New Photograph Collection: Jacqueline Moreau papers
![Chief Johnny Jackson stands at Lyle Point on the Columbia River. [Jacqueline Moreau papers, Coll 459, Box 10, Folder 4; Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.]](https://blogs.uoregon.edu/scua/files/2016/12/Lyle-Point-and-the-Columbia-River-23ldev7.jpg)
Category: Photographs
Moorhouse Photography Collection: Judgement in Cataloging
Working in the Digital Scholarship Center as a student image cataloger, I have been exposed to multiple collections that are being digitized and shared on Oregon Digital. One of the primary collections I have worked with is the Lee Moorhouse photograph collection. Moorhouse was a photographer in the Pacific Northwest around the turn of the 20th century. He had a wide range of photographic subjects, but two prominent ones I have come across are the touring shows that came to Pendleton, OR and various Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest. At the turn of the century some of the vaudeville acts that performed in Pendleton had a heavily racist element in their show. In his photography of Native Americans, Moorhouse would pose his models with a hodgepodge of Native American objects, part of a tradition of white artists’ creating stereotyped representations of Native Americans. As the cataloger of these photographs, it was my responsibility to add accurate and relevant subject headings that would help researchers find them. Often, I could easily identify and record the subject matter of a photograph. However, in these troubling photos, how do I accurately describe what these images are?
From Curtis to Corinne: Selections from the University of Oregon Photography Collection
Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce the opening of its summer exhibition, From Curtis to Corinne: Selections from the University of Oregon Photography Collection. The exhibition features photographs from seven discrete collections, with work spanning over a century and addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time.
Chronologically the exhibition begins with photographs by Edward S. Curtis, who documented tribal life during the first half of the 20th century in his seminal project, The North American Indian. This was a volatile period due to the effects of U.S. colonization of indigenous lands, which was radically altering and reshaping life for Native Americans in the area. He wrote: “The information that is to be gathered . . . respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost.” As a counterpoint to Curtis’s work, we present images from the Angelus Company, a photography studio based in Portland in the early part of the 20th century. These photographs document the impact of westward expansion on the environment and local terrain, and the growth of cities in the area. Detached from their broader context, the Angelus images can be viewed as celebrations of modernity and the taming of the “Wild West.” When viewed alongside the Curtis images, they suggest a more sinister side to the assumptions of “manifest destiny,” forcing us to question what was being displaced as part of this process.
