LIFE

Project digitizes efforts of Oregon conservationists

Daniel Moret
Special to the Statesman Journal
Half-grown barn owls are seen in the 1908 “American Birds” book by William Lovell Finley. The work of the noted conservationist is among the photos featured in the project “Reuniting Finley and Bohlman.” Herman T. Bohlman was a boyhood friend of Finley. The pair, along with Finley’s wife, photographed birds around Oregon at the turn of the 20th century. Their work was crucial in helping establish wildlife refuges in Oregon.

Oregon State University has collaborated on a digital project that is making 40 years of Oregon wildlife conservation photos and documents available to the general public.

The new digital collection features photographs and manuscripts by noted conservationist William L. Finley, his wife, Irene, and friend Herman T. Bohlman. Finley’s interest in wildlife conservation began when he and Bohlman, a boyhood friend, began photographing birds around Oregon at the turn of the 20th century. Together, their work was crucial in helping establish wildlife refuges in Oregon.

A bush-tit feeds its young on top of a man’s cap in a photo from the 1908 “American Birds” book by William Lovell Finley. The photo is found opposite page 105. It is part of a digital project that is making 40 years of Oregon wildlife conservation photos and documents available to the general public.

The Oregon Historical Society’s Davies Family Research Library and Oregon State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives Research Center worked together to digitize a large array of documents related to that work, including photographs, manuscripts, publications, correspondence and other materials. The project began in July 2016 and will be completed by June 30, 2017, and will include approximately 6,500 photographs and 8,600 pages of manuscript material.

The project, “Reuniting Finley and Bohlman,” is funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through its Library Services and Technology Act grant program. Many of the photographs and documents are already available on the project’s digital collection website at http://oregondigital.org/sets/finley-bohlman.

The photographs include Finley and Bohlman’s trips to Malheur Lake, the Klamath Lakes and Three Arch Rocks on the Oregon Coast — and these photographs played a key role in President Theodore Roosevelt’s decision to create wildlife refuges at those locations.

See the photos

Online collection:http://oregondigital.org/sets/finley-bohlman

“On the Road with Finley and Bohlman”: In addition to the online collection, the work is being shown at lectures around Oregon:

  • May 13: 6 to 7:30 p.m., Oregon State University, Valley Library’s Willamette Rooms, Corvallis
  • May 14: 2 to 3:30 p.m., Netarts Community Club, Oceanside
  • June 7: 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Oregon Historical Society, Portland
  • Learn more: ohs.org/finley

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