Carolyn

PilotsGive 2021: Preserve our Past and Support our Future

March 25, 2021 By Carolyn

The Library’s Digital Services, Archives, and Museum work together helping to preserve and display the history and traditions of life on the Bluff, to celebrate the University from 1901 and onward into the future.

Student Newspapers, Clark Library Digital Collections

From yearbooks and student newspapers to letter-sweaters, the impressive results of this collaboration include our online The Log yearbook, The Beacon and The Columbiad student newspapers, A Point of Pride: The University of Portland Story, School Songs (audio!), and the Digital Museum. These resources and more are right at your fingertips to explore from anywhere in the world through your own devices.

We invite you to be part of our ongoing efforts to bring the University’s history to you. Please support the Clark Library by making a PilotsGive gift now or on April 7-8, 2021, from noon to noon.

Those who give $100 or more will receive a beautiful vintage Clark Library bookplate, placed in a newly purchased book for our collection to commemorate the donation.

Spirit of Portland U Pennant

August 25, 2020 By Carolyn

This Spirit of Portland U pennant (circa 1948 or 1949) is one item in the Student Life collection of the University Museum. Dr. Manuel Macias was the donor, a 1951 alumnus, long-time professor of Spanish (1958-1995), and faithful student scholarship donor — a true Pilot.

The colorful pennant design logo prominently features then-new University mascot, Spirit of Portland U (SPU) – a river pilot with rain gear and spyglass – created in 1948 by Nolan Drurey, class of 1949, winner of a Beacon-sponsored mascot design contest. One of the early items for sale in the University Bookstore with the new mascot design.

SPU’s image spread to spirit and campus swag and publications — 1948 Homecoming (napkins and coasters), student book covers, Pilot Student Guides, student body ID cards, t-shirts and more, as pictured in this photo from the University Bookstore.

The SPU rally-squad mascot (a student inside animating the heavy costume) evolved through the years and embraced a name change to become Wally Pilot in the 1970s. Our earlier post about Wally Pilot tells the backstory.

Additional References:
Spirit of Portland U (SPU): https://up.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16472coll10/id/414/rec/27

Wally Pilot:
https://sites.up.edu/museum/?s=wally+pilot

From the University Bulletin, themes of mission and value

August 11, 2020 By Carolyn

The University of Portland, an independently governed Catholic university guided by the Congregation of Holy Cross, addresses significant questions of human concern through disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies of the arts, sciences, and humanities and through studies in majors and professional programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. As a diverse community of scholars dedicated to excellence and innovation, we pursue teaching and learning, faith and formation, service and leadership in the classroom, residence halls and the world. Because we value the development of the whole person, the university honors faith and reason as ways of knowing, promotes ethical reflection, and prepares people who respond to the needs of the world and its human family.

The mission includes three core themes: Teaching and Learning, Faith and Formation, and Service and Leadership. The three core themes capture the essential elements of the mission and collectively express the essence of the University of Portland.

The goals/objectives supporting the core themes are:

Core Theme: Teaching and Learning — A university with premier academic programs.
Core Theme: Faith and Formation — A campus-wide culture that promotes human formation and integrates reason, faith, and ethical values
Core Theme: Service and Leadership — A community that demonstrates service and leadership for the common good.

Source: Bulletin, 2020-2021

Pre-1991 Mission banner: https://digital.up.edu/Documents/Detail/waldschmidt-hall-2005-teaching-faith-service-banners/97973

Previous new school year post:
Welcome to College

Battling Germs

July 28, 2020 By Carolyn

Deep in the museum basement storage room in Shipstad Hall is a very large World War II-era Autoclave Sterilizer manufactured by the American Sterilizer Company. The hand-made sign reads: Sterilizer Used at the Swan Island Shipyards in World War Two

The curious-minded might wonder the part a sanitizer might play in industrial shipbuilding, during World War II, or even before, or after. How does it fit?

Swan Island names the area below the Bluff. During World War II the Portland airport and the Henry J. Kaiser shipyard were both located on the island. The shipyard operated under the authority of the U.S. Maritime Commission’s Emergency Shipbuilding program. They built war-ships there for the Navy; big ships, armored ships, ships for offense and attack. Rather urgently. The work and workers did not stop but had three-shifts for 24-hour production.

Front of Autoclave Sterilizer Chamber (click to enlarge)

A sterilizer autoclave is not used for industrial battleship production (examination gives no evidence of that sort of wear and tear). However, Kaiser furnished a Child Service Center to provide 24-hour child care while parents (women filled the gaps in the labor shortage) worked at the shipyard. Children using the center were inspected upon arrival and sent immediately to the infirmary for additional care if any signs of illness appeared. An autoclave does sanitize medical instruments. These Child Service Centers operated from November 1943-September 1945.

When the war ended, shipyards declined, and the Child Service Center shuttered its doors; much of their production material was repurposed as well. The University acquired a number of War Surplus items for use in the classrooms, and even as classrooms. The biology department and science programs received quantities of supplies and equipment, the sterilizer a prime specimen, a first-rate industrial-grade laboratory upgrade for biology and science instruction.

References:
“Child Care for Swan Island Shipyard Workers.” Oregon History Project, https://oregonhistoryproject.org/child-care-for-swan-island-shipyard-workers/. Accessed 3 June 2020.

Curd, Mary Bryan. “Child Service Centers, Swan Island Shipyards.” Oregon History Project, 19 Nov. 2019, https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/child-service-centers-swan-island-shipyards/

Willingham, William F. “Swan Island.” The Oregon Encyclopedia, 1 June 2018, https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/swan_island/#.XtaA9zpKjI

Clark Library Digital Collections

On the Bluff: looking out, looking up

July 9, 2020 By Carolyn

Once upon a time in a quiet corner of the campus, UP had a Starr Observatory. That is, an actual astronomical observatory with a twenty-inch computer-operated telescope for looking at stars in the night sky. The all-too-appropriate name was bestowed in 1985, honoring Professor Merle Starr at his retirement after years of teaching astronomy in the observatory shed.

The Observatory was the 1952 Class Gift; and in actual fact, members of the graduating class worked together with faculty to build it after Br. Godfrey Vassallo, C.S.C., secured the gift of the 20-inch instrument for campus (see, Dr. James Covert, A Point of Pride.) The 1952 installation of the telescope is documented as a campus-highlight page-filler in the 1959 Log.

Through its first twenty-five years stories labelling the Observatory as a hidden-treasure-on-campus featured as an almost annual feature in the pages of The Beacon (14 stories and notices). The building came down in 2009, making room for the addition of the Quiet-Side of the expanded Bauccio Commons. The real doom of the observatory, however, was urban growth and the increased ambient light which washes out the night sky.

**The Beacon**, March 30, 1963, pg. 4
(click to enlarge)

The building was not indicated on campus maps until 1958 (number 15). The lens and refractor (which was created as a prototype for the 200-inch Mt. Palomar Observatory in California) is currently in the care of the Environment Studies faculty.

Campus Map with Observatory marked, **The Bulletin**, 1959 (click to enlarge)

Tonsillectomy Bag

June 17, 2020 By Carolyn

The tonsillectomy (tonsil-removal surgery) has been a rite of passage for many children (especially children from classic family television from the 60s and 70s). After-care always promising ice-cream treats!

In real life, discharge instructions suggest applying cold-therapy externally in order to reduce swelling and inflammation. Today’s therapies might favor using a bag of frozen vegetables or a sealed bag of ice. Before ziploc, the Davol Company (maker of rubber medical supplies) produced this ugly, but functional item. A brown, rubber circular bag for cold water or ice and wrapped around the neck to secure in place. Estimates place its manufacture in the 1940s or 50s.

University Museum, Nursing Collection, M2009.9.4

A Given Life: Entwined with Learning

June 4, 2020 By Carolyn

Br. David Martin, Christie Hall Library, 1940 (click to enlarge)

Brother David Martin, C.S.C., arrived on the Bluff in 1928. With no college degree (yet). He was immediately named the Librarian. The irony became sort of an inspiration. He was to hold the office of Library director until 1966.

Faced with many challenges, Br. David worked in stages; waiting, proposing, pushing toward the possible and making progress. First, having charge of a limited collection of books, he created a dedicated reading-room for student study by moving the library from West (now Waldschmidt) Hall to Christie Hall where there was space for reading tables. Next, or perhaps already within that first vision, he began to plan for a Library building, an impossible ambition in those days when there was only a single dedicated classroom building (Science Hall, 1937). But Br. David was patient and persistent. And prepared not only the design of a modern college library but also himself through the years of waiting. When the Library was built in 1958 — in no small part through his own efforts as promoter and chief fund-raiser — Br. David had, in the meanwhile, picked up four advanced degrees, founded the Library Summer School, and earned the rank of Dean of the School of Library Science.

Library Science Students and Faculty, 1945 (click to enlarge)

But, he wasn’t finished yet. Coincident with his retirement as Dean of the Library, the University Archives was established, with Br. David as the first University Archivist (June 1, 1966). Collating, arranging, and indexing historical files accumulated through more than sixty years of University life was to be the work, but his first order of business was again creating space and access– once again moving resources out from closet filing cabinets in West (Waldschmidt) Hall across campus to the library, and eventually to Shipstad Hall.

Br. David Martin, Archivist, 1966 (click to enlarge)

His fifty-five years of service (retiring from the Archives in 1983!) is a life-time of contributions to the growth and maturity of the University of Portland. The two developed together, Br. David and the University he loved. Br. David was ever learning and put his curiosity and knowledge into the hands of students and the University community. As his successors both the Clark Library and the Archives & Museum host digital collections available through the Clark Library web page and the historical page-posts on the Museum web page. Continuing his legacy.

Related posts about the Library:
The 1958 Library doubled in size with the 1979 addition; the 2013 renovation prioritized electronic learning and student study space.

Christie Hall Library

TWIRP DANCE (=The Woman is Requested to Pay)

May 27, 2020 By Carolyn

Article accompanied by picture of two students

From its inception in 1951, the Associated Women’s Students sponsored awareness events. One such popular event was a Women’s Week to mark women’s accomplishments and activities. They capped off the week with a Sadie Hawkins-type dance — The TWIRP Dance (which was also a fundraiser). The woman partner arranged the date and purchased the dance ticket = TWIRP (see our header); at the end of the evening the attendees voted (by bid) to select a King of the event.

The dances begin in 1954 and were held at various venues, both on-campus and downtown. 1965 appears to be the last in the series.

The dashing king of the Dance is First-Year Student Benny Dean (right). Mr. Benjamin Dean, BA ’60 is the brother of Kay Frances Dean, BA ’64. Ms. Kay Dean Toran (PhD., Honorary, 2012) has served on the University’s Board of Regents since 2006, and helps support both the Class of 1964 Endowed Scholarship and the Class of 1964 Leadership in Ethics or Diversity Endowed Scholarship. Part of the UP family. Defining a legacy of commitment.

The yearbook page from 1960– sixty years ago– prompted this fact-check: in that year women constituted 35% of the undergraduate population at UP. The education school had not yet been separated, but we do find certain stereotypes fulfilled: women dominated the nursing enrollment (124-0), and they were over-matched in Engineering (1-188). Today the undergraduate ratio of women is approaching 60%. The picture constantly changing, and different doors constantly opened (there are even male students in the School of Nursing, the first of whom graduated in 1973.)

Photo & article credits:
top, 1960 LOG, p. 109
middle, 1957 LOG, p. 162
bottom, The BEACON, Oct. 22, 1954

For Kay Toran, see Portland Magazine, Winter 2020

A Most Noble Order Indeed

May 22, 2020 By Carolyn

**Sherlock Holmes Class, 1971** (click to enlarge)

Happy Birthday to Sherlock Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 22, 1859.

**Sherlock Holmes Society Meeting, 1972**
(click to enlarge)

Portland’s Sherlock Holmes Society, known as “The Noble and Most Singular Order of the Blue Carbuncle” was founded around 1971 by Dr. James Covert, growing out of an evening class taught by the long-time history professor. The students taking “Baker Street Revisited” determined to continue their association after the term ended. And so was born a Sherlockian club complete with charter and ‘canonical’ name. Dr. Covert ran the course for several years, and as the group grew larger it moved beyond the University. The Noble and Most Singular Order of the Blue Carbuncle of Portland and Vancouver continues today as one of the nation’s more active Sherlock Holmes societies.

In Dr. Covert’s words: “In the early 1970s I was looking to teach Victorian England in a novel way (pun intended) and came to this—a study of Victorian England through the Holmes stories. In the 1980s and 90s I occasionally taught the same course under the title of “Mystery as History: The Study of Sherlock Holmes’ England”. Finally it was put into the Honors Program and has the distinction of being my very last class taught at UP in the fall of 1997.” (Private e-mail communication, March 1, 2011)

**Sherlock Holmes Deerstalker Hat, ca1971**
(click to enlarge)

The items pictured are located in the University Museum and are associated with the original charter members of “The Noble and Most Singular Order of the Blue Carbuncle.” The name being associated with one of the popular stories of the Sherlock Holmes saga, referred to by devoted followers of the Master Detective as “The Canon,” or “The Sacred Writings.”

Dr. James Covert – Clark Library Digital Collections

Social Distancing, 1970-ish

May 19, 2020 By Carolyn

American society seemed to fracture and unravel in the late 1960s; a time of social revolution and mutual distrust characterized by the generation-gap, Nixon’s Southern strategy, tense race relations, anti-war and draft protests. Many of these protest movements found natural outlets on college campuses. But the University of Portland was not much disturbed or disrupted by the larger social unrest. As reflected on in this retrospective piece from the July 1971 UP Alumni Bulletin:

During the time of unrest and splintering, UP practiced a measure of ‘Social Distancing’ seen appropriate to the circumstances.

(looking out from the Bluff over a not-yet-developed industrial Swan Island, and Mt. Hood, circa 1968)

However, some assembly of persons was allowed—and even encouraged—to move towards healing divisions, expressing grievances, and valuing the free exercise of speech and opinion. Though students were expected to observe the ‘5-minute rule’ (the context for this directive is found in the exhibit at the bottom).

Gatherings and communication were expected in that moment of national stress; however, the Administration anticipated that after people had their say, then dispersal would follow, all students would return to studies and the work of education would resume. Asking for continuity-determinedly so—in unsettled times. So that, despite not being able to see the future clearly, the academic community continued to watch and prepare whatever the future would bring.

(this image cheats a little, grainy; The Columbiad October 1923, p.17; another old view of Swan Island)

This last exhibit is spliced and edited from the Alumni Bulletin, January 1969, pp. 6, 11.