSUL catalog.

These guides include:

• 1 guide for a new collection received in 2015
• 1 guide for a collection that has been separated from the Gerald W. Williams Collection and described as a stand-alone collection
• 1 guide that has been updated to incorporate several additions to the collection
• 2 guides for collections that previously has minimal information available online

As of April 29, 2016, the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center has 849 finding aids in Archives West.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the preparation and review of these new guides – this work is definitely a group endeavor.

New collection received in 2015:

Asian Family Center Oral History Collection, 2014-2015 (OH 30)

This collection consists of 11 interviews conducted with board and staff members of the Asian Family Center (AFC), one of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization’s five primary locations in Portland, Oregon.  The Asian Family Center exists to serve the needs of the Portland area’s growing Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Documented within the collection are descriptions of the interviewees’ job duties and responsibilities; their thoughts on the value and future of the center; AFC history, programs, and services; and the interviewees’ personal stories regarding their immigration to the United States.

Collection separated from the Gerald W. Williams Collection:

Gerald W. Williams Collection on the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-2012 (MSS CCC)

This collection includes publications, photographs, newspaper clippings, maps, architectural drawings, artifacts, DVDs, sound recordings, and VHS videotapes documenting various Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps and enrollees in Oregon and other states. These materials were acquired by U.S. Forest Service Historian Gerald W. Williams.

Updated finding aid to incorporate several additions to the collection: 

Siletz News, 2007-2016 (MSS SiletzNews)

This monthly newspaper is published by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.  This collection consists of both paper and electronic copies; electronic copies are available online.  The newspaper includes information on tribal programs, events, and members; health news from the tribal clinic; and details of activities at the Chinook Winds Casino.  Of special note are notices of life events of tribal members such as birthdays, weddings, and graduations.  The newspaper includes numerous color photographs of programs, events, and members.

Full guides for collections that previously had minimal information available online:

Soviet Propaganda Posters Collection, 1929-1931 (MSS Soviet)

The 18 propaganda posters that comprise this collection were printed in the Soviet Union between 1929 and 1931.  The posters promote industrial productivity, literacy, sanitation and hygiene, and advance anti-religious and temperance messages.  The collection has been described by Williams Husband, a professor of Russian history in the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion. 

Urban League or Portland Records, 1910-2014 (MSS UrbanLeague)

These records document the administration and programs of the League from its founding in Portland, Oregon, in 1945.  The collection reflects the League’s outreach to the community through various programs and activities, fund-raising, interaction with the National Urban League, and African American life in Portland.  The collection includes extensive paper records as well as visual documentation in the form of 6200 photographs, 125 videotapes, and 30 sound recordings.

All of the football media guides in our archival collections are now available in Oregon Digital!

There are 78 total objects; for some guides there is a separate personnel summary; spring football guides are available for some years also. The guides span from 1939 to 2015 and you can see all of them here: http://oregondigital.org/sets/osu-sports-media-guides.

Expand the “Topic” facet to limit to the football guides. Women’s basketball is next!

Peter Pauling with his father, 1937.

The Pauling Blog writers are beginning an in-depth examination of the life of Peter Pauling, the second child born to Ava Helen and Linus Pauling, with this post “Peter Pauling: The Early Years, 1931-1945.”

This is part 1 of 9 – and you can find them all on The Pauling blog.

Need some midweek reading? Check out these two posts on The Pauling Blog from last March.

We recently received a collection of photographs documenting an important moment in the history of Oregon State University – a walkout of African American students led by OSU’s Black Student Union in winter 1969.

The racial tensions that escalated throughout the 1960s and that made an imprint on universities all across the United States were evident on the campus of Oregon State University as well. In a description that accompanied a photo collection recently accessioned by the OSU Libraries Special Collections and Archives Research Center, photographer Gwil Evans, who was a Journalism professor at OSU at the time, provided some background on event that served as a pivot point for race relations at Oregon State near the end of the 1960s.

Read more at

• The 1969 Black Student Union Walkout
• A Lecture Interrupted and a Campus Torn Apart

Thanks to SCARC intern Jules Filipski for this wonderful post!

In December 2015, OSU Libraries and Press Special Collections and Archives Research Center received a grant from the Oregon Heritage Commission to digitize Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Program Records. One of the factors in identifying the need for digitization is that the collection is split, with some records held by OSU and some records held by the Oregon Historical Society (OHS).

Jules Filipski and Larry Landis meet at the beginning of the project. (Photo credit: Ruth Vondracek)

I was fortunate to be offered an internship to assist with this project. I currently work at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library and I am nearing completion of my MLIS degree through the University of Alabama School of Library and Information Science program. I am processing the records from the Oregon Historical Society. Erin Stout, a graduate student in the Emporia State MLIS program, was hired as the second intern. She will be working on the OSU records. The project is still in very early stages so don’t try to find the records online yet! I thought I would tell you a little bit about the program and the process so far.

Erin Stout working on the finding aid. (Photo credit: Ruth Vondracek)

The Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Program (OCFRP) began in 1958, a little over 100 years after the first Euro-Americans arrived in Oregon. And indeed, the ownership of many of the awarded farms and ranches dates back to the original land claim. There are over 1200 farms and ranches in the program now. The OCFRP program was established to honor families that have had a connection to their land for 100 years or more. Later, the sesquicentennial was established to honor farms and ranches owned by the same family for at least 150 years. The program recognizes the contributions of farming and ranching to the state’s economical, agricultural, and cultural heritage. The OCFRP honors families each year at the Oregon State Fair, celebrating the enduring legacy of century farms in a special reception.

The records that are being digitized are application files and selected administrative files. The application files are comprised of a variety of materials submitted by applicants for OCFRP honors. They may include a notarized application and/or affidavit, deeds, indentures, mortgages, other land ownership documents, family histories, newspaper articles, and photos. Successful applicants receive a certificate signed by the governor. In some cases, applicants from more recent years have created a detailed binder of information about their farm comprised of first-hand accounts, articles, and photos nicely organized and displayed.

Sanders farm, CFR 1064

Loe farm, CFR 1050

As mentioned, a unique aspect of this project is that the application files are held by two different institutions as two separate collections. The Oregon Historical Society managed the Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Program from 1958 to 2002 and holds files for that time period. The program migrated to the Oregon Agricultural Education Foundation, now known as Oregon Farm Bureau Foundation for Education, in 2002, and the application files were still sent to OHS through 2005. The Oregon Farm Bureau Foundation for Education has continued to manage the program, with support from two program partners; the Oregon State Preservation Office (SHPO), and OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC). Applications from 2006 to present are archived at SCARC.

The digitization project has several phases. In January I started on phase 1: Preparing the files for digitization. I examined every application file and place items, particularly correspondence, in roughly chronological order. I flagged items that have special digitization considerations. There are all sorts of issues that arise when you prepare to digitize an archival collection, particularly when it is comprised of a range of material types. Can the item be scanned without damaging it? Is an oversized item too large to fit on the scanner? Are there materials that are under copyright restriction? This particular collection is a challenge because of the range of materials in each application file. Some files, especially older ones, may only contain an application or a letter or a single hand-written note. So, Ruth Vondracek, the project manager, decided cover sheets with the applicant’s name and Century Farm & Ranch number be placed at the front of each file. That way, this identifying information will be the first page you see when opening one of these PDFs.

I’ll talk more about all the interesting articles and photos about the farms I came across while processing these files another time. For now, I’ll leave you with some photos of century farms owned by musically talented folks.

Good farm, CFR 1002

Bennett farm, CFR 614

A full house gathered at the Oregon Historical Society Museum last week to hear Dr. Jane Lubchenco deliver her 2016 Linus Pauling Legacy Award address, “Scientists Making Waves and Bringing Hope.”

Read the whole post on Scenes from the 2016 Pauling Legacy Award Event.

James Clerk Maxwell is both a legendary and forgotten figure in the history of science: his contributions to electromagnetic theory, the kinetic theory of gases, and his suggestion that light was a type of electricity all helped mathematize the growing field of electricity, but in popular imagination he is relatively unknown.

Read the whole post on Rare@OSU!

People of the Pacific Northwest have deep and complicated connections with forests.  The OSU Libraries and Press Special Collections and Archives Research Center explores those connections in its latest exhibit: Heartwood: Inquiry and Engagement with Pacific Northwest Forests.

Two organizational threads run through the exhibit. One features the many terms of engagement with the forest – the forest as habitat, provider, sanctuary, studio, laboratory and classroom.

The other shows how these engagements have evolved over time, as represented by a timeline of dominant forest systems, events, issues, and legislation.

Forests of the Pacific Northwest were terra incognita to European settlers until a succession of surveys from the late 19^th to early 20^th century gradually revealed the extent of forest composition and age classes.  Early in U.S. history, the vast scale of the forests of the Oregon Country contributed to a belief in the boundlessness of nature and its infinite exploitability.  Since European settlers arrived here in the mid-19^th century, forest “management” in its broadest sense has taken many forms. Policy governing forest management is the product of legislation, litigation, forest planning, and other social processes and forces.

The exhibit features historic forest policy and management documents and maps, poetry by Alison Deming and Jane Hirschfield, artwork by Debbie Kaspari, photographs by Bob Keefer and Tom Iraci, materials from the Gerald W. Williams and James R. Sedell collections and much more.

There are fun critters too.

When asked about the creation of the exhibit, Ruth Vondracek, OSU Natural Resources Archivist, said, “This has been a truly collaborative effort that allowed us to meld history, science and art into a meaningful display.”

The exhibit represents a joint effort of the Special Collections and Archives Research Center, the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature and the Written Word.

The exhibit runs from April – October 2016.  Located on the 5^th floor of the OSU Valley Library, it is open to the public: Monday – Friday, 10 am – 6 pm during the academic term and Monday – Friday, noon – 5 pm during academic breaks.

Can’t make it in person? There’s a great Flickr album with pictures.

And more critters.

Next week we are excited to begin our new series called Collections at the Center. Each quarter we will be inviting a faculty expert on campus to intimately interact with historical items from our collections, including rare books, archival materials, and manuscripts.  The faculty member will present a brief lecture to contextualize, question, and reflect on these items for a public audience. Attendees will be invited to get “up close and personal” with the materials, looking closer to find new details and new discoveries. We’ll conclude with a discussion between presenter and audience, and together uncover captivating new ways of thinking about the collections in SCARC.

Our first presenter will be Dr. Rebecca Olson, Associate Professor in the Department of English at OSU. Professor Olson will discuss the manicule, the hand-drawn pointing index finger commonly used by readers throughout the early modern period to signify passages of interest in a text. While this mark would seem to adapt the highly social gesture of pointing for personal and solitary book use, it also draws our attention to the way that early modern readers regarded the book itself as a collective social space.

Please join us at 4:00pm on Wednesday, February 10 for our first exciting event in this series!