Sherman A. Washburn (b. 1917), a native of California, graduated from Humboldt State College (now Humboldt University) in Arcata, Calif.) and went into radio broadcasting at Eureka, Calif., before moving to Portland, Oregon, in 1941 to work for stations KGW and KGX. He moved into television broadcasting as the entire news department at Channel 12 when it went on the air in March 1955. Washburn joined Channel 6 in 1961 as a documentary producer, including his first about air pollution, “How Now Brown Cloud.” In 1961, he also went to work for the Oregon State Board of Health and remained on the job until he retired in 1979. His work included publication of the Oregon Health Bulletin, which involved both reporting and photography. Washburn has been active in community affairs, chairing the Oak Grove District 2 Sanitation District board and serving on the Oregon City School Board.
In 1962, Sherman Washburn accompanied Don Parker of the Occupational Health Section of the Oregon State Board of Health to several western Oregon migrant labor camps to document those where conditions were acceptable and those where conditions were poor. His Spanish language capability allowed him to communicate with the migrant laborers. The resulting article “We Are People,” illustrated with his photographs, appeared in the Oregon Health Bulletin for August 1962 (vol. 40, no. 8). Washburn’s empathy for the migrant workers led him to make their plight the focus of a project for a social science course he took at Portland State University in 1962. He assembled the original photographs, a typescript report, and a copy of the bulletin article into an oversize album, titled “Sanitation in Migrant Labor Camps." Included in the album are images and text on the Tankersley and Van Domelin farms, Washington County, Or.; the Horst Ranch, Polk County, Or.; and the Culver Labor Camp, Jefferson County near Madras Or.
The album pages are located in two oversized folders in page number order.
The collection is open to the public.
The Oregon Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library before any reproduction use. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.
Sherman A. Washburn hotographs, Org. Lot 327, Oregon Historical Society Research Library
Library Accession No. 15657 (Photo Accession No. 1985D020).
These album pages were disbound during processing as a preservation measure and the pages were foldered in their original order.
Sherman Washburn's television documentaries are available in the Moving Image Collection at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The
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.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Includes typescript report, copy of
Includes photographs with captions and further text: Horst Ranch (or Green Villa Farms), Polk County near Independence, Or., and Culver Labor Camp near Madras, Or.