As a teenager, George Alderson visited his aunt, Lora Ives Kelts, a librarian at Oregon State College. Alderson attended Reed College and graduated in 1963 with a major in biology. Alderson worked in Washington, D.C. as a conservation activist and lobbyist for the Wilderness Society and Friends of the Earth. He helped found the wilderness program in the Bureau of Land Management and wrote a handbook on being a citizen lobbyist,
The George Alderson Photographs consist of snapshot photographs made by Alderson when he visited Corvallis, Oregon, in 1954-1955. The photographs depict views of the Oregon State College campus and agricultural lands, Camp Adair, and downtown Corvallis. The images include views of Gill Coliseum, Withycombe Hall, and Sackett Hall as well as the Forestry Club Cabin and Cronemiller Lake at Peavy Arboretum. Photographs of the OSC livestock facilities and hog farm near 33rd and Jackson Streets are part of the collection; these images include sheep, horses, and hogs. Of special note is a photograph of a street sign for Jackson and 33rd Streets next to agricultural land.
The collection includes several views of downtown Corvallis as well as Camp Adair structures. The downtown Corvallis images include the Corvallis City Hall on 4th and Madison that was constructed in 1892 and demolished in the late 1950s. Photographs of the downtown streets include Christmas decorations and a view of McGregor's variety store. A landscape view from the road leading to the Bald Peak State Viewpoint near Newberg, Oregon, is also included.
All of the images are b/w. Descriptions of the photographs prepared by Alderson are included with the images.
Collection is open for research.
George Alderson Photographs (P 248), Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, Oregon.
The photographs were donated to the Archives by Alderson in 2003.
The Archives holdings include many collections with photographs of
campus buildings and views, including Harriet's Collection and the
Buildings Photographs (P 016). The