Archives West Finding Aid

Collection consists of 326 black-and-white photographic prints, 335 nitrate negatives, and 123 glass plate negatives primarily taken around the state of Oregon from approximately 1913 to 1940. Many of the prints in the collection correspond to nitrate negatives and are believed to have been taken by Donegan Reeder Wiggins and his family during travels around the state, particularly on the Oregon coast and in the central Willamette Valley area around Salem. Several of the prints and negatives have captions believed to be written by the original photographer. The subjects depicted in the photographs from the Oregon coast include vacation cottages and towns, coastal rocks and landscapes, people on beaches, shipwrecks, and bridges on Highway 101. Photographs taken in the central Willamette Valley region depict acquaintances and members of the Wiggins family, agricultural landscapes, abandoned homesteads, and interior and exterior views of the Salem Heights Grocery, which was owned by the Wiggins family. The collection also includes family portraits that date from approximately 1895 to 1940.

The connection of the glass plate negatives to the rest of the collection is unclear. 114 of the glass plate negatives in the collection were taken by staff photographers for the Oregon Journal, some of which are directly attributed to Le Roy Norr. Many of the photographs correspond with news articles that were published in the Journal between approximately 1910 and 1925. Subjects depicted in these photographs include Prohibition-era police raids, politicians, medical practitioners, food safety officers, boxers and wrestlers, and other several portraits of unidentified people. There are also 9 glass plate negatives that depict Washington Park and the construction of the Lewis and Clark Exposition. These photographs were taken in approximately 1904 or 1905 and are not believed to be associated with the Oregon Journal negatives.