Ivan R. Shirrod was born at his parent's farm, located five miles south of Uniontown in Whitman County, Washington, in November, 1918. He first attended the Hall School, south of Uniontown. He attended Edison school through third grade after his parents had moved to Pullman. The family then moved to Spokane, where Ivan graduated from Lewis and Clark High School. The family returned to Pullman soon after. Ivan graduated from Washington State College with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He became an early employee of IBM, and worked there in Seattle until his retirement, when he returned to the family home on Colorado Street in Pullman.
Ivan Shirrod was a voracious collector of coins, stamps, books, maps, photos, and postcards. One of his most avid areas of collection was anything having to do with the Palouse and its history.
The collection consists of three series and has been maintained almost completely in its original order and binders. The first series includes three binders of postcards of Washington State College, Pullman, and the Palouse area. Each binder is in turn loosely organized by subject matter.
The postcards that comprise the first series of this collection have all been scanned and are available on-line as part of the
The individual identifier numbers match those used in producing the digital version of this collection- for example, 'shi 001' in the digital collection would be the first postcard in the series.
The second series consists of a variety of Washington State College pamphlets, brochures, clippings, and ephemera, loosely organized by subject in one binder. A sampling of the material contained here includes promotional brochures ca. 1900-1925; handooks ca. 1897-1928; athletic programs ca. 1920-1950; issues of the Washington Agriculturist ca. 1912-1914; graduation and commencement booklets and invitations ca. 1901-1946; and a variety of small items such as dance cards and American Institute of Electrical Engineers banquet invitations dating from Shirrod's own attendance of W.S.C. in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
The third series is a single binder containing 287 slides, all of which seem to date from circa the 1960s. They are loosely organized by subject matter into two subseries. Subseries 1, Locations, consists of location-specific slides sorted alphabetically by place. Subseries 2, Personal, consists mostly of personal photos of the Shirrod family and friends.
The Ivan Shirrod collection of Pullman area postcards was donated to Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections at Washington State University in July, 2002 by the Neill Public Library of Pullman, Washington, which had received them as part of Mr. Shirrod's estate.
Processed in August, 2002 by Mark O'English.