College of Home Economics Motion Picture Films and Videotapes, 1950-1998

The College of Home Economics Motion Picture Films and Videotapes document home economics instruction and extension activities at Oregon State University. The films include footage of the home management houses, including Withycombe House, and the nursery school from the 1950s and a color film on mattress construction. A film on home economics careers is a kinescope recording of a KOAC-TV broadcast.

The bulk of the collection consists of videotapes, primarily of lectures and presentations by faculty and off-campus speakers for home economics education classes. Speakers include Joanne Miksis, Debbie Zeller, Doris Brannan, Kay Mehas, Gini Teemer, and Clara Pratt. Topics include teen/parent programs, food science and technology, fashion merchandising, and teaching about interpersonal relationships in high school.

The videotapes also include a recording of Dean Betty Hawthorne and one pertains to home economics in the Portland (Oregon) Public Schools. Two videotapes in the When Dependence Increases series by Extension Gerontology are included. Promotional productions for a proposed Family Study Center and the Mini-College extension program are part of the collection. A recording of a rehearsed statement by a crowd in front of the Memorial Union declaring the 100th anniversary of the College of Home Economics in May 1988 was made for the Good Morning America television program. The videotape was provided by the KEZI television station in Eugene.

All of the videotapes are VHS format. Three of the films are 16 mm; 4 reels are super 8 mm. Most of the films are b/w. Much of the collection has been digitized and made available online.

An addition to the collection (Accession 2012:001) is made up of three DVDs that contain recordings of sessions from the Western Region College and University Professors of Home Economics Education Biennial Meeting. Among the OSU faculty featured on these recordings include: College of Home Economics Dean Kinsey Green and Marjorie Brown.