Willard Ralph Singleton, 1900-1982, entered Washington State College in 1918, receiving a B.S. in 1922 and an M.S. in 1924. After leaving WSC he received a second masters and then a PhD at Harvard. He spent his life working both as a researcher and as a teaching botanist, at institutions including the Connecticut Ag. Experiment Station, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Virginia.
The scrapbook consists primarily of 36 pages containing about 235 photographs of W. Ralph Singleton’s life on the Washington State College (later Washington State University) campus between 1918 and 1922. Some of the photographs appear to be from a vacation to the Columbia River Highway. Also present are three college organization membership certificates, and an envelope containing 40 negatives from the same campus years. Most, though not necessarily all, of the negatives are duplicated in the prints.
The scrapbook is retained in its initial order. The first three pages or so consists of autograph pages listings friends, their addresses and birthdays, and brief comments from them. The majority of the volume then consists of photographs of the WSC campus and student activities during Singleton’s time there; most photos are unlabeled and undated. Approximately eight pages towards the back appear to be vacation or family, with Columbia River Highway images appearing repeatedly. A few more pages of WSC materials close out the volume.
The college membership certificates and loose negatives are foldered separately in the box.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item description]
W. Ralph Singleton Scrapbook, 1918-1922 (PC 200)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Stephanie Gaboriault, granddaughter of W. Ralph Singleton, donated this collection to the Washington State University Libraries in October, 2021, where it was retained as UPC 2021-04.
The donor has some correspondence of W. Ralph Singleton which she may be sending at some point. If she does, that will be processed separately as a manuscripts collection and noted here as related material.
University Archivist Mark O’English processed this collection in January of 2022. The album originally had a leather front and back cover, but due to poor condition the donor discarded it prior to shipping the album to MASC.
Professional papers of W. Ralph Singleton are held at the University of Virginia Library in Charlottesville, VA.
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.