Geraldine I. Olson joined the faculty of Oregon State University in 1975 as head of the Home Management Department, which became the Family Resource Management Department several years later and subsequently the Human Development and Family Sciences Department. Olson specialized in the study of household management, rural sociology, and economics. She retired from Oregon State University in 2000.
Geraldine Iva Lillian Olson earned a BS in 1961 from the University of Wisconsin in Home Economics and Education. In 1965, she completed an MS degree in Household Economics and Management at Cornell University. From 1965 to 1975, Olson worked as an Instructor and Extension Specialist in Family and Consumer Economics at Ohio State University while completing a Ph.D. at Ohio State.
The Geraldine I. Olson Papers document Olson's teaching, research, and international activities as a home economics faculty member at Oregon State University. The Papers include budgetary records, certificates, correspondence, course materials, curriculum vitae, meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, notes, overhead transparencies, photographs, project proposals, publications, and reports. The bulk of the collection documents Olson's participation in a U.S. Information Agency Scholar Exchange Program with university faculty from Nepal. These materials include a proposal; final reports summarizing the Nepal faculty project,
Course materials are primarily for HOEC 300 (Management of Resources) and focus on the valuation of household work and calculations of the use of family time. Materials pertaining to the International Degree Program at Oregon State are also included.
The collection includes a slide-tape program,
Collection is open for research.
Geraldine I. Olson Papers (MSS Olson), Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
This collection is not fully processed; this guide is preliminary.
These materials were transferred to the Special Collections & Archives Research Center in 2013 by the College of Public Health and Human Sciences.
The Special Collections & Archives Research Center's holdings include extensive materials documenting home economics instruction, research, and extension programs at Oregon State. Of special note are the