Gerald W. Williams Stereoscopic Photograph Collection, 1870-1943

Collection Overview

Title: Gerald W. Williams Stereoscopic Photograph Collection, 1870-1943

Predominant Dates: 1890-1910

ID: P 327

Primary Creator: Williams, Gerald W.

Extent: 1.2 cubic feet. More info below.

Arrangement:

This collection consists of 39 series: Series 1: Columbia River; Series 2: Crater Lake, Oregon; Series 3: Eastern Oregon; Series 4: General Oregon; Series 5: McKenzie River, Oregon; Series 6: Mt. Hood, Oregon; Series 7: Mt. Jefferson ANFA Camping Trip, 1895 (2010:084); Series 8: Oregon Coast; Series 9: Oregon - Lake Pamelia; Series 10: Portland, Oregon; Series 11: Rogue River to Crater Lake National Park, Oregon; Series 12: Santiam River and Mt. Jefferson, Oregon; Series 13: Umpqua River, Oregon; Series 14: Willamette River and Valley, Oregon; Series 15: Alaska; Series 16: Arizona; Series 17: California; Series 18: Colorado; Series 19: Idaho; Series 20: Montana and Glacier National Park; Series 21: Utah; Series 22: Washington State - General; Series 23: Mt. Rainer National Park, Washington; Series 24: Mt. Tacoma, Washington; Series 25: Seattle, Washington; Series 26: Walla Walla, Washington; Series 27: Yellowstone - Wyoming; Series 28: Washington D.C.; Series 29: East Coast; Series 30: U.S. Presidents; Series 31: General Americana; Series 32: Spanish-American War; Series 33: World War I; Series 34: Canada; Series 35: China; Series 36: Egypt; Series 37: India; Series 38: Japan; Series 39: Russia.

The item descriptions include, when available, the stereoscopic photograph series name, name of the photographer or studio, and photograph numbers assigned by the producers. Duplicate stereoscopic images occur in many of the series and are numbered to distinguish the titles.

Languages of Materials: English [eng]

Abstract

The Gerald W. Williams Stereoscopic Photograph Collection is comprised of stereoscopic photographs collected by former U.S. Forest Service historian Gerald Williams. The photographs depict natural and scenic landmarks, river basins, communities, forestry and logging. Geographic locations featured in the collection include Oregon, Washington State, other western states, Washington D.C., the East Coast and other countries. Other topics covered include U.S. Presidents, general Americana, the Spanish American War and World War I.

The contents of Box 01, Series 1 through Series 6, have been digitized and are available upon request.

Scope and Content Notes

The Gerald W. Williams Stereoscopic Photograph Collection consists of 504 b/w and 5 color lithograph stereoscopic images. All are mounted. Many of the photographs are undated. They were acquired and compiled by Williams in the course of his work as a Forest Service sociologist and historian and due to his avocational interest in the history of forestry and the history of the United States, especially that of the Pacific Northwest region.

Roughly fifty percent of the photographs feature Oregon locations, with Washington State and California also predominant; other western states such as Alaska, Colorado, Montana, and Utah are also represented. The photographs depict natural landmarks and scenic landscapes, such as Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson in Oregon, and Mt. Rainier or Mt. Tacoma in Washington State, and many include people climbing these prominent peaks. National park scenes show Crater Lake, Mt. Rainer, Glacier, and Yellowstone. Scenic river basin views include those along the Columbia, Rogue, Santiam, Umpqua and Willamette Rivers in Oregon. East Coast locations include the Empire State Building, Plymouth Rock, and Independence Hall and several photographs from Washington, D.C.. Seven of the photographs present scenes from the Spanish-American War and World War I.

Scenic landscapes and landmarks from other countries such as the Frasier River and Glacier National Park in Canada, the Forbidden City in China, the pyramids in Egypt, the Winter Palace in Russia, and one photograph from Japan are included in the collection.

The photographers or photographic studios for many of these images are not identified, except for some photographs which have the photographer’s last name, or photo studio, printed on the border of the mounting. Some of the photographers and studios are, Darius Kinsey, Keystone View Company, Underwood & Underwood, Watkin’s Pacific Coast. Companies such as Keystone produced the stereoscopes in topical series, such as “Oregon Scenery”, or “Pacific Coast Views”; series names were also printed on the mounted photographs.

The contents of Box 01, Series 1 through Series 6, have been digitized and are available upon request.

Biographical / Historical Notes

Stereoscopic images first became popular following The Great Exhibition in 1851 where David Brewster introduced a stereoscope that used daguerreotypes for the dual images. Oliver Wendell Holmes’ invention of a simplified stereoscope in the 1850s and the development of photographic technology made stereoscopes more affordable and available to everyone.

Gerald W. Williams worked for the U.S. Forest Service from 1979 until his retirement in 2005. From 1979 to 1993, he was a sociologist with the Umpqua and Willamette National Forests in Oregon; in 1993-1998, he served as the regional sociologist for the Pacific Northwest Regional Office in Portland; and from 1998 until his retirement in 2005 he was the national historian for the U.S. Forest Service in Washington, D.C. He collected the stereoscopic photographs as part of his interest in photography and a deep interest in natural history, particularly in the Western United States. This collection provides a rich representational sample of some of the better known stereoscopic photographers and studios in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Author: Ruth Vondracek

Administrative Information

More Extent Information: 5 boxes; 504 b/w stereoscopic photographs; 5 stereoscopic color lithographs

Statement on Access: The collection is open for research.

Related Materials:

Thematically, the content in the Stereoscopic Photograph collection complements and in some cases overlaps with other Williams' image collections such as the Frank Patterson Stereoscopic Photograph Collection (P 330), Gerald W. Williams Regional Albums, Gerald W. Williams Lantern Slides Collection (P 319) , Gerald W. Williams Prints Collection (MSS WilliamsPrints); Mount Hood Area Excursion Photograph Album (P 310); J.F. Ford Photographs (P 308); C.C. Hall Photograph Album (P 301); Frank Patterson Photographic Postcards (P 312); Forest Service Equipment Development Center Photograph Album (P 311) and the Gerald W. Williams Postcard Collection (P 323). The Benjamin A. Gifford Photographs, circa 1885 - circa 1920 (P 218) collection includes some stereoscopic photographs on glass negatives.

The core of Gerald Williams' research materials are maintained as the Gerald W. Williams Papers (MSS WilliamsG).

Preferred Citation: Gerald W. Williams Stereoscopic Photograph Collection (P 327), Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Processing Information: This collection was acquired from Gerald W. Williams by the former University Archives and the Special Collections and Archives Research Center in the original accession in 2007 and subsequent accessions in 2009 and 2012. They were originally described as a component of the Gerald W.Williams Collection (MSS WilliamsG) and were separated for processing and description as the Gerald W. Williams Stereoscopic Photograph Collection in 2016.

Box and Folder Listing

Series 1: Columbia River, 1886-1909 and undated

The series includes picturesque images of natural landmarks found in the vicinity of Columbia River Gorge area including the Columbia River, Multnomah Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Pillars of Hercules, Oneonta bluffs, Rooster Rock, among others. The series also captures the images of log rafts, a dry dock, fish wheels, "First Haul of the season- Salmon industry", depicting the local fisheries in the area. Extent: 66 black and white stereoscopic images, and 1 color stereoscopic lithograph.