Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections
PC 202
Thornber, Walter Strickland, 1874-1959
Walter Strickland Thornber Papers and Photographs
1900-1915
7 Linear feet of shelf space
13 Boxes
This collection includes documents, glass plate
negatives, photographs, and lantern slides of fruit, orchards, and other
agricultural subjects dating from 1900 to 1915. These were created by Walter
Thornber during his time as professor of horticulture with Washington State
University and their Agricultural Experiment Station, and as a horticulturalist in
the Lewiston-Clarkston valley.
Collection materials are in English
Walter Strickland Thornber (1874-1959) was born in Illinois and received both his
Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from South Dakota Agricultural College
(today’s South Dakota State University) by 1899 and served on the faculty there
until 1904. Special studies at Cornell University followed and resulted in a Master
of Science degree in Agriculture. In 1900 Thornber married Phoebe Hough, who died
two years later. With his second wife Ethelyn Henry, Thornber had two sons, Gordon
and Merrill, and two daughters Evelyn and Georgeann. In spring 1905, Thornber
accepted an appointment as Professor of Horticulture at Washington State College and
horticulturist for the Washington Agricultural Experiment Station (WAES) at the
college.
As horticulturist with WAES, Thornber continued the farmers’ institutes and
demonstration trains begun by predecessors and wrote WAES bulletins such as 1910’s
“Cherries in Washington.” Glass-plate negatives in this collection furnished some of
the prints in Thornber’s bulletins. Thornber also conducted research on fruit
varieties suitable for local conditions in an already established experimental
orchard.
Thornber served as horticulture faculty and department head at WSC and
horticulturalist with WAES until the summer of 1911 when he resigned to become a
consulting horticulturist in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley. There, in the first two
decades of the century, the Lewiston-Clarkston Improvement Company (LCIC) and the
Lewiston Land and Water Company (LLWC), secured water and land rights in order to
irrigate and then sell orchard plots to those who “come here for a common purpose,
that of making homes in an orchard community for congenial conditions.”
These companies had solicited Thornber’s advice before he moved from Pullman to the
valley, but by 1911 they convinced him to move south where he could work more
directly with each company to plan the orchard plots and offer short courses about
fruit choices and care under the auspices of the Lewiston-Clarkston School of
Horticulture, of which Thornber was made the director. Thornber lectured daily on
orchard management, combatting pests, and other topics of interest to budding valley
orchardists. LLWC planned to devote about six thousand of its thirty thousand or so
acres in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley to experimental orchards and vineyards which
would also be used for laboratory instruction on pruning, spraying, grafting, and so
on.
National and state support for agricultural extension work coincided with the
diminishment of Thornber’s consulting work and brought him back to Pullman in 1915.
The State of Washington had provided funding for agricultural extension work at the
experiment station in Pullman and by 1911 the college’s Board of Regents separated
the agricultural extension work from the experiment station. With that division,
came the need to hire specialists within the Agricultural Extension Service. In 1914
the federal government responded to the demand for more extension work with the
Smith-Lever Act that granted money to each land-grant school for agricultural
extension work. This attention to the importance of extension work drew Thornber
back to Pullman and Washington State College in 1915 as the Director of Agricultural
Extension.
Thornber worked at WSC from 1905 until 1911 when he left to work as the
Horticulturist for the Leswiston-Clarkston School of Horticulture. He returned to
Pullman in 1915 as the director of the Washington Agricultural and Home Economics
Extension Service. He again left in 1919 to return to Lewiston to become a full-time
fruit grower. Walter S. Thornber died of a stroke April 1, 1959 in his home in
Lewiston, Idaho.
This collection includes documents, glass plate negatives, photographs, and lantern
slides of fruit, orchards, and other agricultural subjects dating from 1900 to 1915,
with the bulk dating from the 1905 to 1911 period when Thornber was in the
Horticulture Department at Washington State College and horticulturist for the
college’s Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, and dealing with his work
there.
Contained in this collection are four boxes of paper documents related to specific
fruits and agricultural notes on fruit production, 746 glass plate negatives (with a
few film negatives) and 41 photo prints of images relating to fruit production and
other various agricultural products, and 109 instructional lantern slides of cement
products and images of houses.
Series one consists of paper documents, in two subseries. Subseries one is personal
papers and notes, including crop records, lecture notes, agricultural topic specific
notes, and fruit specific. Subseries two consists of fruit-specific observations,
separated into four subcategories: fruit lists of varieties, primarily apples,
grapes, and plums; cross-sections of fruits, primarily apples; written descriptions
of fruit trees, again primarily apples; and crop records.
Series two is the bulk of the collection, and consists of photographs, primarily
glass plate negatives. These are arranged into subseries by format. Subseries one
consists of glass plate negatives and photographs and primarily consists of images
of fruit, fruit trees, and other agricultural subjects. Each plate was given a
subject identifier and grouped together based on the subjects, such as apples,
blackberries, landscapes, people, trees (non-fruit), etc. Subseries two contains
lantern slides, primarily instructional, split into three subcategories: concrete
promotional slides, hand-drawn agricultural cartoons, and interiors and exteriors of
various homes.
In box nine, included with the glass plates of People, there are a select few
Thornber family photographs, including glass negatives of Thornber and Hough around
the time of their marriage and of Gordon and Merrill as boys.
The collection is arranged in two series. Series one consists of paper documents, in
two subseries, both arranged alphabetically by subject. Series two consists of
photographs, primarily glass plate negatives, arranged into subseries by format.
Glass plates are arranged alphabetically by subject, and usually include the
original labeled envelope they came in. Included in this sub-series are photograph
prints, which retain original order and are housed directly after the glass plates.
The concrete promotional slides and the cartoon slides retain original order. The
lantern slides of shots of the homes have numbered labels on them and are arranged
numerically based off of those labels.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply. Unpublished materials created in the employment of
the university remain in their copyright for 120 years from date of creation, while
published materials will now be in the public domain.
[Item description]
Walter Strickland Thornber Papers and Photographs, 1900-1915 (PC 202)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Gordon Thornber, son of Walter Strickland Thornber, donated the papers and photographs to Washington State University Libraries in 1986 (MS.1986.38).
The processing of the collection was worked on by Susan Vetter from 2018 to 2019, and completed by Makenna Larson in the spring of 2021.
Agricultural Research Center Office Files 1901-1948 (Archives 20)
Lewiston-Clarkston Improvement Company Records 1888-1963 (Cage 311)
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.
Thornber, Walter Strickland, 1874-1959 -- Archives
Fruit trees -- Washington (State)
Fruit culture -- Washington (State)
Orchards -- Washington (State)
Agricultural experiment stations -- Washington (State)
Agriculture
Washington (State)
Photographs
Series 1. Paper Documents
Subseries 1.1: Personal Papers and
Notes
1
1
Apple. Notes on apple production and
fruit growth. A typed list of apple varieties that accompanies these
notes.
Undated
1
2
Cherry. General notes on cherry growth
and production.
Undated
1
3
Cover crops . Hand-written notes on
cover crops and their benefits for agricultural
production.
Undated
1
3
Cover crop s. Typed notes on cover
crops and their benefits for agricultural production.
Undated
1
4
Cultivation. Handwritten notes
containing notes on "Philosophy of Tillage," "Orchard Tillage,"
"Saving and Adding Fertility," "Soil Moisture.” Also includes
program for 5th Annual Short Course in Agriculture and Horticulture
in North Yakima, December 1916.
Undated, 1916
1
5
Dwarf Fruit. Handwritten
notes.
Undated
1
6
Fertilizers. Notes on fertilizer types
and application.
Undated
1
7
Horticultural library. List of
horticultural resources.
Undated
1
8
Intercropping young orchards. Notes on
plants to intercrop in orchards.
Undated
1
8
Intercropping young orchards. Notes on
plants to intercrop in the Lewiston and Clarkston area.
Undated
1
9
Lecture notes and outline. For
Lewiston Orchards Producer’s Association on the topic of Building an
Agricultural Community.
Undated
1
10
Lewiston-Clarkston School of
Horticulture. Outlines the state of the orchards in
Lewiston-Clarkston and how Thornber will be working with the
Lewiston-Clarkston School of Horticulture.
1911
1
11
Marketing of fruit.
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Notes on “Industrial
Education at the College.”
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Notes on “Orchard
Diversification.”
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Personal
correspondence.
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. “What ‘System on the
Farm’ will do for men who own their farms or for farm
managers.”
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Apple
notes.
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Hand-written notes on
“The Beautifying of Home Grounds.”
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Notes on “Pruning for
Fruit Every Year.”
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Raspberry price
list.
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Program for “Short
Course in Fruit Growing.”
1910
1
12
Miscellaneous. Two programs and notes
for “Fifth Annual Short Course in Agriculture and
Horticulture.”
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Newsletter of
“Extension News Service: The State College of
Washington”
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Fruit lists with
multiple fruits.
Undated
1
12
Miscellaneous. Postcards for the
Thornber Orchards
Undated
1
13
Orchard Protection. Notes and
pamphlets on how to deal with various threats
1912, undated
1
13
Orchard Management. Loose
notes.
Undated
1
14
Peach. Notes on production and
growth.
1910, undated
1
15
Pests. Notes about the “Codling
Moth.”
Undated
1
15
Pests. Common orchard pests, what
plants they affect, and how to treat them.
1908-1911, 1912, 1915, undated
1
15
Pests. Including State College of
Washington Spraying calendar for Spring 1912.
1908-1912, 1915, undated
1
16
Planting Plans. One diagram including
plot dimensions for planting and 22 grid diagrams of various plans
for orchard layouts.
Undated
1
17
Plum. Nine photos of plums and plum
trees; notes on growth and production.
1900, 1911, undated
1
18
Raspberry and Blackberry. General
notes on the growth and production.
1908, undated
1
19
Walnut. Brochures/catalogs on walnuts
and walnut orchards.
1912-1913, undated
1
19
Walnut. Correspondence on English
Walnut Tree with E.C. Pomeroy and with Daniel N.
Pomeroy.
1912-1913, undated
1
19
Walnut. General notes on walnut growth
and production.
Undated
Subseries 1.2: Fruit Specific
Observations.
Subseries 1.2.1: Fruit Variety
Lists.
2
1
Apple fruit list. Handwritten
lists of apple varieties.
Undated
2
2
Grapes. Handwritten list of grape
varieties; general notes on grape growth and
production.
1904
2
3
Plum fruit list. Typed and
alphabetized list of varieties.
Undated
Subseries 1.2.2: Fruit
Cross-Sections
2
4
Apple cross-sections by variety.
BCD.
circa 1904 -1913
2
5
Apple cross-sections by variety.
EFG.
circa 1904 -1913
2
6
Apple cross-sections by variety.
HIJK.
circa 1904 -1913
2
7
Apple cross-sections by variety.
LM.
circa 1904 -1913
2
8
Apple cross-sections by variety.
NOPRSTUW.
circa 1904 -1913
2
9
Apple cross-sections, created by
WSC Students. Various apple types.
1909-1910
2
10
Apple cross Sections. Conical.
Cross-sections of apples, axial and transverse. All with
"conical" form.
Undated and ca.1909-1910
2
11
Apple cross-sections. Northwestern
Greening Group, an apple variety.
1910,Undated
2
12
Apple cross-sections. Oblate.
Cross-sections of apples, axial and transverse. All with
"oblate" form.
circa 1909
2
13
Apple cross-sections. Oblong.
Cross-sections pf apples, axial and transverse. All with
"oblong" form.
Undated, ca.1909-1910
2
14
Apple cross-sections. Round.
Cross-sections of apples, axial and transverse. All with "round"
form.
Undated, circa 1909-1910
2
15
Apple cross-sections.
Unclassified. Cross-sections of apples, axial and transverse.
Unclassified by shape.
circa 1909
2
16
Apple cross-sections. Unclassified
and numbered. Cross-sections of apples, axial and transverse.
Unclassified by shape. With page numbers.
circa 1909
2
17
Crabapple Cross-sections. Includes
notes.
circa 1905-1910
2
17
Crabapple Cross-Sections. Includes
“Description of Russian Crab Trees on Department
Grounds.”
Undated
2
17
Crabapple Cross-sections. Two
cards that track the year, crop, ripe, condition, and notes for
crabapple trees.
1905 -1910
2
18
“Summer Apples Harvested” list,
and unlabeled apple cross-sections. Cross-sections of various
apple varieties, including an unlabeled group, Blue Pearmain,
and Jonathan Group.
1909-1910
2
18
“Summer Apples Harvested” list,
and unlabeled apple cross-sections. "Summer Apples harvested
before 20th of August.”
Undated
2
19
Pear cross-section.
1913
Subseries 1.2.3: Fruit Tree
Descriptions
3
1
Apples. “A”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
2
Apples. “B”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
3
Apples. “C”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
4
Apples. “D”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
5
Apples. “E”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
6
Apples. “F”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
7
Apples. “G”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
8
Apples. “H”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
9
Apples. “IJ”. Organized by
variety; includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches,
buds, etc.
Undated
3
10
Apples. “K”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
11
Apples. “L”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
12
Apples. “MN”. Organized by
variety; includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches,
buds, etc.
Undated
3
13
Apples. “O”. Organized by variety;
includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
14
Apples. “PQR”. Organized by
variety; includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches,
buds, etc.
Undated
3
15
Apples. “ST”. Organized by
variety; includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches,
buds, etc.
Undated
3
16
Apples. “UVW”. Organized by
variety; includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches,
buds, etc.
Undated
3
17
Apples. “YZ”. Organized by
variety; includes descriptions for age, form, size, branches,
buds, etc.
Undated
3
18
Peach. Includes descriptions for
age, form, size, branches, buds, etc.
Undated
3
19
Plum. Drawing and description of a
plum, including source, size, color, skin, juice, flavor,
etc.
1907
3
20
Plum and Prunes. Includes
descriptions for age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
3
21
Prunus. Includes descriptions for
age, form, size, branches, buds, etc.
Undated
3
22
Unspecific fruit tree
descriptions. Includes age, form, size, branches, buds,
etc.
Undated
Subseries 1.2.4: Crop
Records.
4
Crop Records. These include the
fruit variety, condition of the crop, when the crop was ripe,
condition of the tree, and notes.
1909-1910
Series 2. Images
Subseries 2.1: Glass Plate Negatives and
Photo Prints
Subseries 2.1.1: Glass Plate
Negatives
5
1-2
Alfalfa.
Undated
2 items
5
3
Almond.
Undated
1 items
5
4-55
Apple. Includes trees and
fruit.
Ca. 1906. 1912, undated
52 items
5
56-63
Apricot. Includes trees and
fruit.
Ca. 1907, undated
8 items
5
64-78
Blackberry. Includes plants and
fruit.
1908-1909, undated
15 items
5
79-90
Buildings.
1909, undated
12 items
5
91
Cantaloupe, Rocky
Ford.
Undated
1 items
5
92-94
Carrots.
1906, undated
3 items
5
95-111
Cherry. Includes trees and
fruit.
1907, 1911, undated
17 items
6
1-72
Cherry. Includes trees and
fruit.
1907, 1909, undated
72 items
6
73
Chestnuts. Film
negatives.
Undated
1 items
6
74-80
Cranberry. Includes trees and
fruit.
Undated
7 items
6
81-87
Currant. Includes trees and
fruit.
1909
7 items
6
88-89
Disease, non-plant specific. Shot
hole fungi on twigs from unspecified fruit trees.
1909
2 items
6
90-92
Equipment. Includes fruit
refrigerator, pony-drawn refrigerator.
Undated
3 items
6
93-109
Flowers.
1906, undated
17 items
7
1-7
Gooseberry.
1908 - 1909
7 items
7
8-95
Grape.
1907, 1908, 1909, 1911, undated
88 items
7
96
Kohlrabi.
1906
1 items
7
97-103
Labor, agricultural.
1907, undated
7 items
7
104-115
Landscapes, Washington and
Idaho.
1907, 1909, undated
12 items
8
1-3
Loganberry.
1907
3 items
8
4-5
Mushroom.
Undated
2 items
8
6 -8
Nectarine.
1908, undated
3 items
8
9-110
Peach.
ca. 1906. 1912, undated
102 items
9
1-85
Pear.
ca. 1097. 1912, undated
85 items
9
86 -112
People. Includes Thornber’s
students, family, and local citizens.
ca. 1909. 1913, undated
27 items
9
113-115
Pest damage. Includes wooly
aphids, gophers, and moles.
Undated
3 items
9
116
Phenomenal Berrr.
Undated
1 items
10
1-38
Plum.
ca. 1906. 1912, undated
38 items
10
39-50
Potato.
1906
12 items
10
51-77
Prune.
1906, 1908, 1909, 1910, undated
27 items
10
78. 87
Raspberry.
1907, undated
10 items
10
88- 89
Squash. Cross-sections and staged
images.
1096, undated
2 items
10
90-91
Strawberry.
1908
2 items
10
92 -118
Trees, non-fruit.
1907, 1908, 1909, undated
27 items
11
1-16
Trees, non-fruit.
1907, 1908, undated
16 items
11
17-46
Walnut. Includes nuts and
trees.
1906, 1907, 1909, undated
30 items
11
47
Loganberries, raspberries, and
wild blackberries.
Undated
1 items
11
48
Peaches and apples,
Wenatchee.
Undated
1 items
11
49
Peach and cherry neglect,
Clarkston.
Undated
1 items
11
50
Peaches and grapes,
Kennewick.
1909
1 items
11
51
A peach and a pear from
bud.
Undated
1 items
11
52
“Stuarts Field
Monroe.”
Undated
1 items
11
53
“Howells Grown by Robt. Chabat
Moclips.”
Undated
1 items
11
54
“Wind following the work of a
single tree.”
Undated
1 items
11
55
“Tree Trunk.”
Undated
1 items
11
56
“Tree crotched Nov.
1909.”
1909
1 items
11
57-58
“Butler’s Farm.”
Undated
2 items
Subseries 2.1.2: Empty envelopes and
an unidentified negative. These have been retained on the chance
they prove useful in identifying unlabeled images.
11
59
“Grapes, Wenatchee.”
Undated
1 items
11
60
“Grape, Name Unknown at
LaFollettes.”
Undated
1 items
11
61
“Grape vine, LaFollettes July
07.”
1907
1 items
11
62
“Indian Runners.”
Undated
1 items
11
63-64
“Shot Hole Fungi on peach
twig.”
Undated
2 items
11
65
“Potato selection 60.”
1906
1 items
11
66
“Radishes WSC May
‘06.”
1906
1 items
Subseries 2.1.3: Photographic
Prints
11
67
Unidentified film negatives
including images of orchards and of the Thornber family,
including 3 prints of people in a field.
Undated
11 items
11
68
Train with crowd of men and women
standing beside it on the tracks.
Undated
1 items
11
69
Crowd of men and women standing
beside a train with banners that read "Demonstration Train of
Washington."
Undated
1 items
11
70
An unidentified tree.
Undated
1 items
11
71
Cherries.
Undated
1 items
11
72
A bridge.
Undated
1 items
11
73
A group of men stand outside near
a grouping of trees.
Undated
1 items
11
74
A cluster of trees in a
field.
Undated
1 items
11
75
A house.
Undated
1 items
11
76
A large tree surrounded by smaller
trees.
Undated
1 items
11
77
A group of men and women gathering
around a train with banners that read "Demonstration Train of
Washington."
Undated
1 items
11
78
Trees in a forest with a wooden
structure running along the ground.
Undated
1 items
11
79
A man stands on a wooden structure
that runs through a forest..
Undated
1 items
11
80
A man stands on the side of a
mountain near a ditch that appears to be used for
irrigation.
Undated
1 items
11
81
Men stand on the side of a
mountain next to what appears to be the construction for an
irrigation ditch.
Undated
1 items
11
82
Trees surrounding a pond with
swans swimming in it.
Undated
1 items
11
83
Tree stump surrounded by other
trees in a forest.
Undated
1 items
11
84
Field of some undetermined
crop.
Undated
1 items
11
85
A group of women sits in a
field.
Undated
1 items
11
86
An unspecified flower in a vase
next to a measuring stick.
Undated
1 items
11
87
Men climbing a hill next to a tree
in the forest.
Undated
1 items
11
88
A group of children sit on a pile
of dirt in a field.
Undated
1 items
11
89
An empty field.
Undated
1 items
11
90
A field with piles of hay
scattered through it.
Undated
1 items
11
91
A field with trees in the
background.
Undated
1 items
11
92
A torn photograph of a plant with
thorns on it.
Undated
1 items
11
93
A man stands next to a grouping of
young trees.
Undated
1 items
11
94
A man stands in what appears to be
a young orchard.
Undated
1 items
11
95
A tree trunk.
Undated
1 items
11
96
A woman stands in a boat on a
pond.
Undated
1 items
11
97
An undetermined plant growing up a
trellis.
Undated
1 items
11
98
An unspecified flower in a vase
next to a measuring stick.
Undated
1 items
11
99
A group of men and women sit under
a wooden structure next to a group of trees.
Undated
1 items
11
100
A torn photograph of an unknown
plant with thorns on it.
Undated
1 items
11
101
Men, women, and children in a barn
with wooden crates of fruit laid out on tables
Undated
1 items
11
102
Two men sitting in a field in
front of a wooded area. The faces of the men are partially
obscured. Torn.
Undated
1 items
11
103
Between rows of unknown plants at
an orchard.
Undated
1 items
11
104
Unspecified plant.
Undated
1 items
11
105
C.J. Stuart's Patent Berry
Refrigerator Monroe, Wash.
Undated
1 items
11
106
Field of unspecified
plants.
Undated
1 items
11
107
Between rows of unknown plants at
an orchard.
Undated
1 items
11
108
Photograph of the branch of a
raspberry bush.
Undated
1 items
Subseries 2.2: Lantern Slides
12
1-35
Concrete. People working with concrete
and completed concrete structures.
Undated
35 items
12
36
Agricultural cartoons. Ink drawn image
of a tree being sprayed by a man with a hose.
Undated
1 items
12
37
Agricultural cartoons. Ink drawn image
of two pieces of fruit with faces dressed as a man and a woman who
are holding hands.
Undated
1 items
12
38
Agricultural cartoons. Ink drawn image
of two pieces of fruit with faces dressed as a man and a woman
driving in a car.
Undated
1 items
12
39
Agricultural cartoons. Ink drawn image
of a large insect chasing a man.
Undated
1 items
12
40
Agricultural cartoons. Ink drawn image
of a man sawing off a tree branch that he is sitting on.
Undated
1 items
12
41
Agricultural cartoons. Ink drawn image
of a man eating an apple with the words "An Apple You Can Eat In The
Dark" written beside the image.
Undated
1 items
12
42
Agricultural cartoons. Ink drawn image
of a man laying down holding a net. A large insect stands on top of
him with the words "This is the Top" written at the top of the
image.
Undated
1 items
13
1-68
Interiors and exteriors of
homes.
Undated
68 items