Archie E. Irwin (1882-1962) was a Whitman County native and amateur photographer who was employed variously as a surveyor, flour miller, carpenter, cement mason, and grain warehouseman. An article in Pacific Northwest Quarterly 69:4 (Oct. 1978, page 169-173) provides slightly more biographical information and some data about the photographs. While the collection is over 400 images, that article notes his collection as "over 100 glass negatives," so it is unclear if all the photographs acquired by MASC in 1988 are Archie Irwin's, or if some come from other sources.
426 glass plate negatives and photographic prints, primarily taken between 1900 and 1950, in and around Elberton, Washington. The collection seems to be equally split among family portraits and other materials. Less than one quarter of the images are identified, and none appear to be dated.
The materials appear to be retained in their original order, but there appears to be no discernible reasoning behind that ordering. In general, the closer to the front of an item is, the more likely it is to have some identification. Box 1 is photographs mounted on backings. Boxes 2-3 are glass negatives, negatives, and prints; it appears that preservation prints were made at MASC from most of the glass negatives in the late 1990s, and those are filed with those negatives. Box 4 is a folder containing two oversized items.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item description] Archie E. Irwin Photographs and Glass Negatives of Elberton, WA, circa 1900s-1950s (PC 119)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) purchased this collection on May 7, 1988 from Larry L. Irwin of Monroe, WA. It was retained as MS1988-17.
The original intent was to separate the images from other materials, but an initial uncompleted processing (circa the late 1990s) kept the materials as one collection, PC 119. In 2016, the non-photographic images were removed and refiled under their original MS1988-17 designation. Materials were individually sleeved during processing. Note that when this was originally organized with the non-photo materials, those were folders 1-27. Rather than renumber everything, the collection was simply left missing numbers 1-27, and so is numbered from 28 to 453.
One box of non-photographic materials were separated out and retained as MS1988-17.
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