Elbert Owen Colvin album

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: Coll 473

Scope and Contents

Collection is comprised of a single album containing over 200 black and white photographs documenting the experiences of Elbert Owen Colvin, who worked as a carpenter for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the United States Forest Service during the early 1930's.

Images feature CCC camp facilities and buildings, including: mess halls and commissaries, ranger stations and fire lookouts, and hospitals. Oregon CCC camps featured in the images were located near Smith River Falls (possibly Camp S-204), Mapleton, Crescent Lake, Waldport, Odell Lake, Crescent Lake Junction, and Woahink Lake.

The images in the album also document: Colvin family outings to Arnold Ice Caves and Skeleton Cave in southern Oregon; Elbert sitting in his first Ford automobile, and Stanley atop an Indian motorcycle; the town of Waldport in the early 1930's; views from Lava Butte in central Oregon; the "Bear pit" at Washington Park in Portland, Oregon; and Elbert and friends camping at Table Mountain, near Cascade Locks along the Columbia River Gorge.

Many of the photographs have annotations or captions.

Dates

1931-1936

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to the public.

Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.

Archival material may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws and other regulations.

Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g. a cause of action for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of Oregon assumes no responsibility.

If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.

Biographical / Historical

Elbert Owen Colvin was born December 2, 1913, to George W. Colvin and Mildred Kelsey Colvin. He spent his childhood on the Oregon coast - in Lincoln City and Waldport, Oregon - with his mother, Mildred Kelsey, brothers Marion and Stanley, and sister Doris.

Elbert began working as a carpenter for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the United States Forest Sercice in August 1933, at a newly established CCC Camp near Smith River Falls (likely Camp S-204, about 11 miles east of Reedsport). Colvin also spent time building, and working at the F-30 Camp near Mapleton, Oregon, F-96 Camp Odell on Crescent Lake, and the SP-10 Camp at Woahink Lake.

Census data reports that by 1940 Elbert had returned to Waldport and was working as a carpenter. It also shows that his mother Mildred completed two years of college; her daughter Doris completed 3 years, and was working as a bookkeeper with Electric Light and Power Company in Waldport in 1940.

Elbart married Norma M. Paul two years later (April 23, 1942), and passed away in Portland, Oregon August 17, 2002.