By Finding aid prepared by Elizabeth Nielsen.
Title: Roy M. Cooley Photograph Album, 1907-1911
ID: P 302
Primary Creator: Cooley, Roy M.
Extent: 0.15 cubic feet. More info below.
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The Roy M. Cooley Photograph Album consists of photographic postcards and snapshots assembled by Cooley documenting his student years at Oregon Agricultural College. The images include photographs of Cooley with his fellow students in the Chintimini Club; athletics; student activities; and campus views. Several images of Cooley and other male students in their dormitory room, smoking pipes, playing cards, and participating in hazing activities are included in the album; some of these images were probably taken in Cauthorn Hall, the men's dormitory (now Fairbanks Hall). The athletics photographs depict baseball, basketball, football, track, and wrestling athletes, teams, and events. Various student activities are documented in the album, including the Soph-Fresh bag picnic, construction of the rook bonfire, the Domestic Science band, and military training. Postcard prints of campus buildings and views are also represented; of special note among these is the commencement ceremony in the new Armory (now McAlexander Fieldhouse) and the interior of the dairy barn.
The album also includes images of the Oregon State Fair, Crescent City (California), Ashland, and the region near Kerby, Oregon. Some of the postcards were sent to Cooley and include messages to him.
A portrait photograph of Cooley and a full-length photograph of Fay Kitchin are also part of the collection.
Roy Max Cooley attended Oregon Agricultural College for two academic years. In 1909/1910, he was a first-year student in the Secondary Course and in 1910/1911 he was a freshman in agriculture. The Secondary Course was a preparatory curriculum for students who had completed the equivalent of the 8th grade from locations in Oregon without a public high school.
Fay Kitchin enrolled at Oregon Agricultural College in February 1910 as an optional student. She continued in the 1910/1911 academic year and withdrew during the second semester of that year. Kitchin had graduated from Roseburg High School.
Cooley and Kitchin married in Roseburg, Oregon, in 1912. They lived on the family ranch near Chetco until the Depression, when they moved to North Hollywood, California. Fay Cooley died in 1971; Roy Cooley died in 1977.
More Extent Information: 119 photographs; 1 oversize box
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: The album was donated to the Special Collections & Archives Research Center in 2014 by Cooley's granddaughter, Amanda Cooley Arroyo.
Related Materials: The Walter R. Baker Photographs (P 018), James G. Arbuthnot Photograph Collection (P 191), and the Fred Deininger Luse Photograph Album (P 228) include images of Oregon Agricultural College students during the years around 1910. There are many other collections in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center that document this time period at Oregon State.
Preferred Citation: Roy M. Cooley Photograph Album (P 302), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Cooley, Roy M.
College sports--Oregon--Corvallis.
College students--Oregon--Corvallis.
Cooley, Roy M.
Military education--Oregon--Corvallis.
Oregon Agricultural College--Students.
Student activities--Oregon--Corvallis.
University History
Photographic postcards.
Photographic prints.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.