Friday, January 4, 2008

More News from November

More on the Featured Collection from the Oregon Historical Society Research Library

Pack Your Bags!

Alaska is rich with cultural resources! Amazing heritage centers, beautiful museums, interesting archival collections. Get ready for the NWA Conference and take some time to explore their offerings. Here are a few gems I came across:

News from the State Archives of Alaska

  • Help the State Archives of Alaska identify their mystery photos! Visit this page to view unidentified images from the State Archives.

News from the Alaska Native Language Center Archive

News from Owyhee County Historical Society

Not All News is New News! "Historical" News from Idaho

Two interesting online collections worth exploring:

News from the Montana Historical Society

  • To learn more about the Montana Public Service Commission records, see the NWDA finding aid.
  • The finding aid for the Montana Federation of Labor and AFL-CIO collection can be found on the NWDA site.
  • More on the New Deal: For a nice book of historical photographs selected from the Farm Security Administration Collection at the Library of Congress, see Hope in Hard Times: New Deal Photographs of Montana, 1936-1942, by Mary Murphy. Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee, John Vachon, and Marion Post Wolcott became some of the United States' best-known photographers through their pictures of Depression-era America. In the 1930s and 1940s, these four Farm Security Administration photographers were sent to Montana to document the effects of the Depression on the state. They captured the many facets of the Depression in Montana: rural and urban, agricultural and industrial, work and play, and hard times and the promise of a brighter future. the photographs in Hope in Hard Times offer a look at life in Montana in the years preceding the United States' entry into World War II.
  • To learn more about Harry Billings, see The University of Montana School of Journalism’s Montana Newspaper Hall of Fame page.

News from Rocky Mountain College Archives

News from Oregon State University Archives

F.A Gilfillan Papers, 1909-1984

  • For more information about Gilfillan’s career as an Oregon State College, visit the President's Gallery.
  • For more information about Gilfillan, see A.L. Strand’s Remarks made at the banquet honoring Dean and Mrs. Gilfillan, May 9, 1962, MU Ballroom, OSU. LD4342.8 .S7
  • To learn about Gilfillan’s views on space biology, see this 1964 piece, aptly titled Space biology, from the 1963 Biology Colloquium held at OSU. QH301 .B577 1963
  • Gilfillan served in the Army chemical warfare department. For more information about the 89th Infantry Division of WWII look here.

Keep Oregon Green Association Records, 1945-1957

Florence L. Kohlhagen Notebook, 1923

Village Improvement Society Minutes, 1904-1911

News from the City of Seattle Archives

Related Materials and Additional Collections Related to the New Online Exhibit: “Pike Place Market Centennial”

  • Records relating to the Market can be found in various records series in the Seattle Municipal Archives. These include the records of City Council members, Mayors, the Engineering Department, and the Department of Community Development.
  • Finding aids related to the Pike Place Market can be found on the NWDA. Collections include the Guide to the Department of Community Development's Pike Place Market Records, 1894-1990; Guide to the Pike Place Market Visual Images Collection, 1894-1984; Guide to the Pike Place Market Historical District Records, 1971-1989.
  • The Pike Place Market Bibliography, found by clicking this link, is another excellent source of information.
  • Additional materials relating to the Pike Place Market urban renewal project can be found in two collections in the Manuscripts & University Archives division of the University Libraries at the University of Washington. Specifically, look to the Victor Steinbrueck Papers, particularly the first accession; this collection documents his role in organizing the Friends of the Market, as well as his leadership of the "save the market" ballot initiative. Another useful collection is the Friends of the Market Records, donated by the organization, which documents this grass roots movement's activities in the struggle to preserve the Market.

News from WSU Pullman

Not New, but Noteworthy: Wallis and Marilyn Kimble Northwest History Database

The core of the Northwest History Database is composed of roughly 40,000 newspaper clippings from the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Clippings Collection. Article topics cover Native Americans, Pacific Northwest environmental concerns, including reclamation, mining, dam site construction, and other issues. Selected articles have been digitized and can be searched in the online collection.

These articles were collected and organized in the 1930's and 40's by dedicated historians working for the Works Progress Administration. The office was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to provide work and relief to an impoverished economy; before it was closed in 1943, it was one of the largest employers in the country and in most individual states.

The collection describes, in vivid details, a period of rapid growth and development in the Pacific Northwest. During the early part of the 20th century, the Pacific Northwest experienced an influx of inhabitants and rapid development in the area; settlers continued to arrive, when farm land was limited and available water supply was in short supply. In addition to economic and environmental issues, the collection documents the profound impact the settlers had on the indigenous Native American population.

The database also includes additional primary source material; specifically, federal and state documents, laws, and other source material that provides background for about the stories found in the newspaper clippings, including government reports, legal documents, and maps pertaining to the settlement and development of the region.

Funding for the creation and construction of this project was made in large part by the generous donations from WSU Alumni Wallis and Marilyn Kimble.

News About a Great Resource

News from Our Neighbors to the North

  • The "Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History" project provides engaging, high-quality materials to schools and universities for the teaching of historical methods and Canadian History. The project, based at the University of Victoria, the Université de Sherbrooke and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, has created a series of instructional websites based on the premise that students can be drawn into Canadian history and archival research through the enticement of solving historical cold crimes. All the material is provided free as a public service.

News About a Great Read: Zhang article in D-Lib Magazine