25 July

For my last day working in the Archives, I had a lot of sweets. I also made a last document explaining what I've done and what needs to be done with the campus photographs, and I then continued working on the campus photographs through to ~WP 0741.

Thank you everyone for this summer - I've learned so much and you've all been so incredibly kind. It really was a great experience.

24 July

I continued working on the Campus Photograph cross-referencing today - I finished box 4 and brought boxes 1-4 back to the archives. I am now almost done with box 5 at approx WP 0608. There have been a few hiccups in the process, like loose or unscanned photos, but I am dealing with them systematically so my edits should be easy to follow. I can explain them best in person with the files during tomorrow's meeting - for my last day working in the Archives! :( 

See you all tomorrow!

23 July

Today, I returned to the campus photographs and got through to WP 0500. This means that I am close to done with Box 4 and will have to make another trip up into archives to return the first four and pick up the next four boxes!

20 July

I returned to labeling the folders and photos of the Campus Photograph Collection - I am now at WP 0320. I have started coming across some problems, such as near copies of photos that were never scanned and so they now have to be scanned and then filed in new folders under new names. However, I am keeping notes on these "near copies" that refer back to their "originals." For example, the folder for WP 0293 had three photos, two of which were in fact WP 0293, but one of which looked like but was different from WP 0293. Because it needs to be scanned and then can't be held in the WP 0293 folder, the extra photo has been renamed WP 2612, the very last photo in the Collection. 

19 July

I started going through the boxes of the campus photographs today and marking the folders and photos with the correct numbers. So far, I have done WP 0001 - WP 0174. There are a few folders that I have kept outside of the boxes in order to follow up or do more work. Each of these folders holds a note that explains my decision to pull it. 

18 July

I finished working on Paulus and Campus Photographs today. To finish, I edited the online subject titles of the Paulus Collection and the Postcard Collection so that the subjects matched those that I developed for the Campus Photographs. I then attempted to discover whether or not I could find the Campus Photograph photos that are listed but not included in the digital database, but as they are not in order or labelled correctly in the archives, this project would take much longer than I will be working here. So I have not returned to scanning yearbooks, starting with 1916.

17 July

I spent today with my several lists for the campus collection. I read through some documents about the President's residences, focusing on the Duniway House and the Lincoln Street/Bishop Home. Then I went up into archives with Rose Marie and we got her copy of DACS so that I could standardize the names of people - so that rather than "Hon. Ailshie, James F.", I wrote "Ailshie, James F., Hon." Basically, I put all of the surnames after the full name and a comma. Then, I applied the changes to the googledoc excel sheet.

Tomorrow, I need to begin editing a section of the Paulus collection. I told Sara earlier that I needed to apply the building subject titles that I developed for the Campus Collection to the Paulus Collection, and so I went to work applying them to the slides that have not been uploaded, starting at PLS90B186. My attempt was unnecessary, though, because all of the photos past PLS90B186 are portraits (so there are no buildings and, therefore, no building subject titles to add). So my task tomorrow is to edit the subjects for the slides that have already been uploaded.

16 July

I spent today working on a series of research projects. The biggest one was my list of building construction dates, which I have almost completed with the help of Mary, Rose Marie, Roger Hull, and Barby Dressler, who I have been emailing for TIU information. I talked with Dick Breen in the Law Library earlier and he gave me a lot of info on the Collins Legal Center and Gatke Hall. I also visited the Admissions office and asked Marty (?) at the front desk about the dates of construction for Chi Omega->W.I.S.H. / (East Side)->Admissions. She is going to ask around the office tomorrow, as a couple of older employees were not there today.

At the end of my shift, I spent about a half hour with the yearbooks, skimming the "Living Orgs" sections to see the transformation of different houses between greek and regular housing, focusing on Alpha Phi, Chi Omega, Kappa Sigma, Phi Delt, and Beta, as those are the ones that have moved the most. I have found all I need on Alpha Phi->Shepard, but not Chi Omega, Kappa, or Beta - and Phi Delt is the really confusing one. The rest of this small project should not take very long.

13 July

I reviewed a good portion of the Campus Photographs today, identifying the more difficult faces and buildings. I also did a once-over of the Paulus collection to make sure that nothing was out of the ordinary, and I edited a couple sheets so that they all follow the same format. Additionally, I edited the list of Buildings that I have up on the googledocs and I started a new document that will have the Building names but will combine them with dates and show the progression of the buildings as they have come to be known by other names (also accompanied by dates). Finally, I wrote an architectural history of Waller Hall, which is available as a googledoc.

12 July

I finished my first round of the Campus Photos today. However, it is not finished - the slides that I have to return to require more research, or they are numbered and described, but not in the database yet, so I will have to scan them.

After I finished the first round before lunch, I returned to do research on Waller Hall. After reading sections of the Gatke and Gregg Chronicles, I then started building a history of Waller in the attempt to 1) discover when the Waller did or did not have a southern elevation and 2) find out when the 2nd Waller, which had the Mansard Roof, did or did not have an ugly tower on top of it. In order to build this history, I am going through and cross-referencing the dates and photos of Waller that are in the campus photographs collection. Once I've finished doing that, I will look through the yearbooks and bulletins as well to get more precise dates and explanations.

11 July

I returned to the Campus Photographs again, first by focusing on the photos of 1980s faculty and then by looking through some sports photos, dormitory photos, and then the Mill Stream and finally the sesquicentennial. I was still not able to identify all of the 1980s faculty, but I got a good half of them and they seem to be going in a pseud-alphabetical order, so I'll return to the attempt tomorrow. I also would like to look through some Collegians from 1992 so as to know whether there was a sesquicentennial ball - and if so, who was there, and was it in the Capitol Building? I believe that it is the sesquicentennial ball, mostly because Hudson is there and so is the Waller Hall cake that was made for the anniversary.

10 July

I continued working on the Campus Photographs today, this time getting to approx ~ WP2280. After attempting to discover who a guest speaker was, I eventually had to give up my search - I believe that she was either a professor here or a guest speaker invited by the (ca1970s) Minority Student Union, as several members of that group are seen with her. I then continued with my regular process until I ran across a large number of photographs of faculty from the mid-80s. I spent a lot of time identifying these faculty, and I still have not been able to finish. The difficulty is that the Walllulahs printed after the mid-70s tended to avoid standard photos of faculty - instead, they grouped faculty by department, or allowed them to be in conversation with each other (and therefore have their backs to the camera). In many cases, faculty are listed but not shown. I will return to this research tomorrow morning.

9 July

I began today by writing some more captions, but I had the thought that my job may get easier by looking at the original photos kept in archives. Mary helped me get the photos and we pulled them out and I realized that they were not in any sort of helpful order - they are organized by subject, whereas I had hoped they would be organized by file number. I will be returning to these boxes once I finish labeling the photos in the digital database. The hope is that I will be familiar, or at least recognize, every photo in the collection so that I can look at the original photo and more quickly find it's digital copy. This will allow me to begin labeling and ordering the original copies so as to mirror the digital database. But first things first! I measured the photographs and negatives and sent those measurements to Mary so that we could order appropriately sized sleeves to store them all in!

Then I returned to making/editing captions. In the afternoon, I had a very nice visit with Roger Hull, who helped me to identify Art and Art History alumni, professors and patrons from a collection of photos of the 1991 Art Reunion that happened in concert with WU's sesquicentennial. He was able to I.D. all but a few people, so I spent the rest of the day updating the excel sheet to match the notes from our conversation. I will continue this portion tomorrow (starting with WP 1735 and going to 1750). 

In addition to this project, there is the issue of the Theatre Reunion, which was also done in concert with the sesquicentennial. I will return Chris Harris' email tomorrow - he responded to say that he will be able to help I.D. individuals, places, awards, etc after he returns from England on July 25th. I may not be able to meet with him in person, as the 25th or 26th may be my last day working in the Archives, but I will be sure to leave notes for the meeting to make it go as smoothly as possible.

6 July

I returned to the Campus Photograph again today - I'm almost done with my first run of the collection! Once I finish, I'll have to go back through and visit the highlighted portions of the excel sheet (red if missing from digital database, purple if in need of more research). 

Today, I had to fix up what I could not do yesterday, as we lost the campus wireless network around noon. So I uploaded the information that I collected offline yesterday, which took quite a while. I am now at about WP 2030. Among the photos that I researched today were a series showing President Pelton's inauguration and a series showing students hanging out on the Mill Stream during the 80s, before the Mill Stream was "remodeled." 

I also emailed around for some help - Shanel told me that Kylie Pine, who works at the Heritage Center, would be able to help me to identify some Greek pillars that used to stand to the east of the University Library (now Smullin Hall). The pillars stood in a semi-circle and seemed to serve an arena-like purpose, so I have seen photos of May Day Queens and mini outside theatre performances in the semi-circle.

3 July

Today, I got to WP ~1780 in the Campus Photograph Collection. I did quite a lot more research today, much of it with the 1991 Wallulah because I discovered a huge series of photos of the sesquicentennial celebrations. I still have not seen the end of this series, as there were apparently quite a lot of activities that year. I also did some research by skimming through the "Chronicles of Willamette," as well as emailing people across campus. Cheryl Todd in Residence Life gave me a detailed history of Northwood and Cascadia Halls and I also emailed Roger Hull to ask about the 1991 Art Reunion and Chris Harris about the 1991 Theatre Reunion. Hopefully they will respond soon!

2 July

Right back to Campus Photographs! I am now at approximately WP 1580, in the midst of a very long series of photos of Delta Gamma and Pi Phi students in the Sesquicentennial parade. Some of my research for today included looking up a few senior men in the class of 1933, finding out the stories behind a few more pioneers who accompanied Jason Lee, transcribing a letter by an early missionary describing the condition of Oregon and asking for someone (a potential bride?) to sail over soon, and looking up the origins of some photos from the Holocaust (particularly the one that depicts a group of Jews on a street corner in Lithuania). Why do we have those last ones? No idea.