Willibald Weniger was a professor of physics at Oregon Agricultural College from 1908 to 1914 and 1920 to 1951.
Weniger was born on 20 June 1884 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He spoke German at home and in the Milwaukee public schools he attended. Weniger received B.A. (1905), M.S. (1906), and Ph.D. (1908) degrees from the University of Wisconsin. In 1908, he came to Oregon Agricultural College to organize and head the Physics Department. Weniger left the College in 1914 to work as a physicist in the Nela Research Laboratories of General Electric in Cleveland. During World War I he studied the relative merits of monocular and binocular field glasses for all except field artillery purposes.
Weniger returned to OAC in 1920 as Physics Department head. During a 1929/1930 sabbatical at the Smithsonian Institution, including five months at Table Mountain Solar Observatory, he measured energy from the sun to correlate changes in the sun's emission of energy with the earth's weather. In 1933 he became Assistant Dean of the Graduate Division and later served as Associate Dean and Dean before his return to the Physics Department in 1949. During a 1938 summer sabbatical he visited universities, physical laboratories, and factories in Europe with other American physicists. After retiring from Oregon State College, he spent four years (1951-1955) as head of the Physics and Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Alaska.
Weniger married Myrtle Elizabeth Knepper, a librarian, in 1918; their son, George Edward, was born in 1919. Weniger invented a translucent blackboard and a typewriter attachment for typing Greek letters and mathematical symbols. He died on March 14, 1959 in Corvallis, Oregon. The Physics Building, completed that same year was named Weniger Hall in his honor.
Collection is open for research.
Willibald Weniger Photographic Collection (P 081), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
The Willibald Weniger Papers (MSS Weniger) include Weniger's dissertation and reports of a 1938 trip to visit university, physical laboratories, and factories in Europe. Additional photographs of Weniger are located in Harriet's Collection (HC 1727).
Three individual images and one album page from the Willibald Weniger Photographic Collection can be found online in Oregon Digital's
The collection is arranged in three series. Series one consists of portraits of Weniger, the family photograph album, and other unidentified photographs. Series two consists of photos of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and vicinity. These images are in an album and are numbered 1 through 134. Series three consists of images of Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis and vicinity and unidentified locations in the northwestern U.S. These images are in an album and are numbered 135-556.
This collection consists of photographs taken and/or collected by Willibald Weniger. The bulk of the collection is a photograph album documenting scenes, buildings and people at the University of Wisconsin and Oregon Agricultural College. The Oregon Agricultural College images are of campus and the vicinity around Corvallis, Oregon; physics laboratories and research; and Weniger and his family and friends. Of special note are photographs of the construction of Strand Agricultural Hall (1913) and McAlexander Fieldhouse (1911); the Willamette and Marys Rivers and forests on Marys Peak; floods; and railroads, including the Corvallis and Alsea River Railroad. The photographs of the University of Wisconsin campus and Madison as well as other locations, such as the Wisconsin Dells, document where Weniger took classes, worked and visited. Many of the images are not identified.
The collection also includes a late 19th century photograph album that likely includes photos of Weniger as a child, other Weniger family members, and family friends.There are also non-album portraits of Weniger and several unidentified people and places.
The bulk of the collection is the photograph album of black and white prints; most of the prints are 4x5 in. or smaller. The collection also includes some loose prints, including one mounted cyanotype; about 40 4x5 glass negatives; 1 color transparency in a lantern slide mount; and 41 nitrate negatives.
This series consists of portrait photographs of Weniger from about 1901 to 1914; a photograph album from the late 19th century containing childhood photos of Weniger, his family and friends; unidentified portraits, group shots of people, and homes; and St. Luke’s hospital. Unidentified images that are glass negatives are numbered P081:562-563, 566 and 570.
Two images may be of St. Luke's hospital.
See Box 4 for two additional images. Modern prints made from nitrate negatives.
Original nitrate negatives available in box-folder 6.1.
See Box 4 for one additional image. Modern prints from nitrate negatives.
Original nitrate negatives available in box-folder 6.1.
This could be jeweler and watch maker Charles N. Hancher in Wheeling, West Virginia.
4 nitrate negatives
10 nitrate negatives
2 nitrate negatives
2 nitrate negatives
1 nitrate negative
This series includes images taken or collected by Weniger while a student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Included are images of University of Wisconsin buildings, the city of Madison, landscape views from around campus and Madison, and views of lakes Mendota and Monona. Many of the images are unidentified; only selected images are described below. The images are prints mounted in an album and individually numbered 1-134. Images 129 through 134 may document Weniger’s trip from Wisconsin to Corvallis. Two of the images in this series have corresponding glass negatives.
The dome of this building was destroyed by fire in 1916.
The cases may be at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
P081:019 is Lake Mendota.
This could be part of the Castle Rock formation.
Witches Gulch?
P081:101 is of the Larks Hotel and boat landing.
Next to the boat is a makeshift clothesline with clothes drying, and in the background is a pier.
Nitrate negative in box-folder 6.1
This photograph is also available as a 4x5 glass plate negative in Box 3.
University of Wisconsin?
Madison, Wisconsin?
Madison, Wisconsin?
This photograph is also available as a 4x5 glass plate negative in Box 3.
A photographic print of this image is available in Box 1.
University of Wisconsin?
nitrate negative
This series includes images of Oregon Agricultural College buildings, grounds, and faculty; Corvallis and the surrounding area including the Marys River and Marys Peak; and landscape views of unidentified locations in the northwestern U.S. Many of the images are unidentified; only selected images are described below. Some of the unidentified images may be student outings. Most of the images are prints adhered to an album and are individually numbered 135-556; a few of the album images have corresponding glass negatives. Two sets of images are numbered 282-287; they are designated “a” and “b”. This series also includes two copy prints of images from the album and a small number of non-album images, including a color transparency of Weatherford Hall mounted as a lantern slide and 10 images pertaining to Weniger’s work at General Electric during World War I on monocular and binocular field glasses (P081:567-569)
P081:150 shows the Administration Building (Benton Hall) and nearby trees covered in snow.
Copy print of P081:158 is included in Box 2.
Possibly line to Monroe with Marys Peak in background.
Images 180-181 show the Marys River bridge.
Now McAlexander Fieldhouse.
Possibly in California.
Includes Weniger (standing on right), George Peavy (standing third from left), John Fulton (standing third from right) and John Horner (sitting second from left).
Image 207 is probably Yaquina Head.
Used for the Occidental Hotel in Corvallis.
Includes scenes of flooded streets, shooting ducks on flooded lower campus, First Presbyterian Church with Corvallis schools in background.
About 7 miles south of Eugene.
Mechanical Hall and the Administration Building (now Kearney Hall and Benton Hall).
Now McAlexander Fieldhouse.
The Farm Mechanics Building is now Gilmore Hall.
Now Furman Hall.
Postcard published by Paxton; taken by Lavel.
Copy print of this image is included in Box 2.
Photo by H.S.P.
Postcard published by Paxton; taken by Lavel
Also includes glass plate negatives in Box 3 for images 432 and 435 and Box 4 for images 437, 440, 443, and 445-446. Nitrate negatives for images 428-431, 434, 438, and 447 are in box-folder 6.2.
Also includes glass plate negative in Box 4.
Also includes glass plate negative in Box 4.
Also includes glass plate negatives in Box 4.
Nitrate negative in box-folder 6.2
Nitrate negatives for P081:501 and P081:511 in box-folder 6.2
Also includes glass plate negative in Box 4.
Also includes glass plate negative in Box 4.
Also includes glass plate negative in Box 4.
Also includes glass plate negative in Box 4.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 1.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 1.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 1.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 1.
Photographic prints of these images are included in Box 1.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 1.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 1.
Photographic prints of these images are included in Box 1.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 1.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 1.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 1.
A photographic print of this image is included in Box 2.
Two similar images are included in Box 6.
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
nitrate negative
Two similar images are included in Box 4.
2 nitrate negatives
Color transparency mounted as a lantern slide