The SOHS Library is OPEN to the public at 106 N. Central Avenue in Medford, with FREE access to the SOHS Archives, from 12:00 - 4:00 pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Appointments are not necessary. Please contact library@sohs.org, or call 541-622-2025 ex 200 to ask questions or request research.

 

The SOHS Sawyer Collection

The images presented here are part of a donation we are calling the Sawyer Collection. The images have come from multiple photography studios, some of them unidentified. Most were taken by the Kiser Studio of Portland, Oregon in the 'Teens and early 'Twenties, especially of rugged scenes in Crater Lake and Glacier National Parks and along the Columbia River. A small collection was taken 1905-07 by photographer H. G. Peabody of Massachusetts and Maine urban and coastal scenes. An anonymous collection portrays architectural and rural views taken in Central Mexico in the same era.

The collection was saved and cared for by William Gruber, who had a long working relationship with the Portland photography studio Sawyer Service Inc. Gruber was the inventor of the popular View-Master, which he produced in collaboration with Sawyer’s. According to the donor, in 1939 Sawyer’s was poised to dispose of these glass plate negatives in order to focus on the View-Master, when Gruber offered to take the plates. Over the past eight decades, the Gruber family has meticulously maintained the collection of approximately 3,000 plates, weighing roughly half a ton. Southern Oregon Historical Society received the plates as a donation in 2019, and has made them publicly available with additional grant funding from Oregon Parks and Recreation and the Oregon Cultural Trust.

 SAWYER COLLECTION INDEX        WILLIAM GRUBER       WHEN THE COLLECTION ARRIVED AT SOHS     

Displaying 951 - 1000 of 2802
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Search by Sawyer Number (use only the number)
Title
SWY984

Mt Baker Region--Mt Shuksan from Shuksan Ridge
SWY985

Mt Baker Region--Mt Baker and Swift Creek Canyon
SWY986

Old North Church Interior, Toward Cancel--Copyright 1907
SWY987

Faneuil Hall, Exterior--Copyright 1905 by H. G. Peabody
SWY988

Statue of Gov. Winthrop
SWY989

King's Chapel, interior--Copyright 1905 by H. G. Peabody
SWY990

State House, Exterior, "Bullfinch Front"
SWY991

Memorial Hall, State House
SWY992

House of Gov. John Hancock
SWY993

"Boston Mason" Monument
SWY994

Spire of Park Street Church
SWY995

Boston Common--Army & Navy Monument
SWY996

Washington Statue, Distant
SWY997

Trinity Church, Exterior, Front
SWY998

Trinity Church, Interior
SWY999

Boston Public Library--Entrance Hall
SWY1000

Boston Public Library--Sargent Paintings--CRACKED
SWY1001

Bates Hall, Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1002

Bates Hall, Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1003

Exterior Arches, Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1004

Boston--Tower of First Baptist Church
SWY1005

Porch, Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1006

In Old South Church, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1008

Art Museum, Copley Square, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1010

Norumbega Tower, Charles River Reservation, Weston, Massachusetts
SWY1011

Lowell House, Cambridge, Massachusetts--Copyright 1905 by H. G. Peabody
SWY1012

Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts--Copyright 1905 by H. G. Peabody
SWY1013

Washington Elm, Cambridge, Massachusetts--Copyright 1907 by H. G. Peabody
SWY1014

Washington Elm, Cambridge, Massachusetts--Copyright 1907 by H. G. Peabody
SWY1015

Approach to Wayside Inn, Sudbury, Massachusetts--Copyright 1905 by H. G. Peabody
SWY1016

The Wayside Inn, Exterior, Sudbury, Massachusetts--Copyright 1905 by H. G. Peabody
SWY1017

\"Dorothy Quincy\" Painting by John Singleton Copley, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
SWY1018

Statue of Capt. Parker, Lexington, Massachusetts
SWY1019

Line of the Minute Man, Lexington, Massachusetts--Copyright 1905 by H. G. Peabody
SWY1021

Old Stock Exchange, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1022

State Street, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1023

Old State House and Ames Building, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1024

Old State House, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1025

Old State House, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1026

Old South Meeting House, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1027

Park Street Church Spire
SWY1028

Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, Distant, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1029

Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, Near, Boston, Massachusetts
SWY1030

Boston--New England Conservatory of Music (Old St. James Hotel)
SWY1031

Echo Bridge, Newton Upper Falls, Newton, Massachusetts
SWY1032

Lowell House, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
SWY1033

Memorial Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
SWY1034

Boston--Bunker Hill Monument
SWY1035

Boston--Bunker Hill Monument
SWY1036

Hancock-Clarke House, Lexington, Massachusetts