Gifford Collection Documentary Materials, 1897-1996

Gifford family.
Fred Archer School of Photography (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Gifford, Ben L.
Gifford, Benjamin A.
Gifford, Ralph I.
Gifford, Wanda.

8 boxes, including 3 oversize boxes

The Gifford Family is considered Oregon's first family of photography. Beginning in 1888, when Benjamin A. Gifford emigrated to Portland from Kansas, they began a photographic tradition that lasted into the 1950s and spanned three generations. Benjamin A. Gifford worked as photographer in Portland and The Dalles, Oregon, from the late 1880s until about 1920, when his son Ralph took over his studio in Portland. In 1936, Ralph became the first photographer of the newly established Travel and Information Department of the Oregon State Highway Department, a position he held until his death in 1947. After her husband's death, Wanda Muir Gifford took over the family's photography business and continued to take and sell photographs through the mid-1950s. Ben L. Gifford, the son of Ralph I. and Wanda Gifford, joined his mother in the family's business in early 1950s and also worked for a Salem photography studio from 1951 until 1955. Three generations of Gifford photography began to come to a close when Ben took an engineering job with the State Highway Commission in 1955.

The Gifford Collection Documentary Materials are arranged in 9 series: I. Gifford Family Biographical Information, 1897-1996; II. Business Records, 1926-1957; III. Fred Archer School of Photography Information Booklet, circa 1950; IV. Publications with Gifford Photographs, 1902-1987; V. Technical Manuals and Equipment Catalogs, circa 1937 - circa 1953; VI. Signs, circa 1940; VII. Oil Portrait of Ralph I. Gifford, circa 1940; VIII. Ephemera, circa 1905 - 1964; and IX. Artifacts, circa 1936-1947.