The College of Agriculture began as one of six divisions of the Washington Agricultural College, Experiment Station, and School of Science in 1892. The Division of Agriculture became the Department of Agriculture in 1894 when the departmental system was organized. In 1917, that departmental system was reformed into a system of schools and colleges, one of which was the College of Agriculture. WSU's Institute of Agricultural Sciences combined Agriculture, Extension, and other departments in 1946, but was dissolved into its component departments in 1965. In 1982, Agriculture and Home Economics merged to form CAHE (College of Agriculture and Home Economics), and in 2002 CAHE became CAHNRS (College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences).
Extension work at WSU (then WSC) was authorized in 1913 by state legislation. Originally refered to as Agricultural Extension, it was renamed as Cooperative Extension in 1965 and simply as WSU Extension in 2003.
History of the state of Washington's Extension programs can be found in Russell M. Turner's The first 45 years : a history of cooperative extension in Washington State (Pullman, Wash.: [Washington State University Extension Service], 1961). and in Felix Entenmann's The next 25 years : 1960-85 : an update of the history of cooperative extension, Washington State University (Pullman, Wash.: Cooperative Extension, College of Agriculture and Home Economics, Washington State University, 1989).
The collection consists primarily of biographical files (Series 1, boxes 1-7), ordered alphabetically by last names, covering employees past and present in WSU's Extension-oriented programs, as well as selected significant WSU administrators and other personnel.
Series 2 is a CD containing an Excel file listing all Extension employees (name, title, work location, and hire and termination dates) from the beginning of the program to early 2009. Also included is a printout of the spreadsheet.
Series 3 consists of images sorted by format: one small subseries consisting of four CDs containing photographs of Extension personnel and another subseries of 60 photographs, followed by one large subseries of the slide files (approximately 1000) accumulated by Extension/CAHNRS News Service. The majority of the slides date from the early to mid 1980s.
It should be noted that the biographical files were carefully parsed by Extension/CAHNRS personnel before their transfer to MASC so as to remove private information including but not limited to identification numbers, salary information, home contact information, and hire/termination files. The remaining files usually consist of basic professional histories and photographs. It appears that the department began keeping the files in the late 1960s; coverage of employees who left before that period is limited.
The collection is organized into three series.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item Description]
Washington State University CAHNRS and Extension Marketing and News Services Biographical Files and Slides, 1969-2009 (Archives 275)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
These materials were given to MASC by H. Dennis Brown of the Marketing and News Services unit of WSU's College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS) and WSU Extension on March 17, 2009, and retained as UA2009-05.
This collection was processed by University Archivist Mark O'English from April-July, 2009.
Earlier Extension photographs can be found in Washington State University Agricultural Extension Service Photographs, 1915-1958 (
Many other records from Extension and Agriculture programs can be found in the
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.