Archives West Finding Aid

The Ralph VanCleave Photographic Collection is comprised of black and white images of the Horning Carding Mill and Frederick A. Horning residence, and images, taken in the 1940s, of public schools from in and around the Willamette Valley. The photographs appear to have been collected, rather than created by VanCleave, and many, if not all, are copy prints.

The majority of the images in the collection are photographs that document school buildings in counties across western Oregon, including Benton, Coos, Lane, and Clackamas. Some of the images document what were likely one-room school houses in “unincorporated communities,” such as Hoskins, Summit, Greenberry, Bunker Hill, Alpine, Tampico, Beavercreek, Blodgett, Ingram Island, Soap Creek, and Wren. The image of the Central School (School District #50), shows a group of children in front of the school building. There is also a photograph of Lakeside School’s 8^th grade class. None of the students in these images are identified. All of the schoolhouse images were provided to VanCleave by Doris Larkin Myers.

The collection also includes several images of historic Corvallis buildings. One image shows the Corvallis High School Band in front of the First Christian Church at the corner of 4^th and Madison in Corvallis. A second image features what was, at the time of the photograph, the Keeney Funeral Home at the northwest corner of 5^th and Jackson. Originally the residence of a Corvallis lawyer, F.M. Johnson, the Keeney Funeral Home building also served as the erstwhile residence of Oregon Agricultural College’s sixth president, William Jasper Kerr. The building later became the McHenry Funeral Home. The photograph of the Frederick A. Horning residence features a flower garden in bloom in the foreground. The collection also includes histories, presumably written by VanCleave, of both the Horning Carding Mill and Horning residence.

Of particular interest is an early photograph of Philomath College, the building which would eventually house the Benton County Historical Society. The College was founded in 1867 by the United Brethren Church but closed during the Great Depression due to the sharp decline in enrollment. Also of interest is a photograph of the Fort Yamhill blockhouse, a small fortification original constructed by the U.S. Army at Fort Yamhill in 1856. In 1911, the structure was moved 30 miles northwest to a part in Dayton to save it from demolition.

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