By Erin Clark and Larry Landis
Title: William L. Finley Papers, 1899-1955
Predominant Dates: 1900-1944
ID: MSS Finley
Primary Creator: Finley, William L. (William Lovell) (1876-1953)
Extent: 14.0 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement: The collection is arranged into ten series: 1. Manuscripts, 1904-1955; 2. Publications, 1905-1945; 3. Correspondence, 1909-1940; 4. Lectures, 1921-1942; 5. Trip Notes, 1918-1938; 6. Organizations and Issues, 1909-1946; 7. Personal Materials, 1899-circa 1920s; 8. Motion Picture Films, circa 1926-1935; 9. Photographs and Painting, circa 1900-1940s; and 10. Oversize Materials, 1909-circa 1950.
Date Acquired: 01/25/1995
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The William L. Finley Papers document the wildlife conservation work of Finley and his wife Irene, and the photography work of Herman T. Bohlman, who worked with Finley in the first decade of the 20th century. Finley was a photographer, filmmaker, and author who wrote and lectured extensively on wildlife conservation issues. The collection includes published and unpublished manuscripts, lecture and field notes, reports, correspondence, photographs, and motion picture films.
Manuscript items and photographs from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital. All of the films held in the collection are also available online.
The Williams L. Finley Papers primarily document Finley's work as a wildlife conservationist, author, lecturer, photographer, and filmmaker from about 1900 to 1955. The collection also documents the work of his wife Irene Finley and photography partner Herman Bohlman. The collection consists of published and unpublished manuscripts, lecture and field notes, reports, correspondence, photographs, a painting, and motion picture films.
The collection reflects Finley's passion for nature conservation through support for legislation to protect wildlife, photographs and films documenting animal behavior, and lecture tours sharing his observations with audiences across the United States. Finley's interactions with both state and national organizations, concern regarding the degradation of natural resources, and expeditions to Alaska and the southwestern states of the United States are documented in the collection. The Papers also document Finley's family and early life, including academic materials from the University of California, William and Irene Finley's wedding book, and a costume design notebook created by Finley's daughter, Phoebe.
Manuscript items and photographs from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital. All of the films held in the collection are also available online.
Renowned wildlife conservationist William L. Finley was born on August 9, 1876 in Santa Clara, California. His family moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1887. Finley graduated from the University of California in 1903 and in 1906 he married Nellie Irene Barnhart. The Finleys lived for many years at Jennings Lodge, Oregon, south of Portland.
Between 1900 and 1908, Finley and photography partner Herman T. Bohlman made several trips around the Pacific Northwest to photograph birds. Finley published American Birds in 1907, and subsequently published two other books and over 100 illustrated articles in newspapers and wildlife magazines. He helped found the Oregon Audobon Society in 1902, assisted in setting up Oregon's first Fish and Game Commission in 1911 (Finley served as commissioner from the Portland area), served as state Game Warden in the 1910s, and later helped set up the system of federal wildlife refuges in Oregon. The Finley Wildlife Refuge south of Corvallis is named for him. The Finleys made their first motion picture in 1910, and in the 1920s and 1930s they made several wildlife films of expeditions that they took to Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, and other places. They used the films in nationwide lecture tours sponsored by the American Nature Association.
William L. Finley was a nephew of William A. Finley, the first president of Corvallis College, which today is Oregon State University. The school conferred an honorary degree upon him in 1931. Finley died on June 29, 1953.
For detailed information on Finley's life, see William L. Finley: Pioneer Wildlife Photographer, by Worth Mathewson (OSU Press, 1986). Copies of this book are available in the History of OSU Book Collection in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center [TR729.B5 M37 1986].
More Extent Information: 277 photographs, 12 motion picture films; 29 boxes, including 12 oversize boxes, and 1 map folder
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: The original collection was donated to the University Archives by Worth Mathewson on January 25, 1995. An accession of ten 35 mm safety film reels was received by the University Archives on September 17, 1996. An addition of correspondence and newspaper clippings was donated by Bill and Carole Finley to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center in August 2014.
Related Materials:
Photographs taken by Finley can be found in the Herman T. Bohlman Photograph Collection (P 202). Photographs used in Birds of Oregon can be found in the Office of University Publications and OSU Press Records (RG 018). Finley correspondence is located in the Roland Eugene Dimick Papers (MSS Dimick).
Most of Finley's photographs and many of his films are held by the Oregon Historical Society in Portland. Other Finley photographs can be found in the Washington County (Oregon) Historical Society collections and the University of California at Berkeley. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Salem also holds a number of Finley photographs.
Preferred Citation: William L. Finley Papers (MSS Finley), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Processing Information:
Portions of the collection were moved into new folders and boxes in 2018.
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 reference to the colloquial name for Panicum virgatum, a grass native to North America. For more information on impacted collections, see the blog post.
Additionally, the term “gypsy” is considered derogatory by many Roma people. It comes from the word “Egyptian,” where many Europeans mistakenly believed the Romani came from. In 1971, at the First World Roma Congress, a majority of attendees voted to reject the use of the term “gypsy,” however some still use it to self-identify.
In this collection, the term “gypsy” is used to refer to Roma people. There are also references to the “Asian gypsy moth” or “gypsy moth,” a group of invasive moth species that includes Lymantria dispar dispar, Lymantria dispar asiatica, L. d. japonica, L. albescens, L. umbrosa, and L. postalba. In 2021, the Entomological Society of America (ESA) voted to change the common names, and in 2022, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced new names for these species. Lymantria dispar dispar is now known as the “spongy moth,” and the rest are now the “flighted spongy moth complex.” All of the uses of "gypsy" appear in materials that have been scanned and uploaded to Oregon Digital. For more information, please see our blog post.
In order to provide historical context and to enable standardized searching and access across our collecctions, we have retained the original wording. 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.
[Date of Acknowledgement: December 2023 and November 2024]
Finding Aid Revision History: The finding aid was originally created in 2006 and has been updated with item-level description in 2018.
Finley, William L. (William Lovell) (1876-1953)
Aleutian Islands (Alaska)
American Nature Association
Averill, Edgar F., 1881-
Birds--United States.
Bohlman, Herman
Bonneville Dam (Or. and Wash.)
Church, Campbell
Denali, Mount (Alaska)
Documentary films--Oregon.
Finley, Irene
Finley, Phoebe
Finley, William L. (William Lovell), 1876-1953
Jewett, Stanley G. (Stanley Gordon), 1885-
Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges (U.S.)
Lectures and lecturing.
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (Or.)
Mountain goat.
Natural Resources
Nature films--Alaska.
Nature films--Montana.
Nature photography.
Pack, Arthur Newton, 1893-1975
Paulina Lake (Or.)
Photography of birds.
Salmon fisheries--Alaska.
Salmon fisheries--Oregon.
United States. Bureau of Biological Survey
United States. Bureau of Reclamation
University of California (1868-1952)
Wildlife conservation.
Maps (documents)
Motion pictures (visual works)
Photographic prints.
Silent films.