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Walter Boychuk photographs, 1912-1961

Overview of the Collection

Photographer
Boychuk, Walter, 1886-1967
Title
Walter Boychuk photographs
Dates
1912-1961 (inclusive)
1920-1945 (bulk)
Quantity
12 cubic feet, (1,569 photographic prints in 12 boxes, 2 oversize boxes and 1 oversize folder; 738 photographic prints in 1 album; and 1,500 glass plate and film negatives in 9 boxes)
Collection Number
Org. Lot 977
Summary
Photographs taken by Walter Boychuk of Portland, Or., including both commercial and private work. Includes portraits and landscapes primarily from Oregon and Washington state, as well as photographs from two commercial projects: the Historic American Building Survey and the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939.
Repository
Oregon Historical Society Research Library
1200 SW Park Avenue
Portland, OR
97205
Telephone: 503-306-5240
Fax: 503-219-2040
libreference@ohs.org
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to the public.

Additional Reference Guides

A survey of negatives taken by Walter Boychuk is available at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library, in the Boychuk collection file.

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

Walter Boychuk (1886-1967) worked as a photographer in Oregon for half a century, making portraits of everyone from ordinary citizens to nationally known figures, including Sen. Wayne Morse, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lowell Thomas, and Norman Thomas.

Boychuk was born Oct. 25, 1886, at Galatia, Austria. He immigrated to Canada in 1903 and came to Portland in 1906, where he began working as a photographer around 1912. For a few years during the late 1920s, he was associated with photographer Frank I. Jones in Boychuk-Jones Studio. They did commercial photography for the Portland Commission on Public Docks, Port of Portland, and other clients. Beginning about 1930, Boychuk operated Boychuk Studio at various locations in Portland until 1949. At that time he estimated he had served 8,000 customers. He continued to work out of his farm home near Tigard in semi-retirement.

In addition to his portrait and commercial work, Boychuk also gained recognition for his architectural and scenic photography. He photographed the buildings designed by a number of prominent architects. In 1930, he was selected by a committee of the Oregon chapter of the American Institute of Architects to create a portfolio of Oregon landmarks for submission to the Pictorial Archives of Early American Architecture. This was a project of the Library of Congress, funded by the Carnegie Foundation. Boychuk also served as photographer for the subsequent Historic American Buildings Survey in the mid-1930s.

Based on his architectural work, Boychuk was named official photographer for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition at San Francisco. There he spent two months photographing fair buildings, inside and out and under different lighting conditions, in both black-and-white and color. He also was an avid mountaineer, skier, and member of the Mazamas mountaineering organization.

Although relatively little known compared with other Oregon photographers such as Ray Atkeson and Benjamin Gifford, Boychuk brought his artist’s eye and meticulous printing skills to a body of work that is among the best produced in the state.

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Content Description

Boychuk donated his photographic collection to the Oregon Historical Society about six months before his death in 1967. The collection represents the images he had retained until that time, and it provides a good sample of the kinds of photographic work he did during the course of his career. The images date from circa 1915 through the 1960s, but the bulk of the collection is from the 1920s through the 1940s.

Group 1 of this collection contains biographical material on Walter Boychuk and his wife, Anna, that was collected while this collection was being processed. Group 2 consists of the copy prints made from Boychuk’s original negatives; this representative sampling of his work was printed courtesy of a conservation grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust and contains photographs taken by Boychuk of various locations in Oregon and other states, portraits, ships and transportation, and other subjects, as well as his work for the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1930-1951 and the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1940. Group 3 is a collection of signed, mounted prints of architectural images, which Boychuk made for the Pictorial Archives of Early American Architecture at the Library of Congress in 1930, and includes some produced for the Historic American Buildings Survey as well; these are annotated with his negative numbers. Group 4 consists of a printed booklet of photomechanical reproductions of Boychuk's photographs, entitled "Pictorial Oregon." Group 5 consists of an oversized album, titled “Pacific Northwest by Boychuk,” which provides a retrospective of images Boychuk made throughout his career, most identified in his handwriting and annotated with his negative numbers.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The Oregon Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library prior to any use of reproductions. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use of reproductions may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright holders.

Preferred Citation

Walter Boychuk photographs, Org. Lot 977, Oregon Historical Society Research Library

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the following groups and series:

  • Group 1: Walter and Anna Boychuk biographical materials, 1930-1940
  • Group 2: Prints from original negatives, 1918-1961
    • Series A: Oregon locations (except Portland), 1918-1957
      • Subseries 1: Cities and towns
      • Subseries 2: Bonneville Dam
      • Subseries 3: Columbia River Gorge
      • Subseries 4: Coast scenery and lighthouses
      • Subseries 5: Mount Hood
      • Subseries 6: Eastern Oregon
      • Subseries 7: Lakes
      • Subseries 8: Mountains
      • Subseries 9: Rivers
      • Subseries 10: Waterfalls
    • Series B: Portland, Ore., 1925-1951
    • Series C: Other locations, 1919-1950
    • Series D: Portraits, 1930-1961
      • Subseries 1: Men
      • Subseries 2: Women
      • Subseries 3: Groups
    • Series E: Ships and transportation, 1912-1940
    • Series F: Other subjects, 1918-1940
    • Series G: Copy work, 1915-1959
    • Series H: Historic American Buildings Survey, 1930-1951
      • Subseries 1: Residences
      • Subseries 2: Buildings
    • Series I: San Francisco, Golden Gate International Exposition, 1940
  • Group 3: Vintage prints made by Walter Boychuk, 1922-1957
    • Series A: Locations, 1930-1957
    • Series B: Portraits, 1922-1957
    • Series C: Historic American Buildings Survey, 1930-1951
  • Group 4: Pictorial Oregon: Twenty-Four Memorable Photographs by Walter Boychuk,1941
  • Group 5: "Pacific Northwest by Boychuck" photograph album, undated

Location of Collection

Negatives from this collection are located offsite.

Acquisition Information

Photo Accession no. 2001D028

Separated Materials

A book from Walter Boychuk's personal library, Sunlight and Shadow: A Book for Photographers, Amateur and Professional, by W. I. Lincoln Adams, has been cataloged with the Book Collection at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Related Materials

Additional images by Walter Boychuk can be found in the Morris Whitehouse photographs collection, Org. Lot 321, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Architectural photography
  • Ships--Oregon--Photographs

Corporate Names

  • Golden Gate International Exposition (1939-1940 : San Francisco, Calif.)--Photographs
  • Historic American Buildings Survey--Photographs.

Geographical Names

  • Bonneville Dam (Or. and Wash.)--Photographs
  • Columbia River Gorge (Or. and Wash.)--Photographs
  • Hood, Mount (Or.)--Photographs
  • Portland (Or.)--Photographs

Form or Genre Terms

  • Photographic prints
  • Photomechanical prints

Finding aid prepared by Sharon M. Howe and Jessica Wade
2006

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