Born Nov. 30, 1857 in Ohio, Osmar Lysander Waller moved to Colfax, Washington, in 1890 to serve as superintendent of schools there. In 1893 he moved to Pullman as a Professor of Mathematics and Civil Engineering at the college there. Osmar had married Belle Mary Brown in 1885, and they had three daughters, Florence (b. 1889), Gladys (b. 1891), and Anna (b. 1894). Osmar remained at Washington State College until 1930, when he retired for medical reasons. He passed away in Pullman on August 3, 1935.
The collection consists of 14 photographic prints and 11 glass plate negatives, 8 of which overlap, leaving 17 unique images. All are unlabeled, but the majority of them are of Pullman, Washington. The identification of the photographs as the Osmar Waller family comes through historical research, as no identification was retained with the original photographs.
The original set of fourteen prints were organized and numbered at the archives and stored in folder 1, with like photographs grouped. The first four photographs are all Waller’s Star Route (Maple St.) home and neighborhood on Pullman’s College Hill. The next two (5-6) are Pullman homes (probably that same neighborhood). Photos 7-9 are houses in unknown locations, probably not Pullman proper. 10-12 are interior shots, of Waller’s daughters, wife, and a Christmas tree. 13-14 are distant locations. The eleven negatives do not match up perfectly with the prints, and are kept in order in folder 2. The first eight negatives match to prints number 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13. Three additional negative had no prints, and are numbered below as 15, 16, and 17. These three are Waller family images, and likely would have been grouped with print images 10-11. The glass negatives, plus those prints not available on glass, have been scanned as 600 dpi tiffs and are retained in MASC’s digital archives.
This collection is open and available for research use. Images are no longer in copyright.
[Item Description] Waller, Osmar Family Photographs, ca. 1890s
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The photographs were donated to Washington State University Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) in September 2016 by Rawson Mordhorst of Oak Harbor, WA and retained as UPC 16-01. Mr. Mordhorst notes that he found glass negative versions of these prints in the attic of WSU’s Carpenter Hall. The glass plates were given to a cousin, Robert Hirschel, who in turn donated those to MASC in late October, 2016. Mr. Mordhorst thinks that he found glass negative versions of these prints in the attic of WSU’s Carpenter Hall during remodeling in the early 1960s (he thinks this was most likely during the 1961-1962 school year, while Mr. Hirschel thinks it was likely 1958-1959). Hirschel, who taught high school photography, made prints from the glass negatives himself at that time.
The collection was processed in September-October of 2016 by University Archivist Mark O’English.
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.