Doryce J. McDonald Papers, 1992-1995

Title: Doryce J. McDonald Papers, 1992-1995

ID: MSS McDonaldD

Primary Creator: McDonald, Doryce J.

Extent: 1.1 cubic feet. More info below.

Languages of Materials: English [eng]

The Doryce J. McDonald Papers consist of materials assembled and generated by McDonald in the course of two internship projects with the Horner Museum pertaining to the history of forestry. McDonald completed an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies at Oregon State University in 1995. The Horner Museum was established at Oregon State in 1925 and was closed to the public in 1995.

This collection contains computer disks that include 100 prints and 61 color slides. These disks require migration to a digital format and are not immediately available for patron use. Please see SCARC's "Accessing Audio-Visual Content" for more information.

The Doryce J. McDonald Papers consist of materials assembled and generated by McDonald in the course of two internship projects with the Horner Museum. One project entailed development of an exhibit for the museum; for the other project, McDonald prepared descriptions of photographs that had been transferred to the Horner Museum from the College of Forestry.

The exhibit project materials include a project paper describing the research and construction of panels for the exhibit, Forestry in Transition: Forests of the North American Far West in the Twentieth Century as well as notes, photographs, publications, and two computer disks. The photographs depict logging operations during the 20th century, helicopter harvesting, fire lookout towers, the aftermath of the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption on nearby forests, the mill town of Valsetz, a business formed by ex-timber workers, and the College of Forestry's "big wheels". Many of the images were obtained for the exhibit from the collections of the Oregon Historical Society and the Weyerhaeuser Corporation. The collection includes about 100 prints and 61 color slides. The computer disks are Syquest SQ800 5.25" removable hard disk cartridges (88 MBytes each). The disks include the final version (created in 1994) of the photo-documentary exhibit prepared by McDonald. These disks require migration to a digital format and are not immediately available for patron use. Please see SCARC's "Accessing Audio-Visual Content" for more information.

Detailed descriptions of the College of Forestry photographs that were prepared by McDonald for her second internship comprise about half of the collection. The original photographs were transferred from the Horner Museum Collections to the University Archives in 1996 and are now part of the Special Collections & Archives Research Center's collections.

An addition to the Doryce J. McDonald Papers (Accession 2014:078) is made up of a thesis, printed reproductions of an exhibit, and photographs depicting logging operations. The thesis, "Forests of the North American Far West in the 20th Century: Report of an Electronically Crafted Photodocumentary Exhibit," reflects McDonald's graduate work at OSU as a student in the MAIS (Master's of Arts in Interdisplinary Studies) program. In the thesis, McDonald describes the process of developing the exhibit and the research behind the images she selected to represent transformations in forestry from 1900 to 1990. Of the three reproductions of the exhibit panels, two are spiral bound and one is laminated. The eight images were aquired by McDonald from the Oregon Historical Society, the University of California-Davis, and Columbia Helicopters Inc. Most of the views document logging in the early 20th century while one shows helicopter logging in 1980.

Doryce June McDonald enrolled as graduate student in Interdisciplinary Studies in 1989 with a focus on history and museum studies. During her graduate program, she completed an internship with the Horner Museum. McDonald completed her MA in Interdisciplinary Studies in 1995. Prior to her enrollment, McDonald was a staff member at Oregon State University for almost 20 years -- most of that time in the College of Forestry.

Established by the university in 1925 and housed in various locations on campus, the Horner Museum officially closed to the public in 1995 due to budget cutbacks resulting from the passage of Ballot Measure 5 in 1990. Custody of the materials was transferred to the Benton County Historical Society in 2005. In Spring 2008, the physical collection was moved from the OSU campus to the Historical Society's collections storage facility in Philomath, Oregon.

More Extent Information: 161 photographs and 2 computer disks; 2 boxes including 1 oversize box; 176 megabytes

Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.

Acquisition Note: These materials were donated to the Special Collections & Archives Research Center by McDonald in 2012.

Related Materials: Extensive documentation of the Horner Museum's collections, exhibits, and educational programs are available in the Horner Museum Records (RG 199) and the Horner Museum Photographs (P 159) as well as the Horner Museum Oral History Collection (OH 010). The photographs that Doryce McDonald described for her internship are now part of the College of Forestry Photograph Collection (P 061).

Preferred Citation: Doryce J. McDonald Papers (MSS McDonaldD), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Processing Information: This collection is not fully processed; this guide is preliminary.

McDonald, Doryce J.
Horner Museum

Forestry schools and education--Oregon--Corvallis.
Forests and forestry--West (U.S.)
McDonald, Doryce J.
Museum exhibits--Oregon--Corvallis.
Museum exhibits--Planning.
Natural Resources
Oregon State University. College of Forestry
University History

Born digital.
Hard disks.
Photographic prints.
Slides (photographs).