DEVELOPING A PROPOSED HISTORICAL RESEARCH MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR HISTORIC OREGON FURNITURE • by ROSS E. SUTHERLAND A THESIS Presented to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Historic Preservation and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science June 1994 11 "Developing a Proposed Historical Research Management Plan for Historic Oregon Furniture," a thesis prepared by Ross E. Sutherland in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science degree in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Historic I Preservation. This thesis has been approved and accepted by: Date/ Committee in charge: Arthur Hawn, Chair Philip Dole Deborah Confer Marty West 111 I Copyright 1994 Ross E. Sutherland lV An Abstract of the Thesis of Ross E. Sutherland for the degree of Master of Science in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Historic Preservation to be taken June 1994 Title: DEVELOPING A PROPOSED HISTORICAL RESEARCH MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR HISTORIC OREGON FURNITURE Approved: _ Arthur Hawn For nearly a century Oregon museums and private collectors have preserved and exhibited historic Oregon furniture. The documentation of Oregon's historic furniture industry, however, has not kept pace with ongoing documentation projects in other areas of the country. These projects may involve extensive document searches and photographic surveys of extant pieces. To expedite the documentation of historic Oregon furniture, by maximizing the expenditure of human and financial resources, this thesis proposes a Historical Research Management Plan. The proposed plan is subdivided into six phases which reflect everdeepening levels of historic documentation. The phase sequencing guides researchers from objective data collection to subjective evaluation and interpretation, of historic Oregon furniture, using selected documentation strategies for historic furniture in public museums. Since documenting historic Oregon furniture at a state level is currently impractical, this plan may be applied to specific geographic areas and time periods in building toward this broader documentary goal. V CURRICULUM VITA NAME OF AUTHOR: Ross E. Sutherland PLACE OF BIRTH: Quonset Point, Rhode Island DATE OF BIRTH: October 15, 1955 • GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon Southern Oregon State College DEGREES AWA RD ED: Master of Science in Historic Preservation, 1994, University of Oregon Master of Interior Architecture, 1991 , University of Oregon Bachelor of Science in Humanities, 1981, Southern Oregon State College Bachelor of Science in Art, 1979, Southern Oregon State College AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Historic Architectural Records Historic Preservation Education PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Architectural Archivist, Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1989-94 "Working Conference on Establishing Principles for the Appraisal and Selection of Architectural Records," Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal, 1994 "Architectural Records: Identification, Preservation and Access," Society of American Archivists 56th Annual Meeting, Montreal, 1992 Architectural Archivist, Lane County Historical Museum Library/Archive, Eugene, 1990-91 Architectural Archivist, Architecture and Allied Arts Library, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 1988-89 Vl ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank each committee member for their assistance with this project along with Barbara Abrams, John Brucksch, James Carmin, M. C. Cuthill, Toby Deemer, James Hamrick, Daye Hulin, Kelly James, Gloria Jaster, Karen Johnson, Gretchen I Luxenberg, Barry MacIntosh, Barbara Martin, Stefan Nagel, Keith Richard, Martha Rowe, Judith Sellars, and Betty Troxclair. In addition, I offer the following document as a tangible expression of my unending gratitude for the love and support of my Mother, family and friends who have been the guiding force for its completion. They include: Jill Chappel, Robin Clark, John Collins, Sue Curley, Jess Durfee, Paula Eckman, Larry Edwards, Sylvia Elliott, John Gainer's Inspirational Sounds, Ronda Garrotto, Brent Herrmann, Historic Preservation Program students, Mary Horvat, The Francis Family, Steve Kem, Randy Kidder, Anita Lacy, LaV erne, Molly Myers, Joel and Terry Narva, Byron and Sherry O'Shea, Paul Owens, Eunice Rounds, Carmen Schleiger, Pastor Marguerite Scroggie and the Metropolitan Community Church, Michael Shellenbarger, Dave Skilton, Cheri Snell, the Special Collections Staff, Shelley Sump, the Sutherland Families, Alice Talmadge, Lisa Teresi- Burcham, Larry Thomas and Bob Upward. You have touched my heart, expanded my perspectives, strengthened my faith in God and reassured me that my inner resources were sufficient to bring this project to completion. Vll TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ... ....... ... ...... ... ........ .. .... ... ... ............... ...... ... ...... .. ... ..... ..... ....... .... 1 Notes ........ ........... .. ... .... ... ..... ... .. ... ............. ............ ... .............. ....... ... .. .. ............ 11 II. THE COLLECTION, DOCUMENTATION AND EXHIBITION OF I HISTORIC OREGON FURNITURE ................. ... ............ ..... ..................... ... 12 The Oregon Historical Society ........................................ ........................... ....... 12 State Emergency Relief Administration Manuscript Project and the Historical Records Survey ........ .......... .. .. .. ... ............... ....... .. .... ... ... ......... .. 13 The Historic Oregon Furniture Collection of Mrs. Ruth Powers .... ... ... ...... ...... 17 The Recent Documentation and Exhibition of Historic Oregon Furniture ... .. ...2 4 Conclusion ...... .. .. ...... ......................... .. ... ....... ... ... ............... .......... ......... ..... .. .... 30 Notes ...... ....... ........... .... ..... ...... ....... .. .. .... .... .... .. ........ .......... .. .... .... ..... .. .... .. ....... 35 III. SELECTED DOCUMENTATION STRATEGIES FOR HISTORIC FURNITURE IN PUBLIC MUSEUMS .. ... ............ .... ... .... ...... .. .. .... ... ..... ...... .40 Collecting and Preserving ............ ......... ...... .......... .... .......... ... ..... ..................... .40 Exhibition and Interpretation ... .... .. .. ..... ................. .............. ... ......... ...... ... ... ..... .5 0 Conclusion ... ... ...... .. .......................................................................... ... ..... ...... 102 Notes .. .. ....... ..................................................... ... ........................ ... ...... ...... .... 104 IV. A HISTORICAL RESEARCH MANAGMENT PLAN FOR HISTORIC OREGON FURNITURE .......... ... ......... ..... .......... ........ ...... ... ...... .... ..... ......... . 110 The Proposed Research Plan ... ................ .... ... ....... ..... ...... ... ... ..... ..... ... .......... . 112 Notes ......... .... .................................. ...... ... ... ....... .... .... .......... ......... ... .. .. .......... 135 V. SELECTED OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTINUED RESEARCH ON HISTORIC OREGON FURNITURE ... ....... ......... ... ... .... .. .... ...... ... .... .... .... ... 137 Notes .. .... ... ... ... .. ..... ............ ............. .......... ...... ....... ...... ............ .... .................. 142 BIBLIOGRAPHY .. .................. .... ...... .. .. ..... ... ....... ... .. ... ...... ...... ............ .. ............ ............. 143 Vlll LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. A National Park Service Task Directive ..... ... ........ ......... ....... ..... .... ... .. .. ... ..... ..... ... .... 6 2. A National Park Service Task Directive .. .. .... ...... ..... ..... ........ .... .. ... ... ....... .... ........ ..... 7 I 3. The Inappropriate Disposition of Historic Oregon Furniture ............ ..... .. .. .... ..... ... . 10 4. Pioneer Furniture on Exhibition at the Oregon Historical Society Around 1913 ... ... ... .... ... ... ....... .......... ... .. ........ ..... .. ....... ... .... ................ .. 14 5. Pioneer Furniture on Exhibition at the Oregon Historical Society Around 1913 ............. .. ....... .... ........ ........... .... ........ ....... .... ... ..... .... ........ 15 6. "Hudson Bay Chairs Once at Old Fort Vancouver" ... ........ .. .... ............. .. .. ......... ..... 18 7. "Aurora Colony Hand-Made Furniture, Wash Stand or Table, Raw Hide Chair, Typical of Furniture Made in 1850s and 60's in Oregon, Owned by Miss Emma Snyder" ... .. ........ .. .... .... ... ... .. .... ..... 19 8. "Spool Bed Made by Aurora Colony Cabinet Makers in the 1870's or 80's, Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Wagner, Wilsonville [Oregon]." ... .... .... .... .. ..... .2 0 9. Mrs. Ruth McBride Powers Inside the General Morton Mccarver house .. ... ... ...... 22 10. A Page From the Survey of Historic Oregon Furniture Owned by Mrs. Ruth Powers ......... ....... ............. .... .. ... ............... .. ........ ... ......... 25 11. A Drop-Leaf Table Constructed by Thomas Williams in 1856 .. .... ......................... 27 12. Historic Oregon Furniture Featured in the "Webfoots and Bunchgrassers: Folk Art of the Oregon Country" Exhibition . .............. ...... ... ... 29 13. Oregon Furniture Manufactured by the Bentwood Furniture Company .... ..... .. ... ...3 4 14. Identifying Marks from Historic Furniture ..... ..... .. ..... ...... .... ............... .... ..... ..... ... . .42 15. Identifying Marks from Historic Furniture ..... ... .. ... .... .. .. .... ... .. ..... ........ .. ....... ... ..... .42 16. Identifying Marks from Historic Furniture .... .......... ........ ........ ..... .. ....... .. .. ... ... ...... .42 17. Identifying Marks from Historic Furniture ......... ..... .. ..... .... .... ....... ...... ......... ... ..... . .42 18. An Oregon Furniture Dealer's Label from the Early 1900s ................... ... .. .. .... .. .... .43 lX Page 19. A Checklist of Cabinetmakers .................. ................... ....... ............ ..... .. .......... ..... .. .44 20. A Page Reprinted From a Historic Furniture Catalogue ............................ .......... ... .45 21. A Checklist of Cabinetmakers .. ..... .. .. ... .... ..... .... ...... ............. .... .............................. .46 • 22 . An Accession Card From a Small County Museum ............................................. . .48 23. An Accession Card Used by the National Park Service ............. .... ... ......... ............ .49 24. The Exhibition of Historic Furniture as Individual Artifacts ... ..... .................. ......... 52 25. The Exhibition of Historic Furniture Within a Historically Compatible Environment.. ...... ..... .. ........................................ ....... ....... .. .......... ..5 3 26 Shaker Furniture Making Tools ............ ... ...... ..... ....................... ...... .... ............. ....... 56 27. Period Furniture Advertising Materials ................................................. ... .. .. .... .... ... 57 28. A Historic Photograph of a Shaker Woodshop .............. .. .... ............ ... .. .. .......... .... .5 8 29. A Craftsman's Furniture Design Drawing ..... ................................... .. ......... ........ ....5 9 30. An Architect's Furniture Design Drawing .............. ... ......................................... ..... 60 31. A Page From Richard Randall Jr. 's Exhibition Catalogue ..... ...... .. .. .. ..... ................. 61 32. A Page From Richard Randall Jr.'s Exhibition Catalogue .......... ....... ... .. .. ........ ..... .. 62 33. A Page From Charles F. Montgomery's Exhibition Catalogue ..... ..... ... ... ...... ...... ... 63 34. A Page From the Bybee Collection Exhibition Catalogue ........... ..... ....... ... ........... .. 65 35. A Page From the Bybee Collection Exhibition Catalogue ...... ... ... ... .... ... ... ........ .... .. 66 36. Furniture Labels Reproduced in Montgomery's Exhibition Catalogue ... ............. .... 67 37. Cabinetmaker's Biographies in Montgomery's Exhibition Catalogue ........... ......... .. 68 38. A Measured Drawing of Historic Furniture ... .. ...... ... .......... .. ...... .... .. ..... ...... .. ........ .6 9 39. A Page From the Texas Furniture Survey Catalogue ....... ................. ..... ... .............. 72 40. A Page From the Checklist of Texas Cabinetmakers .. ....... .. .... ... ......... .. ... .. .. ...... ....7 3 X Page 41. The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Art's Field Research Program .............. .. ......... ... ..... ...... .... ...... ..... .... ......... .... ............. 74 42. Researchers at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Art's Research Center ........ ... .. .... ................................. .... ..... ........... ... .... ..... ........... ... 76 • 43 . An Index Card with Information Transcribed From Historic City Directories .... .... .. .... ............ ......... .. ..... ... .......... ...................... ....... ............. 77 44. An Index Card with Information Transcribed From Historic Newspapers ................................................ ... .... .... .... ......... .............................. 78 45 . The Data Collection Sheet Used by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts .... ... ........ ........ .. .. ... ........... ........... ........ .. ..... ...... ... .................... .8 0 46. The Data Collection Sheet Used by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts to Record Case Pieces ... ....... .... ........ ... ... .... .. ........ .. ..... ............ 81 47. The Verso of the Data Collection Sheet Used by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts to Record Case Pieces .. ..... .... .. ............. ...... .. ... ......... 82 48. A Data Collection Sheet From the New Mexico Furniture History Project... .......... 83 49. A Data Collection Sheet From the New Mexico Furniture History Project... ..... ... ..8 4 50. Photographs From the New Mexico Furniture History Project .............. ........ ..... ... 85 51. A Piece of Manufactured Furniture Imported to New Mexico in the Late 1890s .... ... .................... ................ ... ....... ....... ............... ... ... ......... ..... 86 52. A Period Photograph of Original Furnishings in Eleanor Roosevelt's Dining Room ...... ... .. .... ........... .... ....... ..... ......................... .9 1 53. A Page From the Item Level Inventory of All Original Furnishings ........ ........... ... .. 92 54. A Floor Plan with Elevations Showing the Placement of the Original Furnishings ... ... ... ... .. ..... .... ... .. ..... ... ... .. ... .... .. ........................... .. 93 55. The Precedent for A Director:y of Furniture Makers, Manufactures and Merchants .. ......... ....... .... ........ .. .. ......... .. .... ....... ... .. .. ........ ... 114 56. The precedent for the Bibliography in A Director:y of Furniture Makers. Manufacturers and Merchants .. .... ..... ... .... ....... ... .... .... .. . 115 57. A Furniture Book on Historic Furniture Depicting Historic Oregon Furniture ...... ......... ............ .... ............ ..... .... .. ..... ... ..... ...... ..... 117 XI Page 58. The Precedent for Biographical Index of Makers. Manufacturers and Merchants .............................................................. .. .... .. .. 119 59. Transcribed Census Records Which May be Reviewed for A Biographical Index of Makers. Manufactures and Merchants ............ .... .. .. . 120 • 60. A Furniture Advertisement Which Should be Photocopied for the Project's Files ...................................................................... .. ...... .. ...... 122 61. An Example of a National Guide to Manuscript Collections ................................ . 124 62. A Finding Aid Which Should be Photocopied for the Project's Files ................... 125 63. A Finding Aid Which Should be Photocopied for the Project's Files ........ ... ........ 126 64. A Finding Aid Which Should be Photocopied for the Project's Files .......... .... ... .. 127 65. Visual Materials Which Should be Photocopied for the Project's Files .......... ... ... 128 66. Visual Materials Which Should be Photocopied for the Project's Files .... ..... ... .... 129 67 . Visual Materials Which Should be Photocopied for the Project's Files ................ 130 68. A Photograph of Historic Oregon Furniture ... ...... ... ...... .............................. ....... .. 131 69. Documentation on Historic Furniture From an Unexpected Source . ... ...... .. ......... 138 70. A Tabloid Article Concerning Historic Furniture ....... ....... .... ................................ 140 I CHAPTER! INTRODUCTION ... furniture is an important symbol of life in the western world. It is more intimately connected with people's existence than any other • household article. We live with it day and night Furniture is certainly as important to our well being as architecture. 1 For nearly a century Oregon museums and private collectors have preserved and exhibited historic Oregon furniture. In the late 19th century the Oregon Historical Society began acquiring pieces related to the early pioneer migration and has displayed these pieces periodically in their exhibition spaces (Fig. 4 and 5). Mrs. Ruth Powers initiated the state's largest private collection of historic Oregon furniture in the mid-1920s, -a collection which is currently displayed, in part, at 21 historic properties around the state. Today crafted and manufactured pieces of historic Oregon furniture are being safeguarded in various museums, private collections and historic house museums across the state. The master bedroom, off the sitting room, is the only room fully furnished in period style [at the Shelton-McMurphey-Johnson House (Eugene, Oregon - 1887-88)]. It's roped off, so people can look but not walk into it, with the Sheltons' Eastlake bedroom set as its dominant feature. There's no question that it's the Sheltons' bed. On the backside of the headboard, there's still a label from the Oregon Furniture Manufacturing Co. in Portland listing Dr. Shelton's name and Eugene as his address. 2 The research and documentation of Oregon's historic furniture industry, however, has not kept pace with ongoing furniture research projects in other areas of the country. To begin to address this lack of documentation on historic Oregon furniture, the Cooperative Museum Commission, Eugene, Oregon, submitted a funding application to the National Endowment for the Humanities (N.E.H.), in fall of 1983, to organize a traveling exhibition "Early Furniture of Oregon, 1833-1883".3 2 The Cooperative Museum Commission, (CMC) in collaboration with the University of Oregon Historic Preservation Program, is organizing the first comprehensive traveling exhibit of hand-crafted furniture produced in Oregon from 1833 (the onset of Euro-American settlement) to 1883 (the end of the period of isolation due to the completion of the railroad). The exhibit will be organized historically and thematically in four sections: Period of Initial Settlement; Period of Greatest Settlement; Period of Continued Growth/fermination of the Pioneer Era; Furniture Technology. The disciplines of history, art history and interior architecture will be encompassed in a composite picture of early pioneer furniture and life through the initial settlement era. Fine examples of Oregon-made furniture and wood working tools will be borrowed from museums and private collections in Oregon. These objects along with historic and contemporary I photographs, maps, historic accounts, illustrations and replicate details of wood joinery will acquaint visitors with the early furniture craft in Oregon and the impact of cultural and environmental influences on this tradition. This project, aimed at a general audience, will be shown in four Oregon communities located within the region where early settlement occurred.4 In June 1984 commission members received a letter from the Program Officer for the N.E.H. stating their application "was not recommended for support. "5 Accompanying this letter were several peer reviews of the grant proposal, from leading furniture scholars and museum professionals, which discussed the shortcomings of the grant proposal. The project under consideration, a study of furniture made in Oregon between 1833 and 1883, is one with great potential. We know little about furniture made in the Northwest in the 19th Century and, if we are to understand American furniture, we must have local studies such as this one. However, although the idea is a good one, the design of the project has some serious flaws, both with respect to research and to budget. When comparing this proposal with on-going regional furniture history projects in Arkansas, Texas and New Mexico, evidence suggests that those responsible for the project are not aware of current research strategies in local furniture history. Although one of the individuals involved has identified and documented numerous examples of Oregon furniture, it would appear that no one has carried out a thorough study of the census to identify possible furniture makers and also to identify furniture merchandisers. This is standard procedure now, and to not follow such a procedure suggests that those responsible for the project do not know the questions which should be asked. Such studies place the individual pieces of furniture in the larger context of the furniture trade, and may also clarify questions regarding the source of the furniture. . .. Wood analysis, studies of census, tax and estate records, along with examination of port records, are needed if the project is to stand.6 Plans to submit a revised grant application were abandoned the following year after a search for a qualified furniture historian, to assist with the project, proved unsuccessful. 3 The "on-going regional furniture history projects" described by the grant reviewer are extensive statewide surveys of historic furniture which combine indepth document searches with the recordation of surviving pieces.7 Though considered standard procedure by furniture scholars, a furniture survey of this magnitude usually involves numerous researchers gathering historic documentation over a period of years or even decades. At the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) for example, over forty researchers I have spent the past twenty five-years examining numerous types of historic documents to develop a comprehensive data base of Southern craftsmen working before 1820.8 Since 1968 MESDA's researchers have been pouring over newspapers, wills, inventories, government records, and other documents in search of information on craftsmen working in the south. "We have almost finished [reviewing] all of the newspapers before 1820," says Brad Rauchenburg, the director of research. "But this is a never-ending endeavor. "9 To understand stylistic variations, design motifs, construction techniques and the use of materials, MESDA field researchers have recorded and photographed over 17,000 examples of historic decorative arts, including historic furniture. 10 Although furniture surveys, such as the New Mexico Furniture History Project, have limited this research process to three years, the reviewer's suggestion that a similar project should be undertaken in Oregon fails to address the extensive planning, coordination and resource expenditure a survey of this scale requires. In the decade since the Cooperative Museum Commission's funding application was submitted to the N.E.H. the disparity between the documentation of historic Oregon furniture and historic furniture in other areas of the country has grown. This discrepancy reflects, in part, the lack of historic documentation on historic Oregon furniture and the growing importance of social, cultural and women's history. The objective of this thesis is to expedite the documentation of historic Oregon furniture by developing a proposed 4 Historic Research Management Plan which incorporates established research methods for historic furniture. This thesis addresses this objective by: 1. Describing the existing documentation on historic Oregon furniture and identifying specific projects which would benefit from additional study. 2. Documenting selected research methods for historic furniture in public museums as precedents in developing a Historical Research Management Plan for historic Oregon I furniture. 3. Proposing a Historical Research Management Plan for historic Oregon furniture which recommends the establishment of an Oregon nonprofit. tax-exempt education corporation to coordinate the phased research and produce suggested publications. 4. Articulating opportunities for continued research and documentation of historic Oregon furniture. This proposed Historical Research Management Plan for historic Oregon furniture is based on two National Park Service planning documents. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation developed Historical Research Management Plans to guide research projects for several national parks. Historical Resource Study Proposal, EDIS-H-11, is a Historical Research Management Plan whose purpose is to evaluate the historical resources of the Edison National Historic Site [West Orange, New Jersey], to review the research accomplished at the Site and to recommend research priorities for the future to serve as guidelines for the interpretive development and operation of the site. 11 The Edison plan is divided into chapters which detail: the park story and purpose; historical resources of the park; the status of research; research needs; a summary of approved research proposals; and library and archive resources. 12 In the mid 1970s Historical Research Management Plans were replaced with Task Directives which were incorporated into the Resource Management Plans of individual parks. 13 The Task Directive outlines proposed research in phases, lists resulting project documents and identifies project 5 personal (Figs. 1 and 2). Basic characteristics from these two planning documents have been adapted in developing a statewide research plan for all types and periods of historic Oregon furniture. As background to the plan, Chapter II describes past efforts to collect, document and exhibit historic Oregon furniture. Complimenting the preservation efforts of the Oregon Historical Society and Mrs. Ruth Powers are the documentary projects of the State • Emergency Relief Administration and the Historical Records Survey of the 1930s. In the mid-1970s Robert McCarl produced a thesis on Aurora Colony Furniture: A Model for Folkloristic Interpretation of Museum Artifacts and in the 1980s Mrs. Powers' furniture collection was partially surveyed by Bonnie W. Parks and James Mazza, then students at the University of Oregon. Historic Oregon furniture has been included in several exhibitions over the past twenty years including: "A Piece of the Old Tent" (Lane County Pioneer Museum - 1976), "Made in Oregon" (Oregon Historical Society - 1976) and "Webfoots and Bunchgrassers: Folk Art of the Oregon Country" (University of Oregon Museum of Art, Oregon Historical Society and the Smithsonian Institution - 1980-81). The selected research methods for historic furniture in public museums, presented in Chapter III, may be categorized by their use in collecting, preserving, exhibiting and interpreting historic furniture within museum collections. Researching historic furniture during the collecting phase usually focuses on the identification of the maker and describing the provenance, history and physical attributes of the piece. When repairs, restoration or conservation is required, a piece may be subjected to rigorous physical or chemical analysis prior to treatment Researching historic furniture for museum exhibitions has traditionally been characterized by two complimentary strategies. Historic pieces which are exhibited as individual artifacts are often investigated to identify the maker, date of construction, geographic origin and relationships to period design trends and technological innovations. In contrast, historic furniture displayed in house museums may be researched to document 6 Task Directive Crater Lake Historic Landscape Study Th i s project will be conducted over a one-year period, beginning in FY'89, and involves research and design rec011111endations for the historic landscape of the Rim Village at Cr ater Lake National Park. The purpose of the project is to document the historic landscape design, identify hist0ric remnants, and provide guidelines for rehabilitating/ restor i ng the • historic landscape as part of the phased rehabilitation of the Rim Village . The project will be divided into two Phases as outlined below . Funding for the first project will be provided to the Pacific Northwest Region from the Denver Service Center for monies appropriated for planning the rehabil i tation of the Rim Village. PHASE 1: October 1, 1988 - June 1, 1989 Research; Historic Landscape Documentation/Field Survey * Research historic photos, maps, drawings, written accounts and other information on file at Crater Lake National Park, the Regional Office, the National Archives at San Bruno, Ca l iforn i a and Sand Point, Washington, and other state and local repositories. Conduct oral histories as appropriate. * Identification and graphic depiction of histor i c landscape components in the form of historic landscape base maps. * Review of existing conditions and alternative des i gn proposal for rehabilitation of Rim Village. * Evaluation of significant historic landscape patterns and components according to National Register criteria. * Review of findings with Park, Regional Office and DSC, June 1989. PHASE 2: June 1, 1989 - September 30, 1989 * In consultation with Park, Regional and DSC project personnel, identify historic landscape design issues for the Rim Village. * Based on historical research and documentation, provide DSC project pl anners with detailed guidelines for reestablishing significant hi storic components, maintaining historic remnants, and rehabilitating the historic landscape at Rim Village. * Final review of recomnendations : September/October 1989. Fig. 1. A National Park Service Task Directive. (Source: Gretchen Luxenberg and Cathy Gilbert, Crater Lake Historic Landscape Study (Seattle: Pacific Northwest Region, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1988), 1.) 7 ~ TASK DIRECTIVE Crater Lake Historic Landscape Study, 2. Products *Phase 1: 2 base maps a. Exist i ng conditions; documenting existing landscape features and historical remnants at the rim. b. Historic Base Map: documenting landscape features as they existed at the rim at the end of the major development thrust of the late 1920s-1940. *Phase 2: • Guidelines for rehabilitation of the rim: should include documentation of historic use and circulation patterns, recorrmended treatments for landscape structures and features (such as stone walls and associated landscape furnishings), recorrrnended plant list and general guidelines for placement within the context of the redevelopment plan. Specific issues that need to be addressed to allow for development of construction drawings will be determined at the June Park/Region/DSC review. Phase 3: (FY'90) Historical Landscape Architect Gilbert will be available for continuing consultation with DSC planners in the development · of the final site design and construction drawings for significant historic landscape resources, complete scope of work will be developed at the end of FY89. ($15,000) Phase 4: (FY'91) A funding request of $15,000 will be made for Historical Landscape Architect Gilbert, to work with the A&E on a Historic Landscape Preservation Guide based on the final plan and construction documents for the site. Project Personne l * Historical Landscape Architect (GS-9/1): Cathy Gilbert * Project Historian (GS-9/1): Gretchen Luxenberg Phase 1 g. 2 Funding (FY'89): $35,000 to cover salaries/benefits, supplies and travel. Phase 3 Funding (FY'90): $15,000 to cover salary/benefits and travel- Gilbert Phase 4 Funding proposed (FY'91): SlS,000 to cover benefits and travel- Gilbert John J. Reynolds Charles R. Odegaard Manager Regional Director Denver Service Center Pacific Northwest Region Fig. 2. A National Park Service Task Directive. (Source: Gretchen Luxenberg and Cathy Gilbert, Crater Lake Historic Landscape Study (Seattle: Pacific Northwest Region, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1988), 2.) 8 the type, style and placement of individual pieces to enhance the historic accuracy of the installation. Interpreting historic furniture exhibited in either of these museum settings may be researched to a greater depth to illuminate the social and cultural history of individual pieces. Chapter IV outlines a proposed Historical Research Management Plan, using an illustrated Task Directive format, which is subdivided into six phases reflecting • everdeepening levels of documentation. Since documenting historic Oregon furniture is currently impractical at the state level, this proposed research plan may be implemented in smaller geographic areas, such as individual firms, districts, cities, counties or regions, which build toward broader documentary goals. Using this proposed Historical Research Management Plan will enable future researchers to limit the scope of their projects by area, time period and level of documentation. Phase I of the plan focuses on compiling a comprehensive listing of historic Oregon furniture makers, manufacturers and merchants in the selected study area. This list would be employed to develop a comprehensive biographical index, in Phase II, which would include information gleaned from historic census records, periodicals and newspapers. Phase ID outlines a survey of historic manuscript materials, visual materials, extant piece of historic furniture and related artifacts in public museums, house museums, libraries and archives within the selected study area In the Phase IV, similar materials are documented in private collections including churches, government buildings, fraternal organizations and antique shops. Phase V of the research project encourages the installation of pennanent exhibitions of historic Oregon furniture in museums near the study area. These exhibitions would be documented in an illustrated catalogue. Further opportunities for documenting historic Oregon furniture are presented in Phase VI which is described in Chapter V. This proposed Historical Research Management Plan for historic Oregon furniture has been developed on two complementary intellectual levels. Implementation of the 9 proposed plan would provide invaluable historic documentation on aspects of Oregon's historic furniture industry and help establish the state's reputation as a nationally significant producer of furniture. In addition, the resulting documentation could assist scholars, from various disciplines, with related research and aid efforts to refurnish local historic interiors. As a research document. this thesis provides a contextual overview on the research of historic furniture which enables researchers to develop projects of limited scope which build • toward full documentation of Oregon's historic furniture industry. It may also prompt archival repositories to acquire surviving documentation on Oregon's furniture industry and encourage museums and private collectors to preserve extant pieces of historic Oregon furniture within appropriate settings (Fig. 3). 1 0 ONCE FIN'E FURNITURE. RELICS OF EARLY DAYS IN FEDERAL BUILDING, CARTED AWAY AS JUNK --·--·-- -. ---------- --------~- - - -- - - - --- ------ -- ----- -· -·•-------- 01<1 H igh- Backed DHrnport., Cha ir. and Duks. Rr okrn and S rarr,d hut or S turdr Walnut and nf A ctiqu • Ar,, Sold to Hi,ch,. t !liddu-Thrce Truck Load• for $3.H . • One o! thr('('> t.nJckloa.da of brokf"'n and dJK&tded chalr•. tab.Je9. d,..1'• and MJl'• r-arte-d aww..r from t.he old fed - ~ra.J huUdl.nc la1't t·rtday. M\K'.h of the 1ood• once ~raot,d the ol~• ot hl~h i;o,·eronwr-al offlcka.l• her~. BY LA'\YRf7".',"("E P' . UA P. BER. , 11.w.a. y that.,cl'l'U ld ever ag-a.tn he o! if:rect -.:d 1n t h o '70a. S c me o( that finP. Hh.;P. - ri ACK£Dd.a ·; ,-nport1whtch l, A:uc to Ute ,t'O\' e rnmen1." "a.id l1r.~ old (lJrnitu r o •t ili occu;i tea •p,&c• Ul l:'Ta...-.: ,. 17~e ot r;c:~1 of !N1iera1 '. Hut c- hJc• . .. A ll of the p ie c:.e• ""'°r~ j th"!I o ffice• nf the prMe.ttt jud,tcl , rnyond repa.lr . ] PJJbe-rt fi . Bean Utd Juho H. McNa!"y . o (!ki;lb or hi · h etand1cg in tlie old ; N,,r,,. ot It ha..a bef'n ln uae for many '. l~ lho e;ft earl;, day■ ct tbe bu lld- r . • j,; vl!'o...rN a.nit It h a.d etmp ly cluttf'.red u p , lng • e!Xle l~n.ce. all or lt1e impor tant -~"r&.J bu udu! ~ f(J ye,,.n, or ~ , a.go . ~rt 1ih-: 11. ttir. nnd ba.af"m ent wbrr~ \t hu 1teGf'lra.1 otrkl.e ■ Ln Of"l'Ton were Q.U&l' · ch a..ire . tabl ~s . J.,-~k• ti..00 ru,p. v.:h.kh j bf:-~n e:tOTtr for It wh f"n •·'! ws.ntM to (o!! lce a o! the 00Dector11 of lnt.e-rn11 of the r. o rtt. w f"l'l cou:H ry . "-·enl t.h'fJ : ,11,-f.. . M;-O o! IL Th~ AJukl'I. J unk com- . rev~nue a.nd c-uato rru: . On th« aecond ••y of ~ l11 cs..r~f-ci gu,ori_. . Frida:-,· whrn '. ;, a.nr ~a ,· ~ u• t ?,c ooly bM. receivf' d. 1noor WAI' 1h,- o !" fk,, r,( th• clerk of thrt-., bi.K t4-uck 11 h&.ck" rth lai,.1; · · :a.nc1 Fra.ok '\A." . Tobia.A. a..u:U.la.nt ,otfke boUd.icz-. a tuf( nnd w-a.s h: <" k y to c.r-! 1h at mu ch. t1Upf":--int,,.nti fl ot o C m11..1l• tor the po■ t- : All () ( the 5e o (!ic-~ ,. -~re f'urnl • b~d a.ccordin(' to T or:l H 1Jtd:!ni.-. 111t• 1,;t - l o!f ir: r . ·"· Ii o r rh,m &C'"f'eed the f u rn! - !tti. ,nhd blu k. T. a lnur, 5.lld one o{ thf! ~t CC.'t1M 1&:i (J ( tht' P,J:it c, {.hc.e hulu1- , t11r• hu ciueed b4-)' (. . -nd l.Jope o( re- 1· rtr.f"•l pl"t-r~ 11 In f'ACh -.H w a1 a h l,ch- inK, Tru(', e. n ffi.f' of th..• J'!"!"C""" wf"re !l.tA.!r · baC"Jc:~ d Av fl n:>'):-t. Tne pri:iclpftl dH- w1U..out l, s;:1. ot.h~r1o ~-i:Mul arm e . i Yt: t. who kn.ow, 1j..u.at Yb l,: h of the 1!erenct'" Mt,,q•f':n t11~ da\·~ rt .s In .ome w1th c.t:. t ~~r.k1' . a.n~ ·nlhi! r,. w 1th- ; hi ,t ol d ~uy cb&lra wl.Jt the one tn i thfl judie' " of!ir..e ■ an ,1 thoa.e of 0th.fi r out trl0e" or ~o p• c,r bolt•Jm~ or u ,!- ! ~-r.kh Ju.dg~ Martlo P . Dt-a.d-y. who ti, l o (fldal 11 v.·a_. th("> h,,:-.rr ha.ck M d hol•Ltf'!.o~:. or ,,,,hAt.t~.-"!" m t ,: ht t'C': ! 1t,.•J19 ttuumt'd t ht' olt'i<"t of Orc.«on ·s 1fln cr up hautt,r-.."l;,; in t!"'l11 qu arte.i-t1 c,/ o "cl!"'~:- y t c k <~p tbln1 at U lt; pull.J k · nr.~ fr'ldl'ral Jurtgt . me )· have rc.a..r.hf"'1 \ the Jurl f'lt • . •~2~~~ s.~ f, 11 cut !cl old cod1'rr i :~:\:;~:;\.,1~'"\~i;_:;rtln~~~;·!e~!~ 1\mos;'~ ~h:t.erM!"1~l ~,~:;r-.bi~o~! ~~~ whtn h f" ,:-ouc!A bj • p,cnn i es . and h,· i A I l-"o!' 2.11 y"'4.tfll Jud i ,i Deady ocnl pi~ the t ployea or loo~ ~t&.nrtrn,: " ·&rchN:1 U1r. ta.at u ca.re(u i ""'·ncn t.,. <· 1uti f.J f! h\..i i feG.er a.1 Dt'"n c h her e- . and ruuch ~len• ! thrtfl b l,e t.ruc.iu... ladr ~ ...-ith thdr bu-~•- ~ !ijld "t'·a.lo~t ~ 1-Cf"d h t.a of!\cc when : onc.e !lne tul"?'!.ft un., pu ll awa.y. Throe · . •-r~ ,..aa a<>tWn( !?Id and t ~'-?I i tbe p1'<5Ml t ~ d c r a I buDdln( ,....., , tn.clv~4d: !H ~ -ff. Fig. 3. The inappropriate disposition of historic Oregon furniture. (Source: Lawrence F. Barber, "Once Fine Furniture, Relics of Early Days in Federal Building, Carted Away as Junk," Portland (Oregon) Oregonian 14 September 1930, sec. 1, p. 16:2-4.) 1 1 Notes 1. Marian Page, Furniture Designed by Architects (New York: Watson-Guptil Publications, 1980), 7. 2. Jim Boyd, "The View's a Butte, Historic Home Opens to Public," Eugene (Oregon) Register Guard 16 November 1992, D 2:1. • 3. The Lane County Cooperative Museum Commission (CMC) was an intergovernmental consortium including: Lane County; Lane Community College; Lane Education Service District; University of Oregon and the City of Eugene. 4. Carole Daly, "National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Application," October 23, 1983. Early Oregon Furniture Traveling Exhibition File, Office of Research and Development, School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon, Eugene. 5. Sally Yerkovitch, Washington, D.C., to Carole Daly, Eugene, 19 June 1984, Early Oregon Furniture Traveling Exhibition File, Office of Research and Development, School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon, Eugene. 6. Outside Reviewer, unknown, to National Endowment for the Humanities Museums and Historical Organizations Program, Washington, D.C., 9 March 1984, Early Oregon Furniture Traveling Exhibition File, Office of Research and Development, School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon, Eugene. 7. Ibid. 8. Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Computer Guide to Index of Early Southern Artists and Artisans (New York: Clearwater Publishing Company, Inc, 1985), 3. 9. Rick Mashburn, "Collective Genius," Historic Preservation, July-August 1990, 54. 10. Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, "The MESDA Research Center," [photocopy], Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem. 11. George J. Svejda, Historical Research Management Plan, Edison National Historic Site, West Orange, New Jersey (Washington, D.C.: Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1969), ii. 12. Ibid., i: 13. Barry MacIntosh, Historian, National Park Service, Division of History, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., interview by the author, 13 October 1993. 1 2 CHAPTER II THE COLLECTION, DOCUMENTATION AND EXHIBITION OF HISTORIC OREGON FURNITURE The exhibit ["Early American Arts and Crafts from the Earliest Times to 1810"', held in the Little Gallery at the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts, April 12 to 24, 1949] has had a number of pleasant bi products, the most stimulating of which has been the discovery of an Oregon made type of simple cabinetry dating from the pioneer period of this territory in the 1830s and 40s and 50s not of course included in this exhibit. 1 For nearly a century Oregon museums and private collectors have been acquiring, documenting and exhibiting historic Oregon furniture. Their preservation efforts have typically focused on hand-crafted pieces constructed between the 1840s and the 1890s. In developing a research plan for historic Oregon furniture, which documents all types of furniture from each period, it is important to use existing documentation as a starting point for future research. This chapter presents a selected history of the collection, documentation, and exhibition of historic Oregon furniture. The Oregon Historical Society One of the state's first public institutions to collect and exhibit historic Oregon furniture was the Oregon Historical Society, which was incorporated in Portland, Oregon on December 17, 1898. The founding Directors, which included the Governor of Oregon and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, viewed the early pioneer migration to the Oregon Country as " ... one of those bold racial movements which have marked the progress of the world's civilizations."2 They were concerned that the pioneer's travels had not been fully 1 3 recorded and that the remaining historical documentation concerning these journeys was in jeopardy. Article II, of the Articles of Incorporation for the Oregon Historical Society states: The object of this corporation and the pursuits in which it proposes to engage shall be the collection, preservation, exhibitions and publication of material of a historical character, especially that relating to the history of Oregon and of the United States; and for the accomplishments of this end, to explore all places of deposit of archaeological matter; to acquire documents, • manuscripts and publications of every description; to obtain narratives and records of the pioneers of the Oregon Territory; to ascertain and preserve the Indian names of mountains, streams and localities in Oregon, and their interpretations and significations; to gather and preserve the Indian traditions relative to the history of the Pacific Northwest prior to white settlement; to maintain a gallery of historical portraiture and an ethnological and historical museum; to publish and otherwise diffuse information relative to the history of Oregon and of the original Oregon territory; and in general to encourage and develop within this state the study of history. 3 In addition to written and printed documentation the Oregon Historical Society also collected historic artifacts associated with the lives of the pioneers. A 1913 photograph of the Oregon Historical Society, then located in Portland's City Hall, shows an agglomeration of historic furniture displayed in every available space (Fig. 4). Visitors to the museum obtained information on each artifact from descriptions on large tags placed on each piece of furniture. A photograph of a bedstead, which came to Oregon around Cape Hom, South America, reveals that the Oregon Historical Society also collected and exhibited pioneer furniture which was imported to Oregon (Fig. 5). Biographies of the furniture makers who produced several pieces in the this collection were later included in the State Emergency Relief Administration Manuscript Project.4 State Emeq;ency Relief Administration Manuscript Project and the Historical Records Survey In the mid 1930s the United States was still feeling the repercussions of the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Numerous state and federal programs were developed to employ 14 I Fig. 4. Pioneer furniture on exhibition at the Oregon Historical Society around 1913. (Source: Oregon Historical Society, negative OrHi 20002.) 1 5 • . ., : ·. .~. =,.. ...:, · . ... ~-- Fig. 5. Pioneer furniture on exhibition at the Oregon Historical Society around 1913. (Source: Oregon Historical Society, negative OrHi 24244.) I 6 and educate people who were displaced by the Depression. Following the release of Civil Works Administration funds, in January, 1934, public adult education classes at the Portland Extension Center were supervised by the General Division of the State System of Higher Education and the Portland Public Schools.5 The State Emergency Relief Administration (S.E.R.A.) assumed responsibility for these classes in the fall of 1934 and continued directing Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) funds into public I projects until the summer of 1935, when these programs were incorporated into the Works Progress Administration.6 Sometime between the fall of 1934 and the summer of 1935 Alfred Powers, Dean of the Portland Extension Center, used State Emergency Relief Administration funds to employ six writers on the S.E.R.A. Manuscript Project, which contained two chapters on Oregon furniture makers.7 Beulah Hurst and Beatrice Carstairs assembled biographical information, oral histories and newspaper advertisements on over forty cabinetmakers, furniture manufacturers and noted furniture dealers into "Early Oregon Cabinetmakers and Furniture Manufacturers, 1836 - 1897" and "Newspaper Advertisements of Early Cabinet Makers and Furniture Manufacturers, 1848 - 1898." The authors also compiled biographical information on carpenters, builders, blacksmiths and wagon makers who may have also constructed furniture. The S.E.R.A. Manuscript project is the first and only manuscript of its kind, on the nineteenth-century furniture industry in Oregon, and extant copies are housed at the Oregon Historical Society and the Oregon Collection at the University of Oregon Knight Library. In October, 1935 Alfred Powers was appointed the Director of the Oregon Federal Writers Program which directed the work of the Historical Records Survey, following its creation in February, 1936. Powers states: "The purpose of the Historical Records Survey, .. . is to discover, preserve and make accessible the basic materials for research on the history of our country. This survey will embrace, as far as possible, all things of 1 7 historical value including public records in the state capitol, county court houses, city halls and town houses, historical and pioneer societies, universities, libraries containing manuscripts of historical value and privately owned collections. It will be concerned with such things as old diaries, letters, maps, statuary, newspapers and published interviews with old timers, photographs and paintings, furniture and farm implements. 8 Power's inclusion of furniture may have been inspired by five mahogany dining chairs, used by Dr. McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver, which he helped return to Oregon in 1934 (Fig. 6).9 Records indicate that towards the end of the 1930s, when the Works Progress • Administration became the Works Projects Administration, the Oregon Historical Records Survey was mostly documenting historic manuscript materials instead of historic artifacts. 10 The amount of historic Oregon furniture actually documented by this survey is unknown, however, several pieces of Aurora Colony furniture were photographed by the W.P.A. before the entire program ended with the United State's entry into World War II (Figs. 7 and 8). 11 The Historic Oregon Furniture Collection of Mrs. Ruth Powers Ruth McBride left the Stanford Law School in 1926 to marry Albert H. Powers, a successful Oregon cattle rancher and lumberman. Her first home in Coos County, Oregon contained a large desk, with a simulated tambour top, constructed by Edward C. Green in the 1860s. 12 The directness of local residents and the availability of pioneer furniture, in abandoned cabins and storage buildings, fueled Mrs. Power's growing interest in pioneer history. Throughout the early years of her marriage, which she devoted to her family and civic organizations, Mrs. Powers continued to collect information and artifacts related to the Oregon pioneers. In 1954, while Regent for the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), Mrs. Powers purchased the Robert Newell House (Champoeg, Oregon - 1850), funded its restoration and donated it to the D.A.R. along with furnishings from her own collection. 13 1 8 • Fig. 6. "Hudson Bay Chairs Once at Old Fort Vancouver." (Source: M. Leona Nichols, "Historic Chairs of Fort Vancouver Returned to Oregon by Owners' Kin," Portland (Oregon) Oregonian 14 January 1934, sec. 4, 3:2-4.) • Fig. 7. "Aurora Colony hand-made furniture, wash stand or table, raw hide chair, typical of furniture made in 1850's and 60's in Oregon, owned hy Miss Emma Snyder." (Source: Anonymous, "W.P.A. Pholo File (4), Marion Counly, 877," Oregon Slalc Library; as reproduced in Rohert Smith McCarl Jr., "Aurora Colony Furniture: A Model for the Folk.101istic Interpretation of Museum Artifacts," (M.S. thesis, University or Oregon, 1974), ii.) ,..... \0 • Fig 8. "Spool bed made by Aurora Colony cabinet makers in the l 870's or 80's, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Wagner, Wilsonville [Oregon] ." (Source: Anonymous, "W.P.A. Photo File (4), Marion County, 876," Oregon State Library; as reproduced in Robert Smith McCarl Jr., "Aurora Colony Furniture: A Model for the Folklo1istic Interpretation of Museum Artifacts," (M.S. thesis, University of Oregon, 1974), 96.) N 0 21 The following year she considered "acquiring and restoring" old houses her avocation which she continued from Portland, Oregon following the death of her husband in 1961. 14 When the Oregon Landmarks Committee was formed in October, 1964 Mrs. Powers was appointed Associate Chairman by Governor Mark 0. Hatfield. The committee directed a new inventory of historic sites in Oregon, based on the Works Progress Administration survey of 1933. They discovered that in the 21 years since the original • survey, over half of the 42 significant sites identified, measured and drawn by the W.P.A. had been demolished and many of those remaining were threatened by destruction or neglect. 15 That same year Mrs. Powers purchased and began restoring the General Morton Matthew Mccarver house (Locust Farm - Oregon City, Oregon - 1850) as her private residence (Fig. 9). This house had originally been prefabricated in Maine and shipped to San Francisco where General Mccarver transferred the materials to his ship, the Ocean Bird, for the journey to Oregon. 16 In March, 1965 Mrs. Powers began the restoration of the Captain Ainsworth house (Oregon City, Oregon - 1850-1852) which was owned by her mother, Mrs. Quincy McBride. That fall the partially restored house was temporarily furnished with pieces from Mrs. Powers' collection and opened for tours to benefit the Oregon Historical Society.17 Even if the sometimes tedious handwork of a good restoration will take a long time, visitors will get the mood of elegant frontier life from the typical furnishings collected by Mrs. Powers. They range from an 1800 sleigh bed, mellowed tables and chairs, to much used china, accessories and old carpets. 18 In January, 1966 the Portland Women's Forum and the Po1tland Chamber of Commerce recognized Mrs. Powers' many preservation activities by naming her Woman of the Year. At that time she had also helped found and furnish the Ox Barn Museum (Aurora, Oregon -1857) and was a member of Salem's Mission Mill Commission, which was planning the restoration of the Jason Lee house (Salem, Oregon - 1841) and the Methodist Parsonage (Salem, Oregon - 1841) using furniture from her collection. 19 22 I NORTHWEST -iJ-rn~ LIVING Fig. 9. Mrs. Ruth McBride Powers inside the General Morton McCarver house. (Source: Helen L. Mershon, "Oregon's Past is Her Present," Portland (Oregon) Oregon Journal 30 May 1975, p. 19:1-2.) 23 The Pioneer House Association of Southwestern Oregon was formed in April, 1967 to restore the John Wagner Log House (Powers, Oregon - 1873) which was purchased by Albert H. Powers Sr., in 1912. Mrs. Powers later donated the entire property to the Pioneer House Association promising to: ... direct furnishing of the house. All will be authentic antiques similar to the original pieces that came over the rugged and winding Coos Bay Wagon Road in the 1870s.20 • In 1969, Mrs. Powers was contacted by a member of the Daughters of the Molalla Pioneers concerning the purchase and restoration of the Horace Dibble house (Molalla, Oregon - 1857). She accepted the project and in 1971 lent a long butcher table and matched set of kitchen chairs to the completed restoration.21 On October 3, 1973 Mrs. Powers presented a speech on early Oregon furniture for the first Antiques Forum Lecture Series sponsored by the Colonial Dames of Ame1ica in Oregon. Her talk focused on early furniture makers in Oregon and she noted that "the railroad was the beginning of the end of fine furniture making in Oregon. "22 This statement paraphrased observations made by G. E. Bradley during his interview for the S.E.R.A. Manuscript Project. 23 Mrs. Powers illustrated her talk with vignettes of historic furniture and descriptions from the 1895 Sears catalogue.24 Mrs. Powers was honored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation at a luncheon in the Decatur House in Washington, D.C. on May 13, 1975. James Biddle, then president of the National Tmst, presented her with a citation for her preservation work in the Willamette Valley which included Old Church (Portland, Oregon - Unknown), the Settlemeier House (Woodburn, Oregon - 1890), the Sullivan Cottage (Oregon City, Oregon - 1870) and the John Boon House (Salem, Oregon - 1847). In addition to these projects, the self avowed "compulsive collector of old furniture" had recently acquired the Odd Fellows Hall (Lake Oswego, Oregon - 1889) and the William Livingston Holmes House (Rose Farm - Oregon City, Oregon - 1847).25 24 On February 25, 1980 Margot Vaughn taped an oral interview with Mrs. Powers in conjunction with Ms. Vaughn's research on Oregon furnishings, 1867 to 1930, which is described in further detail in the following section. During this interview Mrs. Powers discussed the development of her interest in historic preservation, described several early furniture makers, and commented on her work with the Phillip Foster house (Eagle Creek, Oregon - 1883), the William Livingston Holmes House (Rose Farm - Oregon City, Oregon I - 1847) and the Dr. Daniel Stevenson house (Oregon City, Oregon - 1857).26 With the completion of these restoration projects, in the mid 1980s, Mrs. Powers had acquired and restored 13 historic homes, donating nine of them to towns and local histo1ic societies.27 A partial survey of Mrs. Powers' collection of historic Oregon furniture was conducted Spring 1984 by Bonnie W. Parks and James Mazza, then students at the University of Oregon. Historic furniture in six historic houses were selected from twenty- one historic properties containing pieces from Mrs. Powers' furniture collection.28 A survey form was developed to record historical data, physical information and visual materials (Fig. 10). In developing the survey form Ms. Parks adapted existing museum registration procedures to address the specific requirements of the documentation project. During the course of their field work, the initial survey form was further refined to combine written and visual documentation, on nearly 100 pieces, onto individual survey forms. Parks and Mazza's final report included photocopies of each survey fo1m along with a reprint of Mrs. Power's journal article "Oregon's Early Furniture and Furniture Makers." The Recent Documentation and Exhibition of Historic Oregon Furniture Robert McCarl completed his thesis Aurora Colony Furniture: A Model for the Folkloristic Inter:pretation of Museum Artifacts. at the University of Oregon, in June 1974. Using Aurora Colony furniture as a case study, McCarl employed three interpretive 25 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, SC~OOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARIS Department of Historic Preservation fUiniture collection of Mrs. Ruth Powers Object numbers McC84-C-9 Object name, Wardrobe Picture #1 3: 24 Date collected, c I J 965. Method of acquisition, purchased from lady in Portland who has died . Provenance 1 I Manufacturer·, technician or artisan, Made in Eugene Earliest poss. date, ______ Latest poss. date, ________ Period, Early Oregon Style, __v ~e=rn~a=c~u=l~a~_r ______ Materials 1 __.. :.f-=-i=-r ________________________ Construction techniques, door panels fielded with raised section inside joinery, ~ tools used, Repairs, alterations, Discussions Description, Carved wooden drawer pulls, pressed metal latches with porcelain pulls. Two fielded panels on each door. Small cornice at top, 1 drawer and skirt at bottom. Dimensions, H. 77" w. 40" D. 20 3/4" Fig. 10. A page from the survey of historic Oregon furniture owned by Mrs. Ruth Powers. (Source: Bonnie W. Parks and James Mazza, "The Oregon Furniture Collection of Mrs. Ruth Powers: A Partial Survey." [photocopy], p. 53. Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene.) 26 perspectives to examine chairs, beds, case goods, tables, labor saving devices and tools produced at the Aurora Colony, 1855 to 1879. [The] Historic/Geographic Perspective ... places the artifact in a temporal, historical and geographical frame. It also provides the context in which the artifact was produced, and implies information about its distribution and role in the group . . . . [The] Communicative/A esthetic Perspective ... views the artifact as encoded information, the material manifestation of a human expression which is subject to tradition and group aesthetics .... [The] • Technological/Environmental Perspective ... views the artifact as the final part of a production of man, tool and environment. 29 McCarl's history of the Aurora Colony and documentation of Aurora furniture, using photographs, drawings and written descriptions, is a valuable resource for researchers investigating this historic Oregon furniture type. In 1980 Margot Vaughn conducted a three-term study of Oregon furniture makers and dealers from 1867 to 1930. During the initial phase of her research Vaughn interviewed Mrs. Ruth Powers and developed a list of furniture makers and dealers from city and regional directories. She also created an Analytical Bibliography of manuscripts, visual materials and secondary sources, related to historic Oregon furniture, which are housed at the Oregon Historical Society. The second term Ms. Vaughn documented historic furniture in the collection of the Oregon Historical Society which may have been made in Oregon. The final phase of her research project involved photocopying advertisements for Oregon furniture firms published in the West Shore magazine. A complete copy of Margot Vaughn's research project is housed at the Oregon Historical Society. Historic Oregon furniture was included in three exhibitions in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. "A Piece of the Old Tent" (Lane County Pioneer Museum - 1976) presented a variety of historic artifacts brought to Oregon during the pioneer migration of the 1840s and 1850s. Featured in the exhibition were several trunks and the tools Thomas Williams used to constructed a simple drop-leaf table in 1856 (Fig. 11). "Made in Oregon" (Oregon 27 • Fig. 24 Master carpenter-cabinet maker Thomas i'. Williams [right], brought the tools of his trade, :I including a keyhole saw [#1584], gouge [#61- •i 366], wood file [#61-367], gimlet [#158.3], and If wood file [#1590], with him to Oregon. The tools E are on a table he made in 1856, three years after his arrival to Lane County. \ Williams was well known for his house building and finish work in the .;I; 1 Dexter-Pleasant Hill area. Fig. 11. A drop-leaf table constructed by Thomas Williams in 1856. . (Source: Glen Mason, A Piece of the Old Tent (Eugene: Lane County P10neer Museum, 1976), 23.) 28 Historical Society - 1976) presented at broad range of historic Oregon furniture from Aurora Colony pieces to Oregon furniture manufactured in the Craftsman style.30 "Webfoots and Bunchgrassers: Folk Art of the Oregon County" (University of Oregon Museum of Art, Oregon Historical Society, and Smithsonian Institution - 1980 to 1981) offered an array of Native American, Pioneer, Buckaroo and Immigrant arts. This exhibition contained several pioneer ladderback chairs along with a cradle, bench and • spinning wheel from the Aurora Colony (Fig. 12). In the early 1980s Lane County's Cooperative Museum Commission and the Historic Preservation Program at the University of Oregon began work on a travelling exhibition, "Early Furniture of Oregon, 1833 - 1883".31 The exhibit was based on unpublished information assembled in the mid 1960s by Betty Troxclair, then a graduate student in Home Economics at the Oregon State University. Mrs. Troxclair surveyed hand- crafted furniture made in the Willamette Valley from 1833 to 1883 and collected information about furniture makers, stylistic influences, materials, history and provenance of specific pieces-32 During the period of her research she travelled over 6,000 miles, throughout the Willamette Valley, and documented more than 500 individual pieces of furniture in private collections, museums and historical societies.33 Unfo1tunately Mrs. Troxclair was unable to assemble her research into a final written format and her research materials are unavailable to researchers. In October, 1983 the Cooperative Museum Commission submitted a grant proposal for $75,000 to the National Endowment for the Humanities. "Early Furniture of Oregon, 1833 - 1883" would be a traveling exhibition co-curated by Mrs. Troxclair, Mrs. Powers and Professors Philip Dole and Arthur Hawn of the University of Oregon. The year-long exhibit would travel to four areas of the state introducing viewers to Oregon's hand-crafted furniture making tradition. Fifteen original pieces of furniture would be augmented by two 29 . . . -" . .... - _·,~;{---~ ~--~~~ ~~-~-:~~:~ . ~.•=--r~--~ :-_ .. BE:-S:CH 1855·1879 This bench is now familiarly known as the Th is bench was part of an c.xh1bit , " Front ier Aurora Colony Aurora, Oregon "Drunka rd's Bench," and legend has It that rhe America : The Far \Vest." organized in 1975 by the I Fir bench , which once s.it on rhc porch of a public Bostom Museum of Fine Arts, and it has bcc:n 120" long, 11" h,gh, 24" deep bu1I d ing, was a regular sleeping place fo r town shown m museums ,n Boston . Denver, San Diego , Lent b~· rhc Aurora Colony Hmoncal Society drunks, and rhat tht: sloping armrests provided Kansas City, Mih•,;aukcc , The: Hague , Zurich , ready-made pillows. Essen, and Brussels . ROCKING CHAIR 1855· I 879 Aurora Colony Aurora . Oregon Wood , rawh,dc 13" h,gh, 18" wide, rockers 27½" long ~ .--\urora Colonv made manv slar·back cha irs wuh woven rawh;de seacs-~kers like this one . larger rocke rs wtth arms. ,md setting chairs. The slight backwa rd curve: ro the chair back 1s char.ictc:nsr1c of Colony chairs . 75 Fig. 12. Historic Oregon furniture featured in the "Webfoots and Bunchgrassers: Folk Art of the Oregon Country" exhibition. (Source: Suzi Jones, ed., Webfoots and Bunch1!rassers: Folk Art of the Ore1!on Country (Salem: Oregon Arts Commission, 1980), 75.) 30 dozen photographs, woodworking tools, joinery samples and additional illustrative materials. 34 The Cooperative Museum Commission, (CMC) in collaboration with the University of Oregon Historic Preservation Program, is organizing the first comprehensive traveling exhibit of hand-crafted furniture produced in Oregon from 1833 (the onset of Euro-American settlement) to 1883 (the end of the period of isolation due to the completion of the railroad). The exhibit will be organized historically and thematically in four sections: Period of Initial Settlement; Period of Greatest Settlement; Period of Continued • Growthffermination of the Pioneer Era; Furniture Technology. The disciplines of history, art history and interior architecture will be encompassed in a composite picture of early pioneer furniture and life through the initial settlement era. Fine examples of Oregon-made furniture and woodworking tools will be borrowed from museums and private collections in Oregon. These objects along with historic and contemporary photographs, map, historic accounts, illustrations and replicate details of wood joinery will acquaint visitors with the early furniture craft in Oregon and the impact of cultural and environmental influences on this tradition. This project, aimed at a general audience, will be shown in four Oregon communities located within the region where early settlement occun-ed.35 In June, 1984, the Cooperative Museum Commission received a letter from the National Endowment for the Humanities, informing them that the project was ". .. not recommended for support" .36 Over the next year the grant proposal was reworked and an effort was made to locate a furniture historian for the project Unfo1tunately a revised proposal was never submitted to the National Endowment for the Humanities and plans for the exhibition were cancelled.37 Conclusion In assessing existing documentation of historic Oregon furniture, as a foundation for proposed research, it is important to identify which areas have been omitted and prior research projects which would benefit from additional study. The collection, documentation and exhibition of historic Oregon furniture has traditionally focused on hand-crafted pieces produced between the 1840s and 1890s. In developing a Histo1ical Research Managment 3 1 Plan for historic Oregon furniture it is important to address all types of furniture from every time period. Some readers may be surprised to see the inclusion of objects such as factory-made furniture, plain or utilitarian pieces, or objects made in this century. The principal reason for publishing these pieces is that this institution [the Maryland Historical Society] is an historical society rather than an art museum. The Society has the responsibility to show, to the extent its collection allows, the furniture of all Marylanders of all periods. (Unfortunately, very few objects from the lower income groups or the • earliest periods have survived or can be identified.) Although curators typically love to collect, study and display the truly fine examples, the Society's staff believes that cultural history and documentation are as important as art history and aesthetics. We are also interested in the products of Maryland craftsmen and manufacturers, whether high style or low. The Society does not break new ground to include the newer and less elaborate pieces, however, as several noted scholars in the field have already taken this approach.38 Based on this perspective, the most obvious omission in the existing documentation of historic Oregon furniture has been manufactured furniture. One of Oregon's earliest furniture factories was established at Salem in 1846. For almost twenty years Joseph Watt used water powered machinery in producing furniture, windows, doors and wooden wagon parts.39 In 1857, Hurgren and Shindler began producing furniture on a "large scale" in Portland, which later developed into the state's center for furniture manufacturing.40 Fletcher Linn's memoirs desc1ibe an early steam powered furniture factory his father, David Linn, constructed in Jacksonville sometime in the late 1850s . . . . on the north-west comer of California and Oregon Sts, . . . he erected a very good frame store building 40 feet by 80 feet in size, two stories high, facing east; the lower floor being used for furniture display and sales room. The upper floor was used for storage and finishing room. On the north of this building, also facing east was a small one story room for his office, and it was also later used by my grandfather William Hoffman, for his office. Thirty feet west of this store building was his factory building, 50 feet wide by 120 feet long, facing south on California St., as can be shown by photograph[s] made in the early days by Peter Britt. In this factory building were two circular-saw tables, one single head planer, one Gig-saw for making brackets, etc. then used on most homes, one shaper and one turning lathe, with a couple of good work benches, for 32 necessary work in up-keep. At the rear of this room on the north, was the cabinet shop, with four good work benches, and with plenty of hand tools, store and glue pots. The boiler and engine room was on the east side adjoining the factory building, and contained the grind-stones, and equipment for up-keep and repairs. The plant kept a small crew of twelve to fifteen men, -a pretty fair crew, and a good factory for those days . . . . The machinery was driven by [an] engine fastened on top of the boiler, and generated about 30 to 40 horse-power; and all machines were driven by leather belts, handmade. Pine lumber was used almost exclusively, as it was more readily obtainable from the forest nearby, which father had bought from the government, and within a couple miles from town. Fir timber was used principally for fuel, as it was much harder to work with I equipment then available. ... In the factory, besides the contract work, cheap kitchen tables, and drop-leaf dining tables, and cheap bed-steads were made; and by using Maple and Alder, raw-hide bottom chairs and rockers were made in considerable quantities. A large number of "spool" beds were made also of Pine, and were very popular.41 By 1904 dozens of furniture factories, such as the Oregon Furniture Manufacturing Company, Doernbecher Manufacturing Company and the Ira F. Powers Manufacturing Company, were producing more furniture in Portland than the combined output of Seattle, Tacoma and San Francisco.42 Prior to World War I, furniture manufactming was "one of the most important industries in Portland," and the Doernbecher Manufacturing Company was the fourth largest furniture factory in the nation.43 In July of 1919, the Portland Chamber of Commerce, Depmtment of Industries, initiated a campaign to transform their city into the nation's center for furniture production by encouraging the relocation of non-Oregon firms. 44 Though the impact of these efforts remains unclear, by 1923 the "Grand Rapids of the West" was exp01ting 20 to 30 rail cars of furniture a day to Alaska, British Columbia, Mexico and numerous states to the east. 45 Furniture manufacturing surpassed cattle production as Oregon's leading industry in 1929. At that time 50 manufacturing plants, with 3000 employees, were producing $10 million worth of furniture annually.46 The west, or at least a big slice of the west, eats, sleeps and reclines on Oregon-made furniture, buys goods displayed in Oregon-made showcases, and transacts business across the tops of Oregon-made desks.47 33 Twenty years later, in 1949, Oregon's furniture industry was "the biggest and the best in the west," and two Portland manufacturing firms were the largest furniture producers west of Chicago.48 Oregon's nationally significant furniture industry was severely impacted by the closure of the Doernbecher Manufacturing Company on December 7, 1954.49 At the time of the closure, the Doernbecher factory had 3000 employees and was one of the largest • furniture manufacturers in the United States. Today the Bentwood Furniture Company, of Grants Pass, is one of the state's largest furniture manufacturers, with 200 employees and over $16 million in annual sales, and is considered "among the most successful small furniture companies in the nation (Fig 13)."50 In addition to research on furniture manufacturing in Oregon, their are several existing research projects on historic Oregon furniture which would benefit from additional study. They include: 1. Completing a full survey of historic Oregon furniture in Mrs. Ruth Powers' collection. 2. Working with Mrs. Betty Troxclair to disseminate her documentation and photographs of hand-crafted Oregon furniture. 3. Publishing the S.E.R.A. Manuscript chapters on histoiic Oregon furniture illustrated with selected visual materials and copies of historic newspaper advertisements. 4. Reviewing the Historic Records Survey materials to determine the role this agency played in the early documentation of histoiic Oregon furniture. 34 • Fig. 13. Oregon furniture manufactured by the Bentwood Furniture Company. (Source: Mary Korbulic, "Adventures in Oak," Oregon Business, August 1993, 11.) 35 1. John Davis Hatch Jr., ed., Early American Arts and Crafts from the Earliest Times to 1810 (Eugene: University of Oregon, 1949), 1-2. 2. Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Historical Society (Portland: George H. Himes, Printer, 1899), 3 . • 3. Ibid., 8-9. 4. Beulah Hurst and Beatrice Carstairs, "Early Oregon Cabinetmakers and Furniture Manufacturers, 1836-1897," and "Newspaper Advertisements of Early Cabinet Makers and Furniture Manufacturers, 1848-1898," in S.E.R.A. Manuscript Project, ed. Alfred Powers, p. 1, 5, 6, 9 and 13, Oregon Collection, Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene. 5. Alfred Powers and Howard McKinley Corning, eds., History of Education in Portland (Portland: W.P.A. Adult Education Project, 1937), 261 . 6. Ibid. and Ronald Warren Tabel, "The Federal Writers Project in the Pacific Northwest: A Case Study" (Ph.D. diss., Washington State University, 1969), 86. 7. These dates were derived from notes 4, 5 and 6. 8. Anonymous, "News and Comments," Oregon Historical Quarterly 37 (March 1936): 80. 9. Anonymous, "News and Comments," Oregon Historical Quarterly 35 (March 1934): 86. and M. Leona Nichols, "Historic Chairs of Fort Vancouver Returned to Oregon by Owners' Kin," Portland (Oregon) Oregonian 14 January 1934, sec. 4, 3:2-4. Alfred Powers, Burt Brown Barker and George S. Titus travelled to Victoria, British Columbia to obtain five mahogany dining chairs, once used by Dr. John McLaughlin at Fort Vancouver, and returned them to Portland, Oregon. 10. Historical Records Survey, "The Historical Records Survey: A Works Progress Administration Project." [mimeograph], Oregon Collection, Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene. 11. Mary Anteaux, "Records of the Historical Records Survey, Oregon, 1937 - 1942" [photocopy], May 1989, Special Collections, Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene. 36 12. Ruth McBride Powers, "Oregon's Early Furniture and Furniture Makers," Marion County History 11 (197 6): 17. This desk, by Edward C. Green, is pictured in Anonymous, "Preservation Efforts Gain National Acclaim," Oregon City (Oregon) Enterprise Courier 13 May 1975, 3:4. and Bonnie Parks and James Mazza, "The Furniture Collection of Mrs. Ruth Powers: A Partial Survey," [photocopy], p. 16, Oregon Collection, Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene. 13. Eleanor Box, "Landmark Interest Wins Award," Portland (Oregon) Oregon Journal 18 January 1966, sec. 2., 1:4. 14. Helen Mershon, "Oregon's Past is Her Present," Portland (Oregon) Oregon Journal 30 May 1975, 19:3 . • 15. Jean Henniger, "Oregon Observes 106th Birthday But Where Are All Her Presents?" Portland (Oregon) Oregonian 14 February 1965, sec. 2., 1 :3. 16. Ibid., sec. 2, 6:2. 17. Helen Mershon, "Ainsworth House Tours to Benefit Historical Society," Portland (Oregon) Oregon Journal 9 September 1965, sec. 2., 1:6-7. 18. Ibid. 19. Eleanor Box, "Landmark Interest Wins Award," Portland (Oregon) Oregon Journal 18 January 1966, sec. 2., 1:8. 20. Ralph Stuller, "Women Restoring Civil War-Era Residence," Portland (Oregon) Oregonian 12 November 1972, 38:3. 21. Andy Rocchia, "Pioneer Dibble House Restored," Portland (Oregon) Oregon Journal 25 June 1971, sec. 2., 2:3-5. 22. Helen L. Mershon, "Railroads Spelled Doom for Fine Furniture Making," Portland (Oregon) Oregon Journal 4 October 1973, sec. 2, 3: 1. 23. Beulah Hurst and Beatrice Carstairs, "Early Oregon Cabinetmakers and Furniture Manufacturers, 1836-1897," and "Newspaper Advertisements of Early Cabinet Makers and Furniture Manufacturers, 1848-1898," in S.E.R.A. Manuscript Project, ed. Alfred Powers, [typewritten duplicate], p. 22, Oregon Collection, Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene. He stated that back in the [18]70's everything was done by hand, and well done. The trades maintained a certain prestige - skilled craftsmen walked with dignity. They came from afar, often from New York and Europe, and were donned in silk hats and Prince Albert's. They required special lockers and were paid from seven dollars to ten dollars a day. "But" , Mr. Bradley stated, "after the railroads came, things were different. That was the beginning of the end of fine cabinet work and upholstering in Oregon. Mr. Bradley stated that skilled cabinet makers and upholsterers disappeared with the fine harness makers. "A kid after three months is now a mechanic," he said." 37 24. Helen L. Mershon, "Railroads Spelled Doom for Fine Furniture Making," Portland (Oregon) Oregon Journal 4 October 1973, sec. 2., 3:3 and Sears and Roebuck Co., 1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue (Chicago: Unknown, 1897; reprint, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1968), 654,663 and 665. 25. Anonymous, "Preservation Efforts. Gain National Acclaim," Oregon City (Oregon) Enterprise Courier 13 May 1975, p. 3:4. See also: Anonymous, "Historian Gets Honor," Portland