About the Archive
General Overview of the Archive
The contents in the Archive
include materials related to the WSU Vancouver campus, the history of Clark County
and Pacific Northwest region, rare
books and
unique items or collections donated to the library.
The archive has over 200 books,
over 5,000 photographs, negatives and slides as well as hundreds of
documents
and manuscripts.
The Archive also participates in
the creation of digital collections and provides online public access
to these
collections through a ContentDM database. Digital collections feature
local and
regional historical materials that were selected in collaboration with
state
and local historical societies. Further digitization of photographs and
documents
pertaining to the history and culture of the WSU Vancouver campus are
currently
being pursued.
Descriptions of Featured Manuscript
Collections
· James E. Carty Collection: James
E. Carty was the son of former Washington State Representative William
Edward
Carty and his wife Mary E. Fitzpatrick. The Carty
family was among the first families to settle in Clark County. The James E. Carty Collection includes
ledgers and letters pertaining to the Carty property in Woodland, Washington
and the family’s early history in the area.
James E. Carty graduated
from Ridgefield High School and attended Washington
State University
before receiving his law degree from Duke University
in 1952. For
over twenty years Carty served as city attorney for Woodland,
Washington and later became
prosecuting
attorney for Clark
County. During his
career
as attorney, Carty formed a decade
long friendship with the 1930's gangster Al Karpis. The collection
includes
over ten years of correspondence between the two men. Contents relates
to
Carty’s efforts as a parole attorney, narratives by Karpis describing
his role
as a criminal and his life in Alcatraz.
Carty was also politically active in the
Democratic Party,
becoming a party chairman for both Cowlitz
County and Clark County.
Several documents and editorials written by Carty relating to his
political
views and campaign work are included in the collection
Following his retirement in the 1980s, Carty began
doing
historical research on the Northwest, writing a series of essays, a
book and
giving presentations and lectures to the local community. Both
published and
unpublished materials are featured in the collection.
· Vancouver
Historical Reserve Commission Collection: The
collection includes records documenting the process,
organization and success in establishing the Vancouver National
Historic
Reserve during the 1990's. Among the items in the collection are field
reports,
comments and essays on the history of Vancouver,
political editorials and meeting minutes. The commission records cover
the
particular interests of institutions established within the historic
reserve
including Pearson Airpark, Ft. Vancouver,
the Center for
Columbia River History and the Vancouver Barracks.
· Lynn Degerstedt Collection (Copies):
The collection contains the personal papers of Lynn Degerstedt
documenting the implementation
of the Southwest
Washington Joint Center
for Education. The
collection includes newspaper clippings, personal correspondence
between
community leaders, assessments of educational needs in Clark County,
brochures for courses, photographs and the items documenting the early
history
of the WSU Vancouver branch campus. Materials in the collection are
digital
copies and photocopies of the originals.
· WSU Vancouver
Salmon Creek Campus
Building Planning Documents (Phase I-IV): The
collection consists of records used in the building planning for the first four buildings constructed on the WSU
Vancouver Salmon Creek Campus between
1988 and 1994. The collection features committee minutes, notes,
research
reports, master plans and interim drafts, revision drafts, predesigns,
architect communications, proposals, consultations, space allocations
for the
Classroom, Library and Student Services buildings, review records,
regional
data and library planning documents.
· WSU
Vancouver Undergraduate Classroom Building Planning and Design Documents:
Program development plans and design development for the Undergraduate Classroom Building
at Washington
State University Vancouver. The documents cover details in the
construction of
the building and include floor and ceiling plans. Four spiral bound
publications, one three-ring binder and two bound design development
plans.
· Vancouver Historic
Photograph Collection
The collection features
photographs and negatives documenting
graduation ceremonies, special campus events, construction of campus
buildings,
ground breaking ceremonies for Bauer Hall and the Salmon Creek campus,
candid
photographs of faculty, staff and students, and numerous visits from
State
dignitaries. Dates of photographs range from 1986 to 2003.
· WSU Vancouver Publications
and Documents: A collection of materials covering the marketing and
publicity for the campus from 1989 to 2003. Includes course catalogs,
brochures, course schedules, events flyers, newspaper clippings,
planning
documents for campus events and lecture series and campus news
publications
(i.e. the VanCougar, Community Reports).
· Daniel M.
Ogden, Jr. Collection: The collection is an accumulation of
political
campaign materials from U.S.
presidential and congressional contests from the 1950’s to 1978 and
some
material from the 1996 Democratic convention. Materials from both
Democratic
Party and Republican Party campaigns are represented. The collection
includes
strategic and organizational materials from the 1960 John F. Kennedy
presidential
campaign. Contents also include campaign items from Ogden’s
own run for a congressional seat in Colorado
in 1976. The collection contains political essays and course materials
created
and organized by Ogden for Political
Science
classes he taught at Washington
State University.
Other contents in the Ogden collection features
Dan Ogden’s
dissertation including several boxes containing information and
documents
concerning public utilities and in particular the Bonneville Power
Administration in the 1950’s, which he specifically used in his
research.
Book
collection (Some
Features)
·WSU Vancouver
historical publications and documents (master plans and environmental
impact
statements).
·Rare books covering the local and regional history
of Washington
and Oregon.
·Selections
from James E. Carty's book collection with coverage relating to
Northwest
History and the Oregon Trial.
· Rare
books donated to the library including literary classics and
biographies of
political figures.
· Local publications
Digital Collections
Columbia River Basin
Ethnic History Archive (CRBEHA): Over 1,000 historical photographs,
manuscripts and ephemera items from ethnic groups in the Columbia River Basin
are contained in this digital archive. The materials were collected
from the Clark
County Historical Museum,
the Oregon Historical Society, the Washington State Historical Society,
the
Idaho State Historical Society and the Manuscripts, Archive and
Special
Collections of WSU Pullman. The materials are dated between 1860 and
2006 and
feature the history and contributions of ethnic groups in the Columbia River Basin.
The collection includes a recent contribution of the Vancouver Branch
of the
NAACP documents from the Clark
County Historical Museum.
Vancouver
Barracks Digital Collection: The collection represents a selection
of
historical materials from the Fort Vancouver
National
Historic Site’s repository. This digital collection includes documents
and
photographs from Vancouver’s U.S.
Army Barracks dated from the 1930’s and 1940’s. Photographs feature
post World
War II images of recreational and ceremonial activities at the
barracks. Also
included are a number of documents, quartermaster reports and
photographs of
buildings located on the grounds of the barracks. The collection was
created in
collaboration between WSU Vancouver and the Fort Vancouver National
Historic
Site in 2002.
Clark County Historical Museum Photograph Collection:
The collection includes over 5,000 photographic images from the main photograph collection at the Clark County Historical Museum. The collection features images from Clark County's history as a community based on trade and agriculture during the nineteenth and early twentieth century as well as its growth in industry and commerce through the post World War II era.