By Finding aid prepared by Elizabeth Nielsen.
Title: Chemistry Department Motion Picture Films, 1958-1959
ID: FV 205
Primary Creator: Oregon State University. Department of Chemistry
Extent: 24.0 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement: The collection consists of two series: I. General Chemistry, 1958-1959 and II. Analytical Chemistry, undated. All of the films have been assigned individual item numbers.
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The Chemistry Department Motion Picture Films consist primarily of films of the General Chemistry course (Ch 104, 105, 106) taught via interinstitutional television by Wendell Slabaugh during the 1958/59 academic year. The collection also includes three films of the Analytical Chemistry course taught by Harry Freund at about the same time.
The films are 16 mm b/w sound kinescope films (motion picture films made from an image on a picture tube). Each of the films is about 45 minutes long.
In the spring of 1957, the first television course at Oregon State College, Chemistry 203, was broadcast via closed-circuit TV from a studio in Shepard Hall to lecture rooms in Dearborn Hall. During the 1957/58 and 1958/59 academic years, General Chemistry (Ch 104, 105, and 106) was broadcast via KOAC-TV from a studio in Gill Coliseum and received simultaneously by students at Oregon State College, the University of Oregon, Oregon College of Education, and Willamette University. These courses were part of an 8-year interinstitutional television project supported by the Fund for Advancement of Education of the Ford Foundation.
Kinescope films of the lectures (2 per week) and weekly laboratory experiment demonstrations were made during the 1958/59 year and used to teach a special chemistry course during the 1959/60 academic year and were broadcast over KOAC-TV as late as 1963.
Although instruction by television had begun as early as 1952 at Iowa State College, Oregon State College was one of the first institutions to offer a chemistry course by television and to broadcast a course to students at several institutions simultaneously.
Wendell Slabaugh, an innovative and enthusiastic teacher, was at Oregon State University from 1953 until his sudden death in 1980. He was a pioneer in many audio-visual as well as other teaching techniques and lecture demonstrations. In 1973, the Manufacturing Chemists Association recognized Slabaugh with their Award for Excellence in teaching chemistry.
More Extent Information: 113 films; 113 film cans
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: The films were transferred from the Chemistry Department in 1993.
Related Materials: The OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center holdings include the Alumni Association Motion Picture Films and Videotapes (FV 017) which contain a black-and-white film of the first closed-circuit television class in 1957 (FV017:014). The Media Services Moving Images (FV 119) include a color film of one of the lectures from the 1957/58 academic year (FV119:001) and films of another television course, General Hygiene, (FV119:002-037). The Chemistry Department Records (RG 098) include correspondence, proposals, and reports pertaining to the television courses (reel 3, folders 1-4). The Gwil Evans Photographic Collection (P 082) includes photographs of broadcasts and of the film collection.
Preferred Citation: Chemistry Department Motion Picture Films (FV 205), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Oregon State University. Department of Chemistry
Freund, Harry (1917-)
KOAC (Television station : Corvallis, Or.)
McGrath, William Frederick
Slabaugh, Wendell H.
Chemistry--Study and teaching (Higher)--Oregon.
History of Science
Oregon State College. Department of Chemistry
Television in higher education--Oregon.
University History
Motion pictures (visual works)