Category: Manuscripts

New Finding Aid | Willard Brown Thorp papers

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a new finding aid published for the Willard Brown Thorp papers (Ax 214). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

Willard Brown Thorp was a Congregational minister born in Oxford, New York, and educated at Amherst and Yale Divinity School. During the summers of 1890 and 1891, he assisted at the American Institute of Christian Philosophy, Church of the Strangers in New York City, headed by Charles F. Deems. After graduation, he held pastorates at First Congregational Church, Binghamton, New York (1891-1899), South Congregational Church, Chicago (1899-1908), First Congregational Church, San Diego, California (1908-1920), and First Congregational Church, Palo Alto, California (1920-1939).

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New Finding Aid | Bernice Leland papers

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a new finding aid published for the Bernice Leland papers (Ax 150). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

Detail of letterhead dated July 24, 1960
[Detail of letterhead dated July 24, 1960, Bernice Leland papers, Ax 150, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.]
Bernice Leland was born in 1882, traveled to many countries and later studied learning and reading disorders at the Psychological Clinic in Detroit, Michigan. She traveled to Tahiti (from September to November of 1909) and New Zealand (November 1909 through March of 1910) with Winifred B. Chase.  They collected botanical specimens, especially algae, for Josephine E. Tilden of the Botanical Department, University of Minnesota.

The Bernice Leland papers includes a diary of Ms. Leland’s trip searching for botanicals in Tahiti and New Zealand, as well as correspondence concerning the trip.  Also included are trip reports, news clippings from local newspapers about Ms. Leland’s trip, and speeches and research notes and articles written by Ms. Leland on learning and reading disorders.

Notes on processing the collection

I absolutely loved the topic of Ms. Leland’s studies on reading disorders and plan to investigate her more closely in order to learn more about what she studied, especially her diagrams of the eye and the ideas she presented in various speeches.

Some of the challenges included that a lot of the data had obscured or hard to read dates. It was nice when everything was bound together in a way that made sense, with the notebooks.

–Danica Alexander, Processing Archivist

New Finding Aid | Heber Hyder Davis papers

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a new finding aid published for the Heber Hyder Davis papers (Ax 131). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

Detail of diary page entry dated 1/4/1900
[Detail of diary entry on January 4, 1900, Heber Hyder Davis papers, Ax 131, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.]
Heber Hyder Davis, a member of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City, Utah, was born there on November 16, 1854, and died November 29, 1942. He was a missionary to England from the years of 1899 to 1901. He was born to Edward William Davis and Sarah Elizabeth Hyder and was a church Elder in his later years.

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New Finding Aid | Ken Kesey papers

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a newly updated finding aid published for the Ken Kesey papers (Ax 279). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

The Ken Kesey papers is a collection compiled by Oregonian novelist, essayist, and counterculture figure, Ken Kesey. The collection contains correspondence, manuscripts and publications, personal journals and artwork, event and tour material, press clippings, personal memorabilia, and creative works by members of his artistic circle, the Merry Pranksters.

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New Finding Aid | Jasper Cranfill diaries

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a new finding aid published for the Jasper Cranfill diaries, 1865-1866 (Ax 128). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

[Jasper Cranfill diaries, Ax 128, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.]
Jasper Cranfill was the son of Isom Cranfill and was born October 10, 1841 in Wilmington, Illinois. Jasper worked on his father’s farm in Linn County near Peoria, Oregon, went hunting, fishing, and helped his father with woodworking. He died May 5, 1867.

The Jasper Cranfill diaries are two slim, black, leather-bound volumes, dated 1865 and 1866. These journals are brief recordings of his daily life, weather, how many hours he worked for his father, how many animals he shot or caught, and more pertinent information from his farm life.

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