Archives West Finding Aid

Various departments and individuals at Pacific University have collected newspaper clippings about the school since the 19th century. By the 1920s, clippings were being systematically collected and compiled into scrapbooks. Most of the scrapbooks were probably compiled by the Publicity Department or related departments of the University. By the 1940s, the University was subscribing to a clippings service, which supplied clippings about the University, accompanied by tickets stamped with the date and title of the newspaper where the articles appeared. These clippings were normally compiled into scrapbooks, but were sometimes left loose. This process of acquiring clippings from a commercial service and then creating scrapbooks appears to have continued from the 1940s through the early 1990s.

In the late 1990s, the Publicity Office began saving its press releases, and filing them with clippings of any articles that were published based upon them. They appear to have discontinued making scrapbooks at that time.

In addition to the scrapbooks and press release files, various individuals associated with Pacific University independently collected loose clippings. Several people who may have been involved in saving clippings include Irene Story and Rick Read, who were involved with the Old College Hall Museum. Female students in the Herrick Hall dormitory may also have collected some of the earliest clippings records, though the records are unclear.