Collection is open for research.
Gift of Jeff Thomas, November 1988.
Donald George Onthank was born in Vineland, New Jersey, in 1892. He moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1910, and soon began climbing mountains in Oregon and Washington. In 1927, he joined the Mazamas mountaineering club, and he was elected as its president in 1939. In 1940, he was awarded the organization’s Parker Cup for distinguished service, and he became the first endowed life member of the American Alpine Club in 1979.
Onthank married Vera Valentine Taylor in 1918, and they had three children. He worked as an agent for the Traveler's Insurance Company, from which he retired in 1970. Onthank died in 1981.
Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; Onthank’s obituary in the Oregonian, December 10, 1981; memorial tribute to Onthank by James Angell in the American Alpine Journal, Volume 24, Issue 56 (1982), accessed online on December 7, 2023,
Donald Onthank papers, Mss 2805, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Donald Onthank photograph collection, Org. Lot 569, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Collection includes correspondence from Donald Onthank during his time as librarian of the Mazamas, regarding books and periodicals on mountaineering; biographical information on Mazama members; bibliographies on mountaineering and the holdings of the Mazamas library; list of negative numbers of Onthank's photographs; and a notebook of mountaineering advice for specific mountains.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.