The Experiment
Station Communications Films were produced by the Oregon State University
Experiment Station primarily for television public service announcements to provide information about agricultural research. Items from this collection have been migrated to digital format and are
available online.
Scope and Content Notes
This group consists of films produced by the Experiment Station. Most of the films were used in television public service announcements promoting the research programs funded by the Experiment Station and include footage shot both on the Oregon State University campus as well as at Branch Stations throughout Oregon. Notable subjects include fruit production (pears and cherries) and ornamental horticulture (rhododendrons and lilies); Tillamook Bay oyster harvester; hop flavor analysis and beer testing; grape harvesting and wine production; and Oregon fish and wildlife such as spotted owls, eagles, wild turkeys, pheasants, elk, mountain sheep, wild horses, and salmon. The group also includes films taken for "Strawberries for Tomorrow," a documentary production about mechanical strawberry harvesting.
Biographical / Historical Notes
For several years in the mid-1970s through mid-1980s, the Experiment Station had a separate Communications staff that produced films and television public service announcements about Station projects. David Arthur (Dave) King, producer of most of the films in this collection, was Assistant Editor for Radio and Television from 1976 until 1987, when he became Experiment Station Electronic Media Coordinator for the office of Agricultural Communications.
Statement on Description: We acknowledge that materials in SCARC collections and the language that describes them may be harmful. We are actively working to address our descriptive practices; for more information please see our SCARC Anti-Racist Actions Statement online.
SCARC describes the contents of its collections using the language and terminology of the collections themselves. Since culturally acceptable terminology shifts over time, some of the terms that appear in these materials are currently outdated or offensive.
Historically, "squaw" has been used as a misogynist and racist slur to disparage indigenous American women. Within this historic usage, it has been applied to place names, and scientific or colloquial names for plants. In this collection, the term "squaw" is used in the context of the Squaw Butte Experiment Station. This station is now known as the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center.
In order to provide historical context and to enable standardized searching and access across our collecctions, we have retained the use of this phrase in the collection description. We acknowledge the racism represented by this language and the harm it may cause our users. Providing access to these historical materials does not endorse any attitidues or behavior depicted therein. For more information on impacted collections, see the blog post.
[Date of Acknowledgement: December 2023]
Arrangement
All of the films have been assigned individual numbers (FV P132:1-154) according to the production title or primary subject. Where possible, all of the reels pertaining to the same production or subject may have been assigned the same number (e.g. FV P132:5). All of the films are 16 mm; most are color. For most of the titles, the collection includes original prints, workprints, and internegatives.
