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 101 - 150 of 2802
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SWY0104

Crater Lake circa 1915 w/ trees from top of Lake Trail near site of Crater Lake Lodge.

SWY0105

Waterfall from lake level, below Sun Notch.

SWY0106

Tents located near Rim Road, just south (or below) the site of Crater Lake Lodge.

SWY0107

Gnarled Tree, foreground, Crater Lake circa 1915. A ponderosa pine located on the south slope of the north side of Crater Lake.

SWY0108

Crater Lake circa 1915 from the east side of the rim, likely near Sentinel Point.

SWY0109

Fort Klamath Road circa 1915 (later called South Entrance Road, Crater Lake Highway or Highway 62 with slightly different alignments).

SWY0110

Crater Lake circa 1915 (cracked). Very likely the area of Wineglass, where a beach is located.

SWY0111

Crater Lake Rim Road circa 1918, wood burning steam shovel used by the Army Corps of Engineers to move rock and stumps.

SWY0112

Crater Lake Rim Road circa 1915, wood-burning steam shovel near Anderson Point.

SWY0113

Crater Lake Rim Road circa 1915, dry-laid \"guard wall\" located between Kerr Notch and Anderson Point on the Rim Road.

SWY0114

Crater Lake Rim Road dry-stack \'guard wall\' located between Anderson Point and Kerr Notch, looking north.

SWY0115

Engineers Camp in Munson Valley, looking NE toward Garfield Peak, showing blacksmith\'s shop at left, tents, and other buildings of 1914 and 1915.

SWY0116

Crater Lake circa 1915, remnants of autumn snow at Rim Village, looking east.

SWY0117

Crater Lake circa 1915, Wizard Island taken from the west rim of the caldera, showing spire and whitebark pine.

SWY0118

Crater Lake National Park Vista circa 1915. Likely from Garfield Peak looking south with Crater Peak and the upper Klamath Basin in distance.

SWY0119

Crater Lake National Park vista circa 1915, looking slightly SW toward the Cascade Divide and Union Peak.

SWY0120

Crater Lake circa 1915, from Garfield Peak looking east, with Phantom Ship, Dutton Ridge, Mount Scott in distance. Also shows the inside of the caldera.

SWY0121

Crater Lake circa 1915, taken from the area of Dyar Rock, with portions of Applegate Peak, Dutton Ridge, Phantom Ship and Mount Scott visible.

SWY0122

Crater Lake National Park Vista circa 1915, looking S/SW from Garfield Peak with Munson Valley and Cascade peaks in the distance.

SWY0123

Crater Lake circa 1915 (broken); from west rim with whitebark pine in foreground.

SWY0124

Crater Lake circa 1915, showing rowboat from Grotto Cove.

SWY0125

Crater Lake circa 1915, looking SW from the Palisades.

SWY0126

Crater Lake circa 1915, rowboat at the Palisades.

SWY0127

Crater Lake circa 1915, showing Danger Bay with Sentinel Point in the distance.

SWY0128

Crater Lake circa 1915, looking SE with Palisade Point visible above Cleetwood Cove. 

SWY0129

Crater Lake circa 1915, same as 128 sans boat.

SWY0130

Crater Lake circa 1915, empty rowboat at Cleetwood Cove with Palisade Point above.

SWY0131

Crater Lake circa 1915, Cliffs, Reflection, Boat (at Cleetwood Cove?)

SWY0132

Crater Lake circa 1915, boat at Palisade Point with portions of Wineglass and the Palisades visible.

SWY0135

Crater Lake circa 1915, Wizard Island. Taken from the west rim, beyond Rim Village.

SWY0136

Crater Lake waterfall, likely in Pinnacles Valley on the face of Dutton Cliff.

SWY0137

Crater Lake circa 1915, crags and reflections. Taken from the eastern shore looking toward Dutton Ridge.

SWY0138

Crater Lake circa 1915; virtually the same view as 137, taken from the lake\'s surface.

SWY0139

Crater Lake circa 1915, Phantom Ship. Looking north near Dutton Ridge from Chaski Bay.

SWY0140

Crater Lake circa 1915, Phantom Ship. Same view as 139 except for man in the boat.

SWY0141

Crater Lake circa 1915. Possibly Skell Head instead of Sentinel Rock.

SWY0142

Crater Lake circa 1915, probably from the Lake Trail that ran through Eagle Cove to the water.

SWY0143

Crater Lake circa 1915. Hikers on the Lake Trail in Eagle Cove.

SWY0144

Crater Lake circa 1915, looking toward Hillman Peak in the distance from the eastern shore.

SWY0145

Crater Lake rockslide in the crater of the cinder cone called Wizard Island. 

SWY0146

Crater Lake circa 1915, Boat

SWY0147

Crater Lake circa 1915. Northwestern portion of Wizard Island beyond Fumerole Bay and close to the Emerald Pool.

SWY0148

Crater Lake circa 1915. Looking toward the Watchman Slide from Wizard Island, showing a portion of Skell Channel. 

SWY0149

Crater Lake circa 1915, showing a portion of the Watchman, Skell Channel, and taken from Fumerole Bay.

SWY0150

Crater Lake circa 1915, from a boat looking SE toward the cinder cone of Wizard Island.

SWY0151

Wizard Island circa 1915, with the Emerald Pool in foreground, cinder cone in the distance.

SWY0152

Crater Lake circa 1915 and Wizard Island. Shows the western extent of the island, which is situated on a \"platform.\" This view shows a portion of Skell Channel looking east from the shore.

SWY0153

Crater Lake area, probably the Wheeler Creek Pinnacles via the park\'s east entrance, circa 1915.  

SWY0154

Crater Lake area, near the park\'s east entrance. Most likely the Wheeler Creek pinnacles circa 1915.

SWY0155

Near Crater Lake National Park\'s east entrance, the Wheeler Creek pinnacles, circa 1915.