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Wanda Gifford Photographs, 1948-1958

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Gifford, Wanda.
Title
Wanda Gifford Photographs
Dates
1948-1958 (inclusive)
Quantity
2 cubic feet, including 3670 photographs, (15 boxes, including 2 oversize boxes, and 1 map folder)
Collection Number
P 218-SG 4
Summary
The Wanda Gifford Photographs consist of images taken by Wanda Gifford during the late 1940s and 1950s that document post-war Salem, Oregon; agriculture in the Willamette Valley; and scenic views of Oregon landmarks, the northern Cascades in Washington, Glacier National Park in Montana. After Ralph Gifford's death in 1947, his wife Wanda Muir Gifford took over the family's photography business and continued to take and sell photographs through the mid-1950s.
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 encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

After Ralph Gifford's death in 1947, his wife, Wanda Muir Gifford (1894-1989) took over the family's photography business. Wanda, born in Florin, California, was a 1916 Oregon Agricultural College home economics graduate. She taught home economics in the Portland schools for several years. Ralph and Wanda Gifford had two sons, Ralph Arthur Gifford, who attended Oregon State College before his death in 1939, and Ben L., who carried on the family's photographic tradition for a third generation.

Wanda took and sold photographs from 1947 through the mid-1950s. Largely self-taught in photography, she worked primarily on weekends -- in addition to her job with the County Clerk's office in the Marion County Courthouse. "As Mr. Gifford preferred to photograph landscapes, I am very much interested in child photography," she wrote to a magazine editor about a year after Ralph's death. "With all those fine cameras and a complete laboratory left me I must carry on." Wanda also took many photographs of agriculture subjects, and as Ralph had done, marketed the family's photographs to trade publications, such as American Fruit Grower and U.S. Camera magazines, newspapers, advertising firms, and corporations.

Wanda retired from the Marion County Clerk's office in 1958 and lived in Salem for most of the remainder of her life. She died in Sublimity, Oregon, in 1989.

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Content Description

The Wanda Gifford Photographs were taken by Wanda Gifford during the late 1940s and 1950s and document the changing face of post-war Salem, Oregon; agriculture in the Willamette Valley; and scenic views of Oregon landmarks, Mount Baker and the northern Cascades in Washington, and Glacier National Park in Montana. The collection also includes images of family and friends and portrait photographs of individuals, family groups, and special occasions such as weddings and anniversaries. Children were one of Wanda Gifford's favorite subjects. Numerous images of snow scenes in the Willamette Valley are included in the collection.

Oregon landmarks that are depicted in the collection include Mount Hood, the Oregon Coast, Multnomah Falls, the Wallowa Mountains, and Steens Mountain. Agricultural images include orchards, strawberry fields, dairy herds, and other livestock. Of special note are numerous images of Mary Kueny and the Kueny Ranch in southeastern Oregon near Steens Mountain. Photographs of the Detroit Dam are also included.

The images of Salem, Oregon, include the original Marion County Courthouse, the Oregon State Capitol and other state buildings, churches, businesses and street scenes, schools, and homes. The courthouse photographs include interior and exterior views and images of offices and workers in the building.

The majority of items in the collection are 4x5 and 120 format film negatives; accompanying prints are included for about a third of the negatives. There are only a few prints without accompanying film negatives. A small percentage of the 4x5 negatives are diacetate-based that are degraded and in poor condition; these are housed separately. The collection also includes 96 color transparencies, primarily 4x5 format. Some of the color transparencies were probably made by Ben L. Gifford.

A selection of images from the collection are available online in The Best of the Archives and other digital collections.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Wanda Gifford Photographs (P 218-SG 4), Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, Oregon.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The Wanda Gifford Photographs are arranged in 3 series: I. Numbered Photographs, 1948-1957; II. Unnumbered Photographs, 1949-1958; and III. Color Transparencies, circa 1950s.

Custodial History

The photographs were donated to the Oregon State University Horner Museum in 1986 by Ben L. and Beth Gifford.

Acquisition Information

The photographs were transferred from the Oregon State University Horner Museum to the University Archives in July 1996.

Related Materials

This is one component of the Gifford Photographic Collection (P 218) held by the OSU Archives. Other components are: Benjamin A. Gifford Photographs (P 218-SG 1); Ralph I. Gifford Photographs (P 218-SG 2); Ralph I. Gifford Motion Pictures (P 218-SG 3); Ben L. Gifford Photographs (P 218-SG 5); Gifford Collection Photographs by Unknown or Other Photographers (P 218-SG 6); and Gifford Collection Documentary Materials (P 218-SG 7).

Other images of Salem, Oregon, are available in the Walter R. Baker Photographs (P 018), Oliver Matthew Photographs (P 118), and Oliver Matthews Collection.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Agriculture--Oregon.
  • Lakes--Oregon.
  • Landscape photography--Oregon.
  • Parks--Oregon.
  • Portrait photography--Oregon.

Corporate Names

  • Marion County (Or.)
  • Oregon State Capitol (Salem, Or. : 1938- )

Geographical Names

  • Baker, Mount (Wash.)
  • Cascade Range.
  • Detroit Dam (Or.)
  • Glacier National Park (Mont.)
  • Hood, Mount (Or.)
  • Multnomah Falls (Or.)
  • Oregon--Description and travel.
  • Pacific Coast (Or.)
  • Salem (Or.)
  • Steens Mountain (Or.)
  • Wallowa Mountains (Or.)

Form or Genre Terms

  • Color transparencies.
  • Film negatives.
  • Photographic prints.

Other Creators

  • Personal Names

    • (creator)
    • Gifford, Ben L. (creator)

Finding aid prepared by Lawrence A. Landis; updated by Elizabeth Nielsen
2011

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

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