Oregon State Archives
A blended group of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in Dr. Max Geier's HST 406/506 Archival Science course in Winter 2012 completed practicum work individually and collaboratively under the direction of Layne Sawyer, assessing, arranging, and describing State Department of Education records dating from the mid-20th century at the Oregon State Archives. Also advising and conducting workshops with students in this collaborative effort with Layne Sawyer at the Oregon State Archives were Erin Passehl, who directs the Straub Archives at WOU's Hamersly Library, and Willamette University Archivist Mary McRobinson, and Oregon State Archivist Mary Beth Herkert.
Willamette Heritage Center, Salem, Oregon
Jennifer Ross, a senior in history, secured a competitive, paid internship with the Willamette Heritage Center in Salem for Winter 2012. As a research intern serving under the direction of Curator and Museum Director Keni Sturgeon, Ross researched the Lives of Willamette Valley Women from the 1870s-1890s. The WHC is in the process of reinterpreting its three Historic Houses, and information gathered through this research will be used to develop two new hands-on history galleries in these houses.
Graduate Students William "Duke" Morton, Hannah Marshall, and Jeffrey Sawyer worked with Dr. Max Geier, arranging and completing internships at Willamette Heritage Center under the direction of Curator and Museum Director Keni Sturgeon to plan and edit the first edition of Willamette Voices, a new, serial publication focusing on the history of the mid-Willamette Valley. This ongoing project is currently in the production phase, with the first volume due to be published in Spring 2012, including approximately 10 different articles and authors of regional interest, centering on the theme of Public Spaces, and a second volume is already in the works for release later this Fall. The history department and the WHC expect this partnership to provide ongoing and long-term opportunities for editorial internships for both undergraduate and graduate students.
Undergraduate history major, Zachary Jones and other undergraduate history students worked with Dr. Jensen preparing materials for the Documents Project on the Century of Action website, featuring materials on the history of the 1912 campaign woman suffrage campaign in Oregon, and they presented their work at the Willamette Heritage Center in February in a panel presentation that was part of the speakers series at the WHC scheduled to coincide with the special winter exhibit, Willamette Women: Our History is Our Strength, featured at the Willamette Heritage Center in Salem, January 20 - March 10, 2012 http://www.willametteheritage.org/events_and_programs.html
Two recent History M.A. graduates Samantha Reining and Austin Schulz and three current History M.A. students Toni Rush, Jeffrey Sawyer and Diane Huddleston presented material this past October (2011) that they had developed for their Spring 2011 projects in Dr. Max Geier's HST 620 Seminar: Constructing Murder. Their presentations were part of the Willamette Heritage Center’s 2011 Fall Speaker Series in Salem. Samantha Reining (M.A. 2011) presented "1844 Oregon Territory: Murder and Race Relations"; Austin Schulz (M.A. 2011) presented "Interpreting Guilt: The Oregon Supreme Court Case of Foot You"; Diane Huddleston (current M.A. student) presented "The Case of Emma Hannah: From Prison to Asylum"; Jeffrey Sawyer (current M.A. student) presented "Society's Reaction to the Harry Tracy Murder Spree"; and Toni Rush (current M.A student) presented "Interpreting Horror: Oregon News and Lynchings Between 1900-1910." We congratulate these students on their fine work and presentations to our regional heritage community through the speaker series.
Century of Action: Oregon Women Vote, 1912-2012
Zachary Jones, an honors student majoring in History with a minor in Gender Studies, joined Dr. Kimberly Jensen and others who testified at a legislative hearing at the State Capitol in Salem. The hearing was for Senate Concurrent Resolution 204 supporting the commemoration of the centennial of woman suffrage in Oregon. Zachary Jones' testimony built on his work in the junior honors seminar that Dr. Jensen offered last year, in collaboration with community partner Century of Action: Oregon Women Vote, 1912-2012. Jones' work in that seminar also included a contribution to the documents projects posted at www.centuryofaction.org -- writing on Everybody's Equal Suffrage League http://centuryofaction.org/index.php/main_site/document_project/uniquely_oregonian_everybodys_equal_suffrage_league_in_1912.
Jones was also part of a student team in Dr. Jensen's History 405C Gender Issues in History that interviewed Secretary of State Kate Brown as part of the Century of Action project
