The news @ Western Libraries
Wild about Whatcom Exhibit
Posted on Fri, 2012-08-17 09:13
Wild About Whatcom
The Allied Arts Traveling Show LAND is currently on display in the library, in Gallery 2 (Wilson 3, Balcony)
Works from local artists will be on display through August. The goal of Allied Arts is to spread local art around the county and increase the exposure of Whatcom county’s many talented artists.
Archival Photos Document Lower Baker River Dam Construction
Posted on Fri, 2012-08-10 16:03The Center for Pacific Northwest Studies is delighted to make available a collection of almost 1500 images documenting the construction of the Lower Baker River Dam north of Concrete, Washington. See here for online images.
Downstream face of the Lower Baker River Dam, December 6, 1925. (#LBDC1576)
Completed in 1925, the dam is part of the Baker River Hydroelectric Project that formed Baker Lake and Lake Shannon and which is operated by Puget Sound Energy (The Upper Baker Dam lies nine miles upstream, and was constructed in 1959).
The original photographs, transferred to CPNWS in February 2012, are well-traveled. They were shot by the superintendent of the construction project, George P. Jessup, and document the day-to-day process of construction on the dam during 1924 and 1925. Jessup and his family later moved across the United States as he worked on other engineering projects, and the collection traveled with them. The images were eventually donated by Jessup's daughter, Nancy Underwood, to the Coffee County Historical Society in Manchester, Tennesee, whose staff took steps to research and transfer the collection back to its origins: The collection was delivered first to the editor of the Concrete Herald, and then to the custody of the Concrete Heritage Museum Association.
Museum Board members pursued a successful collaboration with Puget Sound Energy (present owners of the dam), who funded a project to catalog, preserve and create digital copies of the images. Reference copies are now available for visitors to the Concrete Heritage Museum. The original images and digital copies are now housed and accessible at WWU's Center for Pacific Northwest Studies. Emma Darmody, an intern and graduate student in WWU's Archives and Records Management Program, readied content for this digital collection hosted on the ContentDM platform.
Related holdings at CPNWS include records of the Puget Sound Power and Light Company (and over 50 subsidiary and predecessor companies that pre-dated Puget Sound Energy).
CPNWS is a program of Western Libraries' Heritage Resources, and is located in the Goltz-Murray Archives Building at WWU.
Guide to Aerial Photograph Collection Available
Posted on Tue, 2012-08-07 09:55Among the wealth of historic photographs available through Western Libraries’ Heritage Resources is the collection of over 30,000 aerial images archived at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies. Ranging in date from 1935-2001, these images were generated through numerous aerial surveys around the region, including the northwest counties and National Forest lands of Washington State. Formerly housed at Huxley Map Library, these valuable resources were transferred to the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies (CPNWS) in 2011.
Following extensive work by Eric Mastor to further organize and describe the collection, a detailed guide to available flight indices and accompanying sets of images can be accessed online. CPNWS staff welcome inquiries from the public about access and use of the collection, and recommend that interested researchers contact us for an advance appointment to view materials at the archives.
A stereoscope, as pictured above, provides a means to view overlapping, vertical images and obtain a magnified, 3D effect (useful for assessing the depth of terrain). Stereoscopes are available at CPNWS for use by researchers.
The majority of photographs in the collection result from aerial surveys conducted by US government agencies, including the USDA Forest Service and Washington Department of Natural Resources. These include coverage of Whatcom County, the Mt. Baker National Forest and other National Forest and Parks lands in Washington. The collection also includes some coverage of other Washington counties and U.S. states. For example, a small group of images document survey work conducted for the Alaska-Canada Highway during the 1930s. The collection is a valuable resource for researchers interested in environmental history and change (including forestation, glaciation and waterways), and supports fields of inquiry relating to habit restoration, urban growth studies and property history. All are welcome to contact or visit CPNWS to find out more.
Steve Raymond explores the legacy of Roderick Haig-Brown
Posted on Thu, 2012-07-05 11:00|
Steve Raymond, a life-long fly fisher and author, visited Special Collections and gave a presentation about Roderick Haig-Brown, fly fisher, author, and conservationist. The event attracted fly fishers from around the Northwest, who came to hear Mr. Raymond's insights into the literary works of Roderick Haig-Brown. |
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Before the presentation, Bruce Shepard, WWU President, presented a book about Western to Tobey Ishii-Anderson, niece of David Ishii, to honor the memory of David Ishii and his gift to Special Collections. |
 Steve Raymond with guests |
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After Steve Raymond's presentation, he answered questions about Roderick Haig-Brown and his own writing career. Then everyone browsed the Fly Fishing Collections in the Special Collections storage area and the books exhibited in the Research Room. |
 Marian Alexander and Joan Raymond |
Steve Raymond
Visiting students use Map Collection
Posted on Mon, 2012-07-02 10:15
Visiting students use maps to
help learn about Salmon migration
Korean students visited the map collection as part of the University Experience program sponsored by Extended Ed. 40 students, and 2
student teachers from Woodring use
the collection to study various aspects
of salmon migration. The groups took
a tour of the area followed by a presentation on the various types of maps in the collection before breaking up into small groups to work on their assignments.
Fly Fishing Students visit Special Collections
Posted on Fri, 2012-06-29 11:36
On June 25th, Special Collections was pleased to welcome the Huxley College of the Environment class ESCI 315: The Art, Science, and Ethics of Fly Fishing, taught by Leo Bodensteiner and Steve Meyer.
The class was shown many of the treasures from the Fly Fishing Collection, including the first American edition of Izaak Walton's classic, The Complete Angler, or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation (1857).
The deluxe edition of The Dettes: A Catskill Legend (enclosed in a custom slipcase with a shadow box on the front containing three mounted flies by the Dettes), The Americ
an Fly Fisher, a periodical published by the American Museum of Fly Fishing. And the Art of Angling Journal, which showcases the beauty of the sport.
Bamboo rods, fly plates, and other realia were on display in the Research Room. Later the class toured the storage area, exploring the complete Fly Fishing Collection.
The Arte of Angling, 1577
This book contains a facsimile of the original 1577 book, along with a modernized transcription of the text. Attributed to Vicar William Samuel, it is the second earliest book on angling in the English language.
The single copy that survived was discovered in 1953, went to the British Museum, and ended up in the Princeton University Library.
My Bookhouse
Olive Beaupre Miller was an American author and publisher of children's literature. The Book House for Children series was published according to her personal standards.
Library Survey Results
Posted on Wed, 2012-06-13 13:20Faculty & Student Responses to the Western Library Survey Now Available
During Winter and Spring Quarters 2012 Western Libraries surveyed the university’s faculty and students with regards to their use of library resources and services. Of those surveyed 59% of tenure and tenure track faculty, and 21% (959) of students sent the survey link, responded.
Western Front Collection debut at Back 2 Bellingham
Posted on Fri, 2012-06-08 16:32|
The WWU Student Newspaper Collection project was the subject of a presentation by Marian Alexander at Back 2 Bellingham, May 19, in Wilson Library. Marian revealed the inside story of getting the student newspaper, from the 1899 Normal Messenger to the current Western Front, into a digital format and making it available on the Internet. "The student newspaper has long been one of Special Collections' most requested, most used, most popular resources," Marian told the members of Western alumni who attended the event. |
Marian Alexander |
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After the presentation, Special Collections staff helped visitors search the Western Front using laptops on tables. Tamara Belts, Sandy Celec, Lesley Lowery, and Peter Smith were all on hand to help alumni read historical issues of the student newspaper. Bob Speed, a photographer and writer for the Western Front, found articles he had written while a student at Western. Visitors took away chocolate bars with the Western Front masthead on the label and the Internet address for the Special Collections home page: library.wwu.edu/specialcollections. |
Bob Speed and Sandy Celec |
