Orbis Cascade Alliance contributes new collections to DPLA

By DPLA, June 10, 2021.
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Digital Public Library of America is pleased to announce that more than 50,000 new cultural heritage artifacts from the Orbis Cascade Alliance are now available at dp.la. The Orbis Cascade is a consortium of 37 academic libraries in the Pacific Northwest. The Alliance’s first hub submissions include cultural resources contributed by member institutions in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Highlights of the Orbis Cascade Alliance’s contributions to DPLA include:

George and Frank Hirahara Collection (Washington State University)

The George and Frank C. Hirahara Collection depicts life in the Japanese American incarceration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. The collection contains more than 2,000 images taken and processed from January 1943 to November 1945. George Hirahara and his son Frank captured images of camp life and special family milestones such as engagement celebrations, weddings, and family portraits.

Hirahara family gathered outside for a graduation picture, 1944

Kooskia Internment Camp Scrapbook (University of Idaho)

The Kooskia Internment Camp Scrapbook documents the daily life of Japanese Americans interned at a U.S. government detention facility in north central Idaho, 30 miles from the town of Kooskia. More than 250 Japanese American men were interned at Kooskia between 1943 and 1945. The facility differed from others in that the men detained there volunteered to be transferred there and were able to hold jobs and be paid for their work. Most worked construction jobs on the Lewis and Clark Highway between Lewiston, Idaho, and Missoula, Montana.

New Year’s dinner table at Kooskia

Nez Perce Photographs (Washington State University)

The collection contains images that document the lives of Nez Perce Indians throughout Washington and Idaho at the end of the 19th century. It includes several photographs of well-known tribal leaders and warriors such as Peo Peo Tholekt and Chief Joseph. The bulk of the images portray the subjects posed in studio settings, wearing traditional Native American dress, Western-style clothing, or a combination of both. The photographs in this collection comprise the work of several photographers of the U.S. West and Native American life, including E.G. Cummings, F.T. Cummins, O.S. Goff, C.W. Hanson, J.A. Hanson, and Dr. Edward H. Latham.

Portrait of a younger Peo Peo Tholekt

Reed College Archives 1960s-1970s Student Protest Photographs (Reed College)

The social unrest of the 1960s and 1970s is documented in the archives of Reed College. Photographs show students protesting issues such as the Vietnam War and the lack of a Black studies program at the college.

Student with protest poster, Spring 1970

Pear Packing – A Season of Women’s Work (Southern Oregon University)

Women’s contributions to the Pacific Northwest’s agriculture industry are highlighted in this collection. Pear Packing – A Season of Women’s Work consists of historic photographs of pear packing in Southern Oregon, and poems that Susan J. Reid authored about area women who provided labor for seasonal pear packing. The collection was assembled by Reid to accompany her 1988 Southern Oregon University graduate thesis of the same title.

Women on pear packing line

You can explore all of the Orbis Cascade Alliance’s contributions to DPLA here.

For more information about the Orbis Cascade Alliance, visit their website. For questions about the Alliance’s DPLA hub, contact Maija Anderson.


DPLA’s cultural heritage program is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.