Historical Note
On July 24, 1911, Oregon Agricultural College's Board of Regents
organized the Oregon Extension Service in response to requests from citizens of
Oregon for assistance (particularly in agriculture) from the college. In May of
1914, nearly three years after Oregon had established its Extension Service,
President Woodrow Wilson signed the federal Smith-Lever law, which provided
federal money for the establishment of extension services in all states for
developing off-campus programs, primarily in agriculture and home economics.
The first home extension agents were hired in August 1917 to do wartime
emergency work; several of the agents were retained by counties after World War
I. By 1937, all counties had at least one county extension agent. During the
Extension Service's first forty years, it concentrated on three traditional
programmatic areas -- agriculture, home economics, and 4-H.
Content Description
The Extension Bulletin Illustrations Photograph Collection consists of
images (primarily black-and-white photographic prints) that were created and
assembled for use in Oregon State College Extension Service publications and
county reports. They document extension activities in agriculture, home
economics, and youth programs. Of particular note are images of the World War
II period including Bracero and other farm workers in the Emergency Farm Labor
Service; other wartime extension activities; and the relocation of
Japanese-Americans residing in Oregon.
Arrangement
Most of the images are individually numbered, beginning with item number
379. The preliminary container list presents the images in numerical order with
descriptions transcribed from the photographic prints.