Archives West Finding Aid

The John L. Robbins Photographs consist of photographs taken by Robbins during his student years at Oregon State University in the late 1960s and early 1970s documenting numerous campus events, student activities, and campus views and scenes. Some of the images were published in the 1970 and 1971 Beaver yearbooks. The images depict athletic events; concerts, comedy shows, and theatrical performances; oceanographic research; lectures and speeches by visiting public figures and politicians, including a speech by civil rights activist Julian Bond; campus events; carnival rides at night; classrooms; and campus views. The collection includes photographs of football and basketball games as well as track and field meets and wrestling, soccer, rugby, volleyball, baseball, gymnastics, and crew athletes and events. Campus events depicted include the Turtle Derby, held as part of Mom's Weekend, and homecoming activities. Performers depicted in the images include Neil Diamond, Pat Paulsen, Carlos Santana, Donovan, The 5th Dimension, Three Dog Night, Iron Butterfly, Mason Williams, Jonathan Winters, and The Rascals. The collection includes photographs of dormitory life, student organizations, commencement, and protest rallies and marches on campus. Photographs of snow on campus are also included, as well as solar and lunar eclipses.

The photographs include color slides and transparencies, b/w and color negatives, contact sheets, and prints. The bulk of the images are negatives (3370 items); the remainder are color slides and transparencies (779 items) and prints (351 items). Several of the prints are large format (11x14 inches); these depict football games,a student protestor, performers on a stage, Paul Valenti, and a basketball game.

The collection also includes a small quantity of printed materials. These consist of clippings from the Barometer campus newspaper with published images by Robbins as staff photographer for the newspaper and a brochure and poster for the Memorial Union Spring Photo Salon, for which Robbins served a chairman.