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Sydney Trask Photograph Collection, 1871-1932

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Trask, Sydney.
Title
Sydney Trask Photograph Collection
Dates
1871-1932 (inclusive)
circa 1890-1920 (bulk)
Quantity
1.8 cubic feet, including 429 photographs, (17 boxes, including 2 oversize boxes)
Collection Number
P 096
Summary
This personal collection of photographs taken (and assembled) by Sydney Trask includes many notable images from the 1890s through 1910s of Oregon Agricultural College buildings, campus views, classrooms, and laboratories. Trask attended Oregon Agricultural College in 1894-1896. Before coming to Corvallis in 1894, he was a photographer for the railroad in eastern Oregon; in the late 1890s, he had a photographic studio in Corvallis.
Repository
Oregon State University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives Research Center
Special Collections and Archives Research Center
121 The Valley Library
Oregon State University
Corvallis OR
97331-4501
Telephone: 5417372075
Fax: 5417378674
scarc@oregonstate.edu
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for original encoding of this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Sydney Trask attended Oregon Agricultural College for 2 academic years (1894/95 and 1895/96). The first year he studied the agricultural course and the second year the mechanical. He married Josephine A. (Josie) Moses in 1898. For the first few years following their marriage, they lived in several different Willamette Valley towns but returned to Corvallis where Trask was a businessman.

Before coming to Corvallis in about 1894, Trask had worked as a photographer for the railroad in eastern Oregon. S. E. Trask and Co. had a photographic studio "over the Post Office" [imprint on P096:250] in Corvallis probably during the late 1890s.

Trask was born in 1878 in Rockford, Illinois. As a boy he moved with his parents to Cascade Locks (Wasco County), Oregon. He moved to Pasadena, California, in late 1955 to be near his son and died there on 13 January 1956.

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Content Description

The Sydney Trask Photograph Collection consists of images created and assembled by Trask and includes many notable images of Oregon Agricultural College buildings, campus views, classrooms, and laboratories during the 1890s thru 1910s. Images documenting instruction in engineering, home economics, industrial arts, photography, and agriculture as well as student activities and clubs including the Camera Club, band, military reviews, and literary societies are part of the collection. The collection also includes images of Corvallis businesses and structures such as the Carriage Factory, J.H. Harris General Store, the Benton County National Bank, and the Benton County Courthouse.

The collection includes 247 negatives and 182 prints. Most of the negatives are glass plates ranging in size from 4x5 to 8x10 inches. The bulk of the glass negatives (~200) are 8x10, 6.5x8.5, or 5x8 in plates. The collection also includes 25 nitrate negatives. Most of the prints in the collection have accompanying camera negatives; only about 25 prints do not have negatives in the collection. About half of the negatives (~120) do not have accompanying prints. Some prints that had been described previously as part of Harriet's Photograph Collection have been transferred into this collection.

A selection of images from the collection are available online in the Best of the Archives digital collection.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Sydney Trask Photograph Collection (P 096), Oregon State University Special Collection & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection consists of one series: I. Sydney Trask Photographs. All of the images have been assigned individual item numbers (P096:001 thru P096:255).

Acquisition Information

The bulk of the collection was acquired by the University Archives in the 1960s.

Related Materials

Many other photographs of campus buildings are available in the Buildings Photographic Collection (P 016) and Harriet's Photograph Collection. Additional photographs of home economics and engineering classrooms and laboratories are part of Harriet's Photograph Collection as well as the College of Home Economics (P 044) and College of Engineering (P 069) photograph collections.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Agricultural education--Oregon--Corvallis.
  • College buildings--Oregon--Corvallis.
  • Engineering--Study and teaching (Higher)--Oregon--Corvallis.
  • Home economics--Study and teaching--Oregon--Corvallis.
  • Military education--Oregon--Corvallis.
  • Photography--Study and teaching--Oregon--Corvallis.
  • Student activities--Oregon--Corvallis.

Corporate Names

  • Oregon Agricultural College--Buildings.
  • Oregon Agricultural College--Faculty.
  • Oregon Agricultural College--Students.

Geographical Names

  • Corvallis (Or.)

Form or Genre Terms

  • Glass negatives.
  • Nitrate negatives.
  • Photographic prints.

Finding aid prepared by Elizabeth Nielsen.
2011

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

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