“A public trust broken!” read the poster board historian Mary
Wheeler held outside the Oregon Historical Society library last Friday
afternoon.
Next to Wheeler, a white-haired historian in a pink cardigan stood
atop an actual soapbox, clutching a book and shouting to a crowd of 40
local librarians, historians, and novelists. The unlikely protesters
had gathered to share their opinion about the Oregon Historical
Society’s (OHS) decision to axe its entire 13-person library staff due
to budget shortfalls.
As of Friday, March 13, the collection of Oregon’s films, photos,
trail diaries, propaganda posters, and transit maps that for decades
anyone could use to research Oregon’s history is no longer open to the
public.
The timing of the closure is ironic. In mid-February, state
legislators celebrated Oregon’s 150th birthday at the capitol building
in Salem by consuming a reported 423 pounds of cake and 3,100 hot dogs.
In between mouthfuls, Senate President Peter Courtney, dressed in
period costume, gave a speech emphasizing the importance of Oregon’s
history.
Rachel Schoening, OHS spokeswoman, says the society has run up “a
huge deficit” since the state cut its funding in 2001. “We basically
ran ourselves into the ground,” says Schoening.
OHS is a private group that runs a museum and library with both
public and private funding. This year the society’s annual donations
were down, and its endowment took a $350,000 hit on the stock market.
The society’s executive director, George Vogt, decided the group needed
to balance its budget with drastic cuts, but some historians believe
the library is the wrong cut to make.
“This affects everyone from novelists to state legislators to
documentary filmmakers,” says Richard Engeman, the public historian at
OHS before he was laid off in 2006. “You slam the door shut on the
ability to tell those stories.”
Thirty years ago, the library was free and open to the public seven
days a week. In 2008, the library cost $10 to enter and was only public
five days a week.
“If the archives remain inaccessible, it will make it so many
graduate students won’t finish their theses, books won’t be written,
and historical research will be shut down,” says Kathy Tucker, director
of the historian-run nonprofit Northwest History Network.
Historians are also upset about what will happen to the many photos,
diaries, and other one-of-a-kind items people have donated to the
library over the past century. “These materials were given in
perpetuity, to be used by the public of Oregon. To say the public
cannot access them is terrible,” says Engeman.
Schoening says the society plans to rehire four librarians, two only
temporarily. But OHS does not know when it will reopen the library, or
whether it will ever be public again.
Thank you for drawing attention to this story. It is outrageous that Oregonians no longer have access to the material in the library. The library is used by many more constituencies than just historians, educators, and researchers. Legal disputes over environmental issues and land and other rights are often resolved with access to its documents. Receiving a historical designation for a property can open up economic opportunities, and the necessary documents are often located in places like the OHS library. Applications for federal grants that could bring money into the state often need historical documentation attached. I would imagine that to conduct its business, the legislature that won’t fund the library has times when it needs access to the library’s collections. If the library stays closed, a lot of Oregon business (both financial and political) will not get done.
Excellent work.
Thank you for covering this story — It’s an important issue to a lot of us. As of today, 650 people have signed a resolution by the Northwest History Network in support of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library and Staff, at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Save-the-…
and 848 people have joined the Facebook group, “Save the Oregon Historical Society Research and Staff.”
Thank you, Sarah, for this article.
There is a fascinating sub-text going on here regarding the dispersal and potential diffusion of the OHS’ archival collections. I am researching an assertion that the OHS Board is keen to calve-off the photographs and digital images in the collection for themselves and sell-off the remainder of the collection (hopefully to a state institution).
As a current OHS member, I have requested copies of their meeting minutes (in accordance with OR Revised Statutes) so that we all may learn more about how the Board members made the decisions that they made, without appealing to the passion and expertise of us OHS members and others in the state and regional archives, library, history, geneaology, preservation, and other fields. I am more than happy to make this information available to you and anyone else.
Restricted access to the “guts” of Oregon’s history is a travesty on par with lost jobs and de-funded social programs, because it will have negative reverberations for years and decades to come.
James V. Hillegas
Historian
The OHS Board of Trustees favors big museum exhibits — which are sometimes financially successful — while it downgrades and devalues the very “stuff” of history that makes such exhibits possible. OHS turned away from its own institutional memory by laying off virtually all the research library staff. Walk through the front doors of OHS and view the relatively recent remodel that resulted in the cavernous lobby: it says a lot about priorities. The OHS annual meeting is coming up: wonder how much they will address the library closure issue?