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 501 - 550 of 2802
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Title
SWY517

Memaloose Island

SWY518

Memaloose Island

SWY519

Dundorf--F. N. Clark Co. Maple Trees

SWY520

Unlabeled

SWY521

Multnomah Falls

SWY522

Columbia River Dedication Ceremony June 7, 1916--First Paved Highway in the Northwest--Multnomah Falls

SWY523

Celilo Bridge from Washington

SWY524

Celilo Bridge

SWY525
SWY526

Unlabeled

SWY527

Crown Point Looking East

SWY528

Latourelle Bridge Looking East

SWY529

Latourelle Bridge Looking West

SWY530

Looking East from Crown Point

SWY531

Shepherds Bridge

SWY532

Unlabeled

SWY533

Looking Across Shepherds Bridge

SWY534

Shepherds Bridge

SWY535

Unlabeled

SWY536

Highway East of Multnomah

SWY537

Point near Shepherds

SWY538

Multnomah Falls

SWY539

Crown Point Looking East

SWY540

Bridge over Pierce Creek

SWY541

Horsetail Falls

SWY542

Bridge over Moffett Creek

SWY543

Mt Hood from near Portland

SWY544

Highway near Shepherds

SWY545

Bridge at Eagle Creek

SWY546
SWY547
SWY548

Caroline Testout Rose

SWY549

Mary Roberts Rhinehart Lancaster, Multnomah Falls, Columbia Highway

SWY550

Mary Roberts Rhinehart, North Bank Station

SWY551

Mary Roberts Rhinehart Party

SWY552

Mary Roberts Rhinehart, Multnomah Falls

SWY553

Mary Roberts Rhinehart, Shepherds Dell Looking Out

SWY554

Crown Willamette Paper Mill, Camas, Washington

SWY555

Crown Willamette Paper Co., Lebanon, Oregon

SWY556

Sunset, Columbia Highway

SWY557

Looking East from Summit Reached by Wahkeena Trail

SWY558

East from Summet, Wahkeena-Multnomah Trail

SWY559

Mt Hood from Larch Mountain Below Summit

SWY560

Mt Hood from Larch Mountain

SWY561

Mt Hood from Larch Mountain

SWY562

Mt Hood, Sunrise from Larch Mountain

SWY563

Sunrise from Larch Mountain

SWY564

Cabin, Summit of Larch Mountain. A fire lookout in background?

SWY565

Mt Hood from Larch Mountain

SWY566

Looking up the Columbia from Crown Point