Tagged: oregon history

New Finding Aid | Oregon Trail Commemoration Photographs

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce an updated finding aid published for the Oregon Trail Commemoration Photographs (PH200_050). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

This collection documents the commemoration of the Oregon Trail Monument in Emigrant Springs Oregon in July of 1923. The celebration included a parade, festival and a speech given by President Warren G. Harding. This collection is significant as it contains photographs of President Harding during his final speaking tour, taken only a month before his untimely death on August 2, 1923.

President Warren Harding at commemoration eveent
[Oregon Trail Commemoration Photographs, PH200_050_3431, Box 1, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.]

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New Finding Aid | Muybridge photographs of the Modoc War

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a new finding aid published for the Muybridge photographs of the Modoc War (PH200_217). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

Warm Spring Indian scouts
[Warm Spring Indian scouts, Muybridge photographs of the Modoc War, PH200_217_2599, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.]
Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) is most famous for his work of photographing a horse in motion, and settling the debate of whether or not a horse lifts all four feet off the ground while trotting.

This collection documents the Modoc War of 1872–1873, from the perspective of the U.S. Army. Muybridge was commissioned by the United States Army to photograph the Modoc conflict taking place in Oregon and Northern California. The collection contains 15 stereoscopic photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge.  Muybridge photographed U.S. soldiers, Native American soldiers and warriors, U.S. Army encampments, and the battle field of the lava beds.

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Collection Highlight: Vanport City, Oregon Photo Albums

Vanport, Oregon was a wartime public housing project built to shelter Kaiser Shipyard employees working in Portland and Vancouver, Washington. The city was destroyed in May 1948 when a 200-foot section of the dike holding back the Columbia River collapsed during a flood, killing 15 and leaving its population of largely African-American inhabitants homeless.

Two photo albums regarding the history of Vanport have recently been made available in Special Collections and University Archives. The Vanport, Oregon construction photograph album (PH203_064) and the Vanport, Oregon flood photograph album (PH203_025) document the city before and after the disaster.

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