Just in the nick of time, on a sunny Friday afternoon, on the last day of May, we finished the last touches on our newest exhibit in the 5th floor gallery foyer.

“Benjamin A. Gifford: Chronicler of Oregon’s Natural Beauty” celebrates the works of Benjamin Gifford, one of Oregon’s most talented and prolific photographers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Full of artifacts and fabulous photos, this is an exhibit sure to please!

From the time he opened his first studio in Portland in 1891 until he retired from photography in August 1919, Gifford took more than 10,000 photographs of Oregon landscapes – and likely took thousands of studio portraits as well. In addition to his picture taking talent, he was also a pioneer in the use of photographic technology and was widely published.

This exhibit includes some well-known photographs, such as the iconic “Sunset on the Columbia,” but the focus is on items that very few – beyond Gifford himself – have ever seen. Drawn from the more than 600 glass negatives the Gifford Family retained when the bulk of Benjamin Gifford’s work was sold to Sawyer’s Scenic Photos, these items show his range and skill, but also reveal a gift for capturing a kind of distinctive beauty in the people and places he photographed.

The Sawyer’s Scenic Photos are now part of the Oregon History Society’s collection, but in 1986 Gifford’s grandson Ben L. and his wife Beth donated the 600 glass negatives retained by the family  to OSU’s Horner Museum. That donation was accompanied by an extensive collection of photographs taken by Gifford’s son Ralph, his wife Wanda, and Ben L. After the museum closed in 1995, the Gifford Collection was transferred to the University Archives, now a component of the OSU Libraries’ Special Collections & Archives Research Center.

The OSU Libraries recently scanned the glass negatives, revealing an astonishing collection of scenic views, studio portraits, and images of Gifford Family members. We are happy to share a selection of those images with you.

The exhibit is open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the entrance foyer of the Special Collections & Archives Research Center on the 5th floor of the Valley Library. The exhibit runs from June 3rd through September 30th — you can also see exhibit photos the Flickr set if you can’t make it.

Let this exhibit take you on a trip through our beautiful state!

The OSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives Research Center is pleased to announce the release of a complete finding aid for the papers of Charter Heslep, a newsman and member of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Charter Heslep, in profession and personality, is best examined through his complex and sometimes contradictory relationship with information. As a broadcast journalist, censor, ghostwriter, and government employee–Heslep was a conduit through which information flowed and, in some cases, was dammed. He began his career as a newsman in 1929 at the Washington Daily News and in 1941 was appointed night news editor for NBC. During World War II, Heslep served as chief radio censor for the Broadcasting Division of the Office of Censorship where he oversaw the filtering of wartime news as it passed to the public. After the war’s end, Heslep returned to commercial broadcasting, this time at the Mutual Broadcasting Company. In 1949, he joined the Atomic Energy Commission as Assistant to the Director where was asked to apply his talents to the problem of nuclear energy. In his position at the AEC, Charter facilitated information sharing among research and policy organizations, wrote speeches for public officials including Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and assisted in communicating the role of atomic energy—both peaceful and military—to the American public.

Among his many duties at the AEC, Heslep was charged with overseeing the broadcasting of several nuclear weapons tests. Many of the materials in the Heslep Papers—including correspondence, photographs, and ephemera—date from these assignments. Most notably, a series of letters between Heslep and his wife between 1950 and 1957 describe his participation in Operations Tumbler-Snapper, Upshot-Knothole, and Redwing—early nuclear tests staged at the Nevada Test Site and the Pacific Proving Grounds.

It is in this correspondence that Heslep’s talents as a storyteller shine through. His letters, written in a tone approaching wonderment, detail the almost unsettling cleanliness of Camp Mercury, the strange sites of the Marshall Islands, the complexities of broadcasting across the Nevada desert, and the tenseness of a nuclear bomb test. Letters to his children express a similar exuberance at an impromptu military airshow seen from the USS McKinley or the hermit crab races held by bored sailors on Kwajalein. Moreover, his accounts of life and work among scientists and military brass are punctuated by moments of real excitement. In May 1956, he began a series of letters chronicling the USS McKinley’s search for the pilot of a lost observer plane. He wrote,

Tonight, as never before in my life, I have an idea how big an ocean is, especially the Pacific Ocean. Because, somewhere in the thousands of square miles of dark blue water, a man may be fighting for his life.

Only days later, he witnessed the first airdrop of a thermonuclear weapon, describing it “as if a red hot Washington Monument was being thrust upward into an already fiery sky.”

The personal nature of his family correspondence is complimented by examples of Heslep’s professional interactions with the public. Included in the collection are speeches he authored on behalf of the AEC such as “Radio’s Role in Defense” and “Some Aspects of the Impact of the Nuclear Age in the United States.”  Others like “Ghosting: A Necessity, Not a Sin” defend Heslep’s own work and the sometimes circuitous route information takes.

The Charter Heslep Papers are an incredible resource for scholars interested in nuclear history and policy, history of journalism, the work of the Atomic Energy Commission, and the history of information sharing between the U.S. government and the American public.

Additional related materials can be found on our web site  in the History of Atomic Energy Collection, the Barton C. Hacker Papers, the Barton C. and Sally L. Hacker Nuclear Affairs Collection, and the Linus and Ava Helen Pauling Papers.

Planning your weekend? Join us for walking tour of campus on Mothers Day (May 12) at 2 p.m!

As a historic district, with more than 80 contributing structures and the only Oregon Campus listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it’s the perfect place for a Sunday stroll. Larry Landis, the Director of OSU’s Special Collections & Archives, will share the history of campus structures, as well as early Olmsted and Taylor campus plans, quads, and view sheds. The group will meet on the east side of Benton Hall, 14th St near Monroe. The tour limited to 20 persons, so please call (541) 737-0540 for reservations.

Can’t make it on Sunday but still interested in touring campus? Use BeaverTracks, our interactive mobile guide and walking tour of OSU’s historical locations.

You can also explore campus through several Flickr sets — from ghost tours to historic buildings… There’s something below for everyone.

• Historic Building Tour (2008)
• Bennes Buildings
• Boo! Ghost Tour 2008
• 2008 Library In-service

Those who know our student worker Mike DiCianna know that he LOVES war-related archival material and history! He is working on the WWII news maps (MAPS Newsmap) collection and has written this post to get you as excited about this “Must-See” assortments of WWII news map posters.

We have rediscovered an important collection of World War Two history in the OSU Special Collections and Archive Research Center repositories. The WWII News maps (MAPS News map) collection is a window into how the U.S. Army kept us informed about the progress of the war in “real time”. These huge 3 X 4′ posters were published by the U.S. Army Information Branch weekly from 1942 until 1946 to inform and motivate American military personnel. The two-sided news maps include maps depicting the previous week’s events in the war as well as brief news items, photographs, and motivational graphics.

The collection includes 224 sheets of graphics, maps, and timely news about the United States involvement in the worldwide conflict. The news maps include both world maps and maps of local areas. Some provide cues for recognizing tanks, ships, and planes; information about enemy organization, equipment, and uniform insignia; highlights of service achievement; or graphics intended to inspire and motivate military personnel. After mid-1945, the news maps became more like promotional posters and you’ll see that the graphics and text are decidedly designed to promote the Army’s position, and are not exactly propaganda, but…

The posters were issued to military bases around the country, as well as governmental offices (such as congressional and senate). Our collection likely has its roots in the presence of both the ROTC and the Army Specialized Training Corps units at Oregon State College during WWII. One can visualize these posters being viewed by cadets and students during the dark days of WWII on the OSC campus. We were, after all, considered to be “the West Point of the West.”

• Can you find more accurate history of WWII? Sure, but the value of these in perspective, point-of-view, and audience is great!
• Can all these posters be viewed online? Yes, on the UNT Digital Library site.

However, nothing can replace being in the physical presence of these important WWII documents. This collection must be experienced in-person to really get the feel of what it was like to follow the progress of the war while on campus. This collection is a must-see for researchers and WWII historians.

The finding aid is live and you can find it several ways — take your pick!

• http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/newsmap/index.html
• http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv14511
• http://oasis.oregonstate.edu/record=b3215634~S13