The SCUA archivists have been hard at work and seventeen more collections were made available for research in March.

The finding aids for these, and all, SCUA collections can be accessed through our archival collections database, Archives West and the UO Libraries catalog.

Collections now available for research:

Bowerman/Nike Shoe Tread, UA 030

William Jay “Bill” Bowerman was born February 19, 1911 in Portland, Oregon and came to the University of Oregon (UO) in 1929 to play football and study. After graduation, Bowerman taught high school biology and coached football, first in Portland and then in Medford, where he started a track team in 1937. In 1948, Bowerman became the freshman football coach at UO and by the 1950’s, was coaching track and field. During a trip to New Zealand in 1962, Bowerman was introduced to the concept of jogging as a fitness routine. He brought this concept back to the United States, and began to write articles and books about jogging, in addition to creating a jogging program in Eugene that became a national model for a fitness program. Bowerman was a highly inventive man. In addition to experimenting with many different types of shoes, he experimented with different types of track surfaces, creating a rubber and asphalt mix for track runways. He helped to create portable runways with this same mixture for use on indoor tracks, but his main area of invention was in the realm of athletic footwear. Before and after retirement, Bowerman worked with Phil Knight as a co-founder of Nike (initially Blue Ribbon Shoes) to develop new and innovative shoe designs. After retirement, Bill devoted more of his time to these endeavors, once using his wife’s waffle iron to create a new type of “waffle” sole for running shoes.

This collection contains two pieces of rubber/synthetic shoe tread, one in waffle pattern, and one pattern Nike patent pending.

American Federation of Teachers, University of Oregon Records, UA 345

The American Federation of Teachers, founded in Chicago in 1916, is the second-largest teachers’ labor union in the United States. The University of Oregon chapter was established to advance the professional interests of teachers at UO, improve terms and conditions of employment, fight bias, promote reciprocal accountability, and support the national AFT. The local chapter has since also affiliated with the national American Association of University Professors and, as of 2007, organizes and advocates as United Academics.

University of Oregon University Budget Ledger, UA 384

The Oregon State Board of Higher Education was the statutory governing board for the Oregon University System from 1909 to 2015 and was composed of eleven members appointed by the Governor of Oregon and confirmed by the Oregon State Senate.

This ledger details the approved final budget for fiscal year 1933-1934 and includes summaries of budget authorizations, notices of changes in budgets for employees and departments, details of salary changes and other documented budgetary considerations.

Field Hockey Scrapbooks Collection, UA 029

Field Hockey was one of the first and most popular women’s sports offered at the University of Oregon (UO) after being established formally in 1945. Throughout its

history, the women’s field hockey team made the National Championship tournament several times and, in 1978, under coach Nancy Plantz, was ranked eighth in the nation. Women’s field hockey at UO The team was formally dissolved in 1979.

University of Oregon Grade Book, UA 402

These grade books are the personal records of University of Oregon professors B.J. Hawthorne (English composition, rhetoric and linguistics) and William E. Overholt (Latin language and Roman history). Spanning the years 1884-1898, the books contain grades, marks and notes for students.

John V. Bovard Faculty Papers, UA 275

John V. Bovard a was faculty in the University of Oregon (UO) Biology department starting in 1906. In 1920, he became the inaugural dean of UO’s Physical Education program, the first such program established in the United States. After leaving UO in 1937, Bovard finished his career at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where his research examined problems related to human fatigue.

This collection includes the papers created in Bovard’s capacity as a professor of physical education at both UO and UCLA. Topics covered include lecture notes and class records, material related to the Northwest Council of Teach Education Standards for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. A small amount of personal material relates to Bovard’s involvement in clubs and organizations such as the Obsidians, an outdoors enthusiast group based in Eugene.

Committee on the Status of Women records, UA 187

The Committee on Status of Women at the University of Oregon was formed in the 1970s as an ad hoc committee meant to study the status of female employees at the University of Oregon. By the 1990s, the committee reported to the University Senate. The Status of Women Committee ceased to be active in 2005 and was abolished by US07/08-3 in November 2007.

Material in this collection includes committee charges, correspondence, and reports, covering topics including sexual discrimination, tenure, and pay rates.

W.F. Goodwin Thacher Student Notebook, UA 373

William Franklin Goodwin Thacher came to the University of Oregon in 1914 as a Professor of Rhetoric. In 1917, he taught the University’s first advertising course – a copywriting class in the English Department. In 1932, he was named a Professor of English and Advertising and from there developed the advertising program in the School of Journalism and Communication.

This collection consists of Thacher’s course notebook on Constitutional Law of the United States, taught by Prof. Woodrow Wilson in 1898 or 1899. Pages contain notes from lectures, doodles, including drawings of houses, people (perhaps other students), various scribbles of the name “Janet” and doodles referencing “Little Orphan Annie.”

Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity Collection, UA 375

Tau Kappa Epsilon, commonly known as TKE or Teke, is a social college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University and has chapters throughout the United States and Canada. In 1928 TKE became one of the first fraternities to ban hazing, and also never had a racially exclusive policy for membership.

This collection documents the fraternity at University of Oregon from 1943-1949.

George Korn and Mel Le Mon Papers, UA 232

This collection consists of correspondence and telegraphs between George Korn of the Korn Baking Company and Mel Le Mon, a broadcaster at radio station KFAC in Los Angeles, and detail the whereabouts of Joe Duck, as well as upcoming or recent Oregon sporting events. George Washington Korn (1898-1995) was raised in Oregon, first in Portland, and then in Eugene, where his father, Harry, owned and operated the University Bakery. George worked as a clerk at the bakery, first located between the University of Oregon campus and downtown Eugene.

The collection also includes scrapbook pages of photographs and news clippings which document the travels of Joe Duck, and the activities of the Monday Morning Quarterbacks. Of note is a letter from Bing Crosby, claiming to be unaware of Joe Duck’s present location. Loose photographs of a vacation to Cedar Pines Park in 1941 are also included.

YWCA Oregon Chapter records, UA 112

The University of Oregon chapter of the Young Women’s Christian Association was a student group on the University of Oregon campus founded in 1894. The group’s mission was to promote the principles of religion, democracy, and fellowship, as well as student activities, and served as a resource and gathering space for the university’s small female student body. They hosted teas, luncheons, hobby groups such as photography classes, Bible studies, and dinners. The group also published a newspapers, hosted school dances and events for freshman, and sponsored lectures and programs open to the campus community. The collection contains administrative materials such as advisory board minutes, staff meeting minutes, and conference files, as well as constitutions and by-laws. Also included are announcements, evaluations conducted by the national group of the local chapter, reports and resolutions, a copy of the advisor’s handbook, Big Brother/Big Sister program files, and files related to the 1974 Women’s Forum.

Betty Underwood Papers, Coll 644

Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Underwood (1921-2009) was an award-winning author and activist in the Oregon women’s movement. Born in Illinois, she graduated with honors from Pennsylvania State University, and worked as an information analyst for the federal government during and after World War II. Her career in public relations and editing saw her with jobs at Houghton Mifflin, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the Oregon American Civil Liberties Union and George Washington University medical school.

Her writing career saw the publication of two novels for young adults, The Tamarack Tree (1972) and The Forge and the Forest (1975), as well as a memoir, Hostage to Heaven (1979), co-authored by her daughter detailing the Underwoods’ experience with the Unification Church, widely considered to be a cult. The Tamarack Tree received the Jane Addams’ Children’s Book Award in 1972.

Underwood also served on the Portland Cable TV Regulatory Commission (1981-84) and the Oregon Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women (1972-1979) and was extremely active in the Oregon Association of University Women (AAUW).

Fortnightly Club of Eugene Records, Coll 329

The Fortnightly Club of Eugene was organized in December, 1893 by Dr. Alice Hall Chapman, wife of Charles Hiram Chapman, the second president of the University of Oregon. Dr. Hall Chapman was the first president of the original group consisting of twenty-two members, generally conceded to be the first women’s study club west of the Rockies. In 1895, The Fortnightly Club began its first move toward what became a continued dedication: providing and supporting desirable library facilities for Eugene.

This collection includes photographs, news clippings, scrapbooks, meeting records and other materials related to the functions of the Club.

Gum Moon Women’s Residence records, Coll 918

Gum Moon Women’s Residence, previously known as the Oriental Home and School, is a United Methodist Women National Mission Institution that provides women and children in geographic and social transition with short-term housing and life skills training.

The records in this collection document the work and history of Gum Moon Women’s Residence, its predecessor organizations, its programs, and its service to the Asian immigrant community of the San Francisco Bay Area since 1868. The collection contains administrative records, case files, historical materials and publicity, photographs, and certificates.

Nomenus, Inc. records, Coll 421

Nomenus, Inc. is a non-profit religious organization founded in 1984 to create, preserve and manage places of spiritual and cultural sanctuary, for Radical Faeries and their friends to gather in harmony with nature, for renewal, growth and shared learning. Since 1987, Nomenus has maintained an eight-acre Radical Faery Sanctuary in Wolf Creek, Oregon. This collection contains the documents provided by Nomenus Inc. including business papers, correspondence, financial documentation, and building plans, as well as publications of newsletters and magazines, photographs of members, posters of gatherings.

James Ivory papers (accruals), Coll 283

James Ivory is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He was born in Berkeley, California on June 7, 1928 and in 1933, moved with his family to Klamath Falls, Oregon. After high school graduation in 1946, he enrolled in the University of Oregon’s (UO) School of Fine Arts majoring in architecture, later changing to a general art course. In 1951 he began a graduate program in film production at the University of Southern California. In 1953 he was drafted into the U.S. Army and was trained for the Signal Corps. Through a stroke of luck and resourcefulness on his part, he was assigned to Seventh Army Special Services in Europe with the job of booking cultural events for army units in Germany. During leave times he was able to continue working on film. He returned to the U.S. in 1955 where he completed Venice: Theme and Variations and his master’s degree in Cinematography in 1957.

The University of Oregon Ivory collection presently represents forty years of work, particularly the basic artistic foundation of the Ruth Jhabvala-James Ivory collaboration, backed up by the inventive financial and logistical support of producer, Ismail Merchant. The collection includes material relating to Ivory’s feature films, television programs and commercials, Merchant Ivory Productions materials, and Ivory’s published and unpublished writings, including literary and artistic work done while Ivory was a college student at UO. The collection includes correspondence, screenplays, treatments, storyboards, production notes, promotional material, legal and financial notes, articles, reviews, sketchbooks, notebooks and photographs.

Sally Sheklow papers, Coll 943

Sally Sheklow (1950-2002) was a Jewish lesbian activist, columnist, public health workers, and improvisational performer who lived in Eugene, Oregon. Sheklow arrived in San Francisco in 1967 for the Summer of Love in San Francisco, but after a couple of weeks moved to Eugene, where she enrolled in the University of Oregon (UO) and eventually earned a Bachelor of Arts in Speech, a certificate in Women’s Studies, and a Master’s in Leisure Studies and Services.

After her time at UO, Sheklow worked with the Willamette AIDS Council and the Feminist Women’s Health Center and led workshops on safe sex during the AIDS crisis. She worked as an activist for gay rights and reproductive freedom and organized against a variety of anti-gay political campaigns and legislation. Sheklow also created Balaboosteh, a Jewish lesbian networking group for exploring Jewish feminist spirituality and culture.

This collection includes correspondence, personal papers, activism resources, audiovisual material, and artifacts pertaining to the personal life and activism of Sheklow.

 

The SCUA archivists have been hard at work and eighteen more collections were made available for research in January.

The finding aids for these, and all, SCUA collections can be accessed through our archival collections database, Archives West and the UO Libraries catalog.

Collections now available for research:

Visual Materials

A.C. Shelton Photographs, PH 243

Alfred Cooper Shelton was born Feb. 13, 1891 in Santa Rosa, CA, the son of Abram C. and Mary Shelton. He graduated from Santa Rosa High School and studied at the University of California-Berkeley 1912-1913. In the fall of 1915, he began studying at the University of Oregon (UO), where he worked as an assistant in the zoology department and at the UO Natural History Museum. After leaving UO in the fall of 1917 for military service in WWI, Shelton served in the Sanitary Corps, and trained in bacteriology. This collection contains images of wildlife and landscapes in Oregon, Washington, California, and South Africa. Images are in a variety of formats, including nitrate negatives, proof sheets, photographic prints, photographic postcards, and glass plate negatives and positives.

Jacob Gray Kamm Photograph Album, Coll 940

Jacob Gray “Jack” Kamm (1888-1983) was an American real estate developer in Portland, Oregon and grandson of industrialist Jacob Kamm (1823-1912). This collection includes a single photo album containing 688 photographs that depict travel and recreation of members of the Kamm family in Oregon.

Ethel Waite Photograph Album, Coll 941

Ethel Waite was a University of Oregon class of 1919 graduate. The collection contains a single photograph album compiled by Waite that depicts student life and activities at University of Oregon.

Parker of Salem, Oregon Photograph, PH 200_231

Waldo H. Parker was a photographer in Salem, Oregon in the early twentieth century. The collection includes a photograph of old capitol building in Salem, Oregon, with a view across a landscaped park and fountain. The pictured building burned in 1935, replaced the following year by the current structure.

Shobundo Senjafuda Collection, Coll 482

The Shobundo senjafuda collection was compiled by Sato Masao, also known as Shobundo, in his capacity as an active member of the Yokohama nosatsu-kai. Shobundo lived and worked in Yokohama, Japan and collected and printed fuda between 1920 and 1990.

Fuda, also called nosatsu, are Japanese votive slips printed using a woodblock process. Originally created in the 11th century by religious pilgrims as devotional items, these slips have become part of a vibrant collecting and exchange culture in Japan and abroad. The religious senjafuda are generally unadorned, consisting of only the pilgrim’s name, and pasted to the walls of temples and shrines. The more detailed and luxurious kokanfuda, featuring many subjects including kabuki characters and mythological creatures, are collected and traded by members of a nosatsu-kai, or exchange clubs. Individual nosatsu clubs generally commission artists, carvers, and printers to produce new slips for trading at nosatsu-kai meetings and events. The Shobundo senjafuda collection contains material produced and collected by Sato Masao, also known as Shobundo, in his capacity as an active member of the Yokohama nosatsu-kai, as well as a fuda printer and enthusiast. Included in this collection are loose votive slips, votive scrapbooks, sketchbooks and publications, printing and pasting tools, as well as photographs of nosatsu-kai events and members.

Journalism 

Frederick Enos Woltman Papers, Ax 768

Frederick Enos Woltman (1905-1970) was born in York, Pennsylvania and educated at the University of Pittsburgh. He began his career in journalism as an investigative reporter for the New York Telegram. In 1932 he and Joseph Lilly collaborated on a series of articles about the real estate mortgage and bond business. This work earned the World-Telegram a Pulitzer Prize.

Woltman spent the bulk of his career writing articles meant to expose Communist infiltration into education, labor unions, church groups, and the government. In 1954 he wrote a five-part series critiquing Senator Joseph McCarthy, citing that he had largely influenced the American public to be more “security conscious” but had since “become a major liability to the cause of anti-Communism.”

Other topics Woltman reported on include police brutality, the Amerasia case, anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, and the Ringling Brothers circus. In addition to his Pulitzer Prize, Woltman was also awarded the Page One Award of the Newspaper Guild of New York (1943), the Heywood Broun Award of the American Newspaper Guild, the Silurian Annual Award (1946), and an AMVETS Special Citation (1950).

His newspaper career ended in 1957 when he suffered a series of paralytic strokes. Woltman spent years learning to read and speak again and spent his retirement years in Sarasota, Florida.

Athletics 

Bill McChesney Papers, UA 374

Bill McChesney, Jr. (January 8, 1959 – October 29, 1992) was an American long-distance runner and University of Oregon (UO) alumnus from Eugene, Oregon. He attended South Eugene High School, where he participated in track and field and cross country, received multiple athletics awards, and set national high school records. McChesney broke the national junior record for six mile and 10,000 meters.

As a student at UO, McChesney had an exceptional track career, ranking nationally and internationally and setting records that stood for decades. In his junior year he recovered from a heel injury and went on to place third in the 5,000 meters at the PAC-10 championships, NCAA Championships, and US Olympic Trials. He was unable to participate in the Moscow Olympics because of the United States boycott intended to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He was also on the 1983 U.S. World Championships team, ranked #1 in the U.S. and #4 in the world for his 5,000 meters record.

McChesney and his wife, Nanci Westerlund, ran a graduation products business, while McChesney also worked in leadership conferences, motivational speaking, and with local high school students. McChesney died on October 29, 1992, in a traffic accident in Newport, Oregon, at age 33, and inducted into the University of Oregon Hall of Fame in 1998 as part of the 1977 Cross Country team, and in 2002 for his individual achievements from 1977-1981.

The Bill McChesney papers contain personal papers and ephemera, newspapers, and bound volumes related to his track and field career and, including photographs, awards, correspondence, and papers related to his personal life, induction to the University of Oregon Hall of Fame, and his memorial and obituary.

Historical Travel 

Diary of a Voyage from Japan to England, and Return, A 027

This diary, handwritten by an unidentified, educated young man, details the voyage of the NYK Iyo Maru from Yokohama to Middlesbrough and return, from July through November, 1906. The diarist details weather conditions, locations, and activities on board, including games played and work undertaken, and notes regarding conversations between passengers and the crew. The ship called at the ports of Kobe, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, the Suez, Port Said, Marseilles, London, Antwerp, Newcastle, and Middlesbrough. At each port, the diarist went ashore to see the sights and shop, including the chance to tour final preparations on the Mauritania, readying to launch on its maiden voyage in 1907. Included in the diary is a newspaper clipping about the Mauritania as well as a snapshot of three young men on the deck of a ship in port, identified as “my friends,” by the diarist.

University of Oregon Faculty 

Leona E. Tyler Faculty Papers, UA 280

Leona Tyler was born in Chetek, Wisconsin on May 10, 1906. She received a BA in English from the University of Minnesota at age nineteen, and in 1940, after years of teaching English and other subjects, completed her PhD in counseling psychology at the University of Minnesota, after which she joined the University of Oregon (UO) as a faculty member. In 1965, Tyler became Dean of the Graduate School, retiring in 1971 but remaining active in the UO research environment until her death in 1993.

Tyler’s research focused on the construct of organized choices. Her concerns about vocational interests led to a longitudinal study of the broader question of the directions of development that interests and personality take. She developed the Choice Pattern Technique, that required people to indicate their construal of occupations and free-time activities. In 1962, she received the Fulbright scholarship to work at the University of Amsterdam, which allowed her to test her ideas and methods cross-culturally. Her research was extended to India and Australia and expanded to take in values, daily activities, and future time-perspectives in adolescents.

The records in this collection relate to psychological and behavioral research on human subjects. The research investigated negative and positive perceptions of occupations, growing up, and the general passage of time with both children and adults. Included in these records are research proposals and contracts, sample questions and surveys, research protocols, research and data summaries, data analysis, and a small amount of correspondence and meeting documents such as minutes. Data is anonymized and/or aggregated.

Franklin Stahl Faculty Papers, UA 423

Franklin William Stahl is an American molecular biologist and geneticist. A professor emeritus of Biology at University of Oregon (UO), Stahl is a founder and member of the Institute of Molecular Biology at UO. Collection materials include Stahl’s manuscripts, articles on UO governance, a personnel file, and clippings on Aaron Novick and the UO Institute of Molecular Biology.

Publishing

Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Private Press Collection, Coll 612

Richard-Gabriel Rummonds is one of the foremost hand press printers of the late twentieth century. Rummonds attended the School of Fine Arts at Syracuse University from 1949-1950, originally studying set and costume design. Between 1950-54, Rummonds intermittently attended University of California Berkeley, where he majored in English and Creative Writing. Rummonds was staff of The Occident, the student-run literary arts magazine, during this time and served as the editor for the Spring 1954 edition.

In 1966 in Quito, Ecuador, Rummonds founded his own imprint, the Plain Wrapper Press, using it to publish his own poetic works. In 1968 he met Veronese printer Giovanni Mardersteig’s son Martino, who introduced him to iron hand press printing, which Rummonds would use from 1969 on. In 1970, Rummonds moved to Verona, Italy, where he remained until 1982. During his time in Verona, Rummonds earned acclaim throughout the world of fine press printing, including Siete Poemas Sajones / Seven Saxon Poems by Jorge Luis Borges with impressions and binding designed by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro.

Rummonds also managed an expansive teaching career. Between 1977-1996, he taught in the Graduate School of Library Service at the University of Alabama and was the founding director of the school’s MFA in the Book Arts Program.

This collection contains material documenting his career, including imprints of his own and others’ works, as well as book arts and technical materials, including unpublished, original samples, and ephemera prints; extensive material documenting the processes, art, and professional components of printing and hand presses; and material from Rummonds’ teaching career.

Mrs. E. Harden Bishop Collection of Publishing Proofs, F813 B541

Mrs. E. Harden Bishop was the wife of public relations executive E. Harden Bishop, who worked for Executive Research, Inc. This collection contains galley and page proofs of popular literature from the 20th century collected by Mrs. E. Harden Bishop, including galley proofs of Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop.

Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy Records (digital material), Coll 913

Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by Cambridge University Press. It is named after Hypatia of Alexandria, a mathematician and philosopher who was murdered by a mob in 415 CE. The idea for the journal arose from meetings of the Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP). Collection materials include published journals (Hypatia issues 1.1-33.4), Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) journals, published monographs, conference materials, and administrative files.

Ernest Haycox letters to Martin Field, Coll 944

Ernest Haycox (1899-1950) was an American writer of Western fiction. This collection contains two letters from Ernest Haycox written to Martin Field, and a single carbon copy of a letter from Field to Haycox, on the topic of Screen Writers’ Guild administration.

Oregon History

Driscoll Mercantile Company Records, Coll 738

The Driscoll Mercantile Co. was a general store in Bonanza, Oregon run by brothers James Henry and Daniel Francis Driscoll. In 1910, the Driscoll General Merchandise Store burnt down, along with the post office and lodge inside the building.

The collection contains one ledger from the Driscoll Mercantile Co. and contains customer account charges from April 1903 to 1905. Each page is dedicated to one customer and lists the month, items purchased, cost per item, and amount paid.

Aurelius Todd Papers, CB-T6

Abbott Levi James Todd was born in 1820 in Indiana, and was raised by his widowed mother alongside seven stepbrothers. A potter by trade and a devout Christian, Todd was widowed twice before marrying his final wife, Angeline Lorane Tate in 1849. The two of them emigrated to Oregon in 1852, and their son Elijah was born during the crossing.

The Todds settled in Lookingglass Valley and had several more children. Todd worked in farming and mining, while also becoming a circuit preacher, establishing churches and working with local native Americans during the Rogue River Indian War. He died in 1886 in Elkhead, Douglas County, Oregon, survived by his wife and many children.

The collection contains “‘A Sketch of the Life of Abbott Levi James Todd’ – Written with the assistance of his wife and children by his son, Aurelius Todd.” The 44-page biography details the genealogy and life of the elder Todd and contains detailed information on his relatives including Mary Todd Lincoln, former First Lady, the family’s emigration on the Oregon Trail in 1852, and Todd’s involvement with local tribes in the Rogue River Indian War.

Elizabeth Freeman Papers, Coll 945

Elizabeth Freeman (1919-2006) was a teacher and teacher and activist. After her retirement in the early 70’s, she continued being an active participant in the lesbian and gay communities, anti-racism work, and the Older Women League. In the 1980s, Freeman moved to Wolf Creek, Oregon and participated in the Oregon Women’s Land Trust. This collection includes correspondence, photographs, and fliers that depict her day-to-day life and activism.

Music

Hubert Berberich Revelers Vocal Arrangements Collection, Coll 498

The Revelers were an American quintet (four close harmony singers and a pianist) popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Their recordings of “Dinah”, “Old Man River”, “Valencia”, “Baby Face”, “Blue Room”, “The Birth of the Blues”, “When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba”, became popular in the United States and then Europe in the late 1920s. They also produced the first known recording of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” in 1923.

All of the members recorded individually and in various combinations. The quartet first performed under the names The Shannon Four and The Shannon Quartet before changing their name to The Revelers in 1925. The original Revelers were tenors Franklyn Baur and Lewis James, with Charles W. Harrison occasionally substituting, baritone Elliot Shaw, bass Wilfred Glenn and pianist Ed Smalle, replaced by Frank Black in 1926. This collection contains around 500 sheets of music arranged by Ed Smalle and Frank J. Black.

 

 

The SCUA archivists have been hard at work and twelve more collections were made available for research in September.

The finding aids for these, and all, SCUA collections can be accessed through our archival collections database, Archives West and the UO Libraries catalog.

Collections now available for research:

N.L. Berry photograph album, PH203_001

N.L. Berry was an active photographer in Connecticut and Massachusetts during the 1890s. The collection contents date to about 1890-91 and include scenes of people, houses, and waterfronts at Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Ann, Cottage City, Nantucket and Enfield, Connecticut. Formats include cyanotypes and albumens.

Scott Parker collection of Ken Kesey sound recordings, Coll 932

Scott F. Parker is an Oregonian author. Parker collected these materials from the Pacifica Radio Archives while researching his book, Conversations with Ken Kesey (UP Mississippi, 2014). This collection includes sound recordings of interviews with and lectures by American author Ken Kesey from 1965 to 1993.

Northwest Working Press and Herb Everett poster collection, Coll 936

Herb Everett is an Oregonian printer who worked for Northwest Working Press from 1976-1987. The collection includes posters printed and collected by Everett, most of which were produced by Northwest Working Press. Subjects represented in the collection document political activism and social justice organizations and events held in Eugene, Oregon during the 1980s, including labor organization and solidarity, anti-Apartheid advocacy, peace and disarmament, and alternative lifestyles.

Sharon Sherman papers, UA 215

Sharon Sherman, Professor Emerita (since 2008) of English and Folklore at the University of Oregon, is a well-known folklorist who demonstrated the importance and pioneered the expertise of folkloristic filmmaking. 

Sherman taught public school from 1964 to 1968 in Detroit and surrounding areas. She went to UCLA to pursue an M.A. in Folklore and Mythology, which she was awarded with in 1971. While there, she met her future husband, Steven J. Zibelman, a musician who is credited as a sound- or cameraman on some of her films. Sherman participated in UCLA’s Ethnographic Film Program, which gave her access to equipment and an editing room. She took a class with filmmaker Jorge Preloran and made her first film, the first ever made by an academically-trained folklorist, Tales of the Supernatural, in 1970. Sherman went to Indiana University for her PhD in Folklore; her dissertation, directed by Richard Dorson, was titled, “The Folkloric Film: The Relevance of Film for Understanding Folkloric Events” (1978).

From her appointment as Assistant Professor of English and Folklore in 1976, Sherman spent her career at the University of Oregon. From 1985 through 2006, she served as Director of both the Folklore Program and the Randall V. Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore.

The subjects of Sherman’s teaching, her books, and her films all overlap and reinforce each other. Her books include Chainsaw Sculptor (1995), Documenting Ourselves (1998, 2006), and Folklore/Cinema: Popular Film as Vernacular Culture (co-edited with Mikel J. Koven, 2007). She published articles on a variety of subjects including folklore pedagogy, reflections on the subjects of her own and other people’s films, and folklore in popular culture such as video games, films, and hip-hop music.

Sherman’s films and videos include Kathleen Ware, Quiltmaker (1979), Passover: A Celebration (1981), Spirits in the Wood (1991), Kid Shoes (2001), and Whatever Happened to Zulay (2012). Sherman was influential (along with Tom Davenport and Daniel Patterson) in establishing the Folkstreams website, “a national preserve of documentary films about roots cultures.”

Tangren Alexander papers, Coll 746

Tangren Alexander (1940-2021) was a lesbian feminist philosopher, professor, writer, and doll photographer. She attended several colleges and received a B.A. in Mathematics, an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Oregon, and became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Oregon in 1975. She was a professor of philosophy at Southern Oregon University from 1974 to 2006, where she taught and developed a variety of courses, including cross-disciplinary courses in women’s studies, such as Feminism & Philosophy and Women & Ethics.

In 1976, Alexander came out as a lesbian and began a prolific writing career. She produced a voluminous amount of writing in a variety of forms, both published and unpublished. Her writing has been published in Teaching Philosophy; Hypatia: The Journal of Feminist Philosophy; Sinister Wisdom; WomanSpirit Magazine; The Encyclopedia of Women in World History; and Adventures in Lesbian Philosophy. Under the pseudonym “Pearl Time’sChild,” she was the author of short stories in several of Tee Corrine’s erotic anthologies.

Alexander was active in the lesbian land movement community and the creative women’s community in Southern Oregon. She was a co-founding member of the Southern Oregon Women Writers’ Group, Gourmet Eating Society, and Chorus, which continues to this day.

Having been interested in dolls her entire life, Alexander spent much of her later years photographing dolls and using doll photography to portray feminist stories.

NAACP Portland branch records, Coll 295

Founded on February 12, 1909 by W.E.B. Du Bois and others, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) works to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

Portland’s N.A.A.C.P. branch #1120 was originally founded in 1914 with Dr. J.N. Merriman as its first president and Beatrice Morrow Cannady, editor of African Americannewspaper The Advocate, as its first secretary. The organization successfully fought to repeal Oregon’s exclusion laws, which were abolished in 1926 and 1927; established African Americans in unions; and opposed civic housing policies that excluded African Americans. Other major projects of the Portland branch include desegregation of Portland schools, implementation of Civil Rights legislation, voter registration and education (particularly after the voting age was lowered to 18), and legal redress for those involved in cases of discrimination, particularly in the area of housing and labor.

The Portland NAACP Branch is the oldest continuously chartered branch west of the Mississippi.

Cheryl Reed collection of Paul Ollswang comics, Coll 938

Paul Ollswang (1945-1996) was American underground cartoonist, writer, organizer, radio host, and musician, whose primary working years were spent in Eugene, Oregon. As a cartoonist, he drew for Oregon Cycling and Rain Magazine. He drew the alternative comic book ‘Dreams of a Dog’ at Rip Off Press in 1990. He also contributed to Grateful Dead Comix and created ‘Memories of Doofer’ for Graphic Story Monthly.

Marie J. Andrews photograph albums, Coll 939

Marie J. Andrews was a University of Oregon alumna. The collection includes three photo albums created by Marie J. Andrews depicting University of Oregon student class trips to Hawaii and Alaska on cruise ships, as well as University of Oregon buildings. Materials date 1930-31.

David Ensminger punk flyer collection, Coll 937

David A. Ensminger is a college instructor and the author of books covering both American roots music and punk rock history. The collection includes American punk rock concert flyers. Many flyers may be later reproductions, not original flyers.

Mills Archive of Northwest Folklore student fieldwork collections, UA 416

The Randall V. Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore was a repository of fieldwork collections and research materials on folklife in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest that functioned as part of the University of Oregon (UO) Folklore and Public Culture Program. Established by the English department in 1966, the repository functioned under the leadership of Director of Folklore and Ethnic Studies, Barre Toelken and was named in memory of UO professor, scholar, and author Randall V. Mills, whose bequest of books and photographs on regional history and folklore were its first acquisitions.

This collection represents the largest and most significant collection assembled and maintained by Archives, the student folklore fieldwork collections. The content of this collection, over 3,000 individual student folklore fieldwork projects, was primarily created by undergraduate University of Oregon students as part of their coursework in UO folklore classes.

Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore collection of stone rubbings, UA 420

This collection inlcudes original stone rubbings (chalk or charcoal on paper) made from gravestones by unknown creators. Some may have been created by Barre Toelken.

Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore reference files, UA 421

The Randall V. Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore was a repository of fieldwork collections and research materials on folklife in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Materials include two artificial reference and research topical files assembled and maintained by the Randall V. Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore, a file on sasquatch and a file on xeroxlore.

Linda Long, our Curator of Manuscripts, has put together a new exhibit highlighting the many feminist-focused manuscript collections at Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA). The materials include:

Feminist science fiction

Women writers who explore gender and sexuality in their writings abound at SCUA. Featured materials in the exhibit include the first draft of Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, as well as drafts of Joanna Russ’ The Female Man, James Tiptree, Jr.’s The Women Men Don’t See, and Sally Gearhart’s The Wanderground.

Feminist language and communication

Today, it can be strange to see the pronoun “he” and the noun “man” used as generic defaults in formal writings. SCUA is home the papers of scholars and writers who made this change happen over the past forty or so years, including those of Casey Miller and Kate Swift, co-authors of Words and Women and The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing. At the Library, we are know that it really is okay to say, “Staff the reference desk” instead of “Man the reference desk.”

Lesbian separatist lands in Oregon

Women seeking to escape the patriarchy established communes and collectives in southern Oregon to live freely among themselves.

Tee Corinne’s photography

In the 1970s, lesbian writer and artist Tee Corinne challenged the art establishment with her explicit images of women’s bodies and lesbian sexuality.

Oregon Women’s Political History Collections

Women working in the Oregon Women’s Political Caucus taught women how to run successful political campaigns, resulting in a 400% increase in the number of women elected into the Oregon Legislative Assembly over a twenty-year period in the 1970s and 1980s.

Jane Grant Papers

Grant, the cofounder of The New Yorker with her husband Harold Ross, was a lifelong feminist and worked to help women keep their own last names after marriage. Some of you reading this probably know that Grant’s second husband, William Harris, donated Grant’s Papers and 3.5 million dollars to endow the University of Oregon Center for the Study of Women in Society in the 1980s.

The feminist science fiction collections, the Oregon lesbian land collections and Tee Corinne Papers in our repository account for a very high percentage of researchers who access these collections in-person in our reading room annually.

Wondering what all the fuss is about? Come on up to take a look and learn more about these valuable collections.

SCUA is currently open Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 4pm. When fall quarter starts, we’ll also be open on Mondays from 10am to 4pm.

Come and take a look!