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Amos Burg photographs, 1889-1985

Overview of the Collection

Photographer
Burg, Amos
Title
Amos Burg photographs
Dates
1889-1985 (inclusive)
Quantity
Approx. 7 cubic feet, (14,187 photographs, 9,244 negatives, 7,791 slides, 28 lantern slides, and 70 photomechanical prints in 18 boxes plus other unprocessed additions)
Collection Number
Org. Lot 450
Summary
Images document Amos Burg's world travels, explorations, and river running, as well as his careers as a writer, photographer and filmmaker for National Geographic, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and ERPI Classroom Films, and his work with the Alaska Fish and Game Department.
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.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding for preparing this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
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Biographical Note

Amos Burg (1901-1986) was born in Portland, Or., to Amos Burg, Sr., and Minerva Ann James Burg (Annie Laurie Burg). Burg, Sr. (1863-1938), immigrated from Norway in 1877 to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he worked in the laundry business and married Minerva Ann James in 1889. They and their infant son, Charles, moved to Portland in 1890, and the senior Burg became part owner of the City Laundry. In Portland, the couple had seven more children, including Amos, Jr. The Burgs' longtime family home at 1706 N.E. Dekum Avenue was still standing as of 2004.

Upon graduation from grammar school in June 1917, Burg persuaded his parents to let him go to sea as bell boy on the passenger ship, Rose City, Portland to San Francisco and Los Angeles. At the end of the summer, he returned to Portland to start high school but the call of the sea was so strong that he returned to sea, where during many voyages in the next several years, he continued his education using the Encyclopaedia Britannica. This whetted his appetite for more learning, so between voyages, he completed a college preparatory course at the Oregon Institute of Technology and then enrolled in science, photography, and journalism courses at the University of Oregon (Eugene) and Oregon State College (now Oregon State University, Corvallis) between adventures (1926-1929), although he never earned a degree. He helped to finance his education and adventures by using his sea voyages as an opportunity to earn some money importing Oriental rug, silks, and pearls.

Burg was heralded for making the first complete canoe voyage on the Columbia River from its headwaters in Columbia Lake, B.C., to the Pacific Oct. 20, 1924-Jan. 7, 1925. The newspapers followed his adventure, and this voyage started his lecture career, as he became a sought-after speaker in Portland and elsewhere in western Oregon. By 1930, he was becoming a successsful lecturer on the national circuit with tales of his adventures, illustrated with his own films and slides, accompanied by narration in his self-depracating witty style. Burg followed up his Columbia River triumph in the summer of 1925 with a canoe voyage from the headwaters of the Snake River at Jackson Lake, Wyo., through Hells Canyon, and down the Columbia River to its mouth. At the Cascades of the Columbia (site of the Bonneville Dam in 2004), Fox Movietone and International Newsreel cameramen persuaded Burg to run the cascades in his canoe, which resulted in International newsreel headlines, "Amos Burg first man to attempt passage of swirling Columbia waters in frail craft." Well into the 1930s, Burg continued to make periodic canoe trips on the Columbia, Snake, Yukon and Northwest Territories rivers, culminating in his 1938 trip to film Buzz Holmstrom's re-creation of his 1937 one-man trip down the Green and Colorado rivers. Burg took the first inflatable rubber raft down the Colorado on this trip, and his film, Conquering the Colorado won an Academy Award nomination for short subjects in 1939.

Burg extended his travels around the world aboard the yacht, Camargo, 1931-1932, and followed up in 1933-1934 with a trip in a small boat around Cape Horn. Filmmaking for ERPI and Encyclopaedia Britannica subsequently took him throughout the western United States, Central and South America, Alaska, Europe, and Asia.

In the early 1950s, Burg settled down in Alaska, working forst for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and then establishing himself with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 1955-1974. He established the department's Information and Education Section and made many films as part of his work. He also made the Alaska Centennial film, Juneau, Alaska's Capital City. He continued to make many river trips well after his retirement. He died in Alaska in 1985, and his ashes have since been scattered on many of the rivers he voyaged.

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Content Description

The collection documents not only Burg's life, adventures, work, and family, but also traces his development as a photographer, from teenage years, when he took snapshots of his sea voyages around the world, to the late 1920s, when he started producing photographs that graced the pages of glossy magazines such as National Geographic and films for Encyclopaedia Brittanica Films and ERPI Classroom Films. He became an expert at taking shots of people, and his photography of children is particularly striking. The collection includes prints, negatives, slides, and lantern slides. Amos Burg appears in many photographs throughout the collection.

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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 reproduction use. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.

Preferred Citation

Amos Burg photographs, Org. Lot 450, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is organized into the following subgroups and series:

  • Subgroup 1: Amos Burg, His Family, and His Travels, 1889-1950
    • Series A: Family, Early Life, and College, 1889-circa 1935
    • Series B: Seaman, 1918-1927
    • Series C: Adventurer/Lecturer/Writer, 1920-1950
  • Subgroup 2: Amos Burg, Alaskan, 1951-1985

NOTE: This guide describes Subgroup 1 only. Subgroup 2 will be added when processing is complete.

Acquisition Information

Library accession nos. 17787, 18819, 19839, 20170, 22211, 22726, and 24251.

Processing Note

THIS COLLECTION IS ONLY PARTIALLY PROCESSED. The collection was received in increments and not in any particular order. Burg provided little or no individual identifications for the bulk of the images. Identifications have been added whenever possible but may be subject to change as processing of Subgroup 2 continues.

Separated Materials

Manuscript materials were separated into the Amos Burg Papers (Mss 1759) in the Manuscripts Collection at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library. Film is in the Amos Burg Motion Picture Collection (Mic 5).

Bibliography

Fleischmann, Julius. Footsteps in the Sea. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1935.

Amos Burg's photographs appeared with articles written by him and others in National Geographic.

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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

  • Boats and boating
  • Canoes and canoeing
  • Eskimos.
  • Fishing--Alaska.

Personal Names

  • Burg, Amos--Photographs.

Corporate Names

  • McCormick Steamship Co.

Family Names

  • Burg family--Photographs.

Geographical Names

  • Alaska--Description and travel.
  • British Isles--Description and travel.
  • Cape Horn (Chile)--Description and travel.
  • Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico)--Description and travel.
  • Columbia River--Description and travel.
  • Indonesia--Description and travel.
  • Mackenzie River (N.W.T.)--Description and travel.
  • Magdalena River (Columbia)--Description and travel.
  • Nunivak Island (Alaska)--Description and travel.
  • Oregon--Description and travel.
  • Salmon River (Idaho)--Description and travel.
  • Scandinavia--Description and travel.
  • Snake River (Idaho)--Description and travel.
  • Spain--Description and travel.
  • Thailand--Description and travel.
  • West (U.S.)--Description and travel.
  • West Indies--Description and travel.
  • Yukon River (Yukon and Alaska)--Description and travel.

Form or Genre Terms

  • Negatives.
  • Photograph albums.
  • Photographic prints.

Other Creators

  • Corporate Names

    • Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, Inc. (producer)
    • Erpi Classroom Films, Inc. (producer)

Finding aid prepared by Sharon M. Howe
2004

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