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College of Engineering Photograph Collection, 1920-2013

Collection Overview

Title: College of Engineering Photograph Collection, 1920-2013

ID: P 069

Primary Creator: Oregon State University. College of Engineering

Extent: 8.0 cubic feet. More info below.

Languages of Materials: English [eng]

Abstract

The College of Engineering Photograph Collection includes group photographs of graduating classes from the Schools of Mechanical Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing, and Metallurgic Engineering as well as composites of Engineering faculty and staff members. Also included are a number of slides generated for use in various presentations.

Images from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital.

Scope and Content Notes

The composite images included in the College of Engineering Photograph Collection span the years 1957 to 1996 and can also be accessed via a cd containing scans of the images. Also included is a group photo of Electrical Engineering Department faculty posed in front of Apperson (now Kearney) Hall. Among those featured in the image are: Richard Dearborn, Harold Cockerline, Grant Feikert, Lawrence Wooster, Eugene Starr and Arthur Albert.

The slides depict a combination of text and imagery and contain information about enrollment in the college, graduate student research projects, budget data, academic programs within the college, infrastructure technology, campus computers, and the university's TRIGA nuclear reactor.

An addition was made to the College of Engineering Photograph Collection (Accession 2012:062) that consists of photographs generated and collected by the College of Engineering that were featured in newsletters/reports and mounted for wall display. Numbering about 1400 photographs in total (600 prints, 500 negatives, and 300 slides/transparencies), the images depict faculty, students, research projects, campus buildings where the various departments of the College of Engineering reside, award ceremonies, tours, board meetings, and events honoring COE alumni. Among the COE projects and facilities reflected in these images are the Formula SAE race cars, robotics research, the Hinsdale Wave Tank Laboratory, clean room facilities, the Triga nuclear reactor, and molecular beam epitaxy. The photographs are organized both by department and image subject matter.

A second addition to the College of Engineering Photograph Collection (Accession 2014:022) is made up of 5 composite group shots depicting graduating students from the following engineering schools and years: Civil Engineering (2013), Construction Engineering Management (2009; 2013), Environmental Engineering (2007), and Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering (2013).

A third addition to the collection (Accession 2014:049) is made up of photographs, a photo album, and digital images on 6 cds that document College of Engineering (COE) faculty, students, research activities, classroom instruction, and events sponsored by COE. In addition to portrait shots of engineering faculty, these images also depict various COE activities including award ceremonies, graduation gatherings, alumni reunion jubilees, building tours, Homecoming Weekend events, student engineering design competitions, and staff picnics. Numbering 4,869 photographs in total (3,043 prints, 1,720 negatives, 106 slides), these images also reflect engineering research projects such as Formula SAE vehicles, robotics, and an encryption program. The images in the photograph album show displays of engineering student projects in the MU Quad, a meeting of the College Advisory Board, an industrial relations conference at OSU, and a faculty steak fry party.

Images from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital.

Biographical / Historical Notes

Instruction in engineering at Oregon State dates back to the 1880s, when mathematics professors incorporated concepts in engineering as a part of their teaching of math. In 1889, Grant Adelbert Covell was appointed to the first professorship exclusively devoted to engineering and soon following this appointment, he formed the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The first two graduates of this new department received their degrees in 1893. Soon after the first undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering were awarded, the college established instructional departments in three other branches of engineering: Electrical (1897), Mining (1904), and Civil (1905).

In 1908, a School of Engineering was formed to bring the four engineering departments together under a single administrative umbrella. Covell served as the school’s first dean. Chemical Engineering, which was established in 1917 as an independent department reporting to the President’s office, later incorporated into the school in 1932. Other engineering curricula established at OSU that expanded the school further included Industrial Engineering (1943), Nuclear Engineering (1968), and Computer Science (1974). In 1947, the Schools of Agriculture and Engineering reached an agreement to cooperatively administer curriculum in Agricultural Engineering (later to become Biological and Ecological Engineering).

Other benchmarks reflecting the growth of engineering curricula at OSU are the establishment of a doctorate program in engineering in 1945 and the upgrade of the school to the status of college in 1983. Since the inception of engineering coursework in 1889, it is estimated that a total of about 29,000 students have received degrees in engineering at Oregon State.

Administrative Information

More Extent Information: 5 cubic foot boxes, 2 document boxes, 6 oversize boxes and 3 oversize cabinet drawers

Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation: College of Engineering Photograph Collection (P 069), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Processing Information: This collection is not fully processed and a complete finding aid is not available at this time.

Other URL: A preliminary container list was created for this collection on or before November 14, 2014.

Creators

Oregon State University. College of Engineering

People, Places, and Topics

History of Science
Natural Resources
Oregon State University. College of Engineering
University History

Forms of Material

Born digital.
Lantern slides.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.