John Garman Photographic Collection (P 95)
1894-1966 (inclusive); ca. 1930-1965 (bulk)
2 cubic feet; approx. 925 prints and 320 negatives.

Scope and Content Note
This personal collection of photographs taken and assembled by John Garman includes many studies of campus buildings and sights, as well as extensive photographic studies from vacations in the 1960s. Kidder Hall and the Lady of the Fountain received special attention among earlier photographs, and the construction of Weniger Hall was extensively covered among later photographs. The vacation sets include many photographs of Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Many of the photographs in Garman's collection were used as instructional tools for the teaching of photography at Oregon State.

Forms
This collection includes a variety of forms, but consists predominantly of black and white prints. Some items were produced on motion picture positive film. Negatives are in many forms; glass, nitrate, and on standard negative film; they vary in size from 35mm to 8 x 10. Prints come in many forms; sulphide tone, contact colortone, lithoprint, but are predominently black and white. Many prints are oversized, mainly 11x14 and 14x17. The collection also includes lantern slides and two sizes (3 1/4x4 and 5x7) of autochromes.

Organization and arrangement
The majority of images have been assigned individual item numbers (P95:1-812), but most numbers below P95:200 contain sequences or sets of prints and negatives of the same or similar subjects; such sets have been assigned one number per set.

Biographical note
John Garman was born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1896. When he was two, his family moved to Portland. After graduating from Benson Polytechnic High School in 1916, Garman enrolled at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC). After his first year, he entered the Army and served as an instructor. After WWI, he returned to OAC, and completed his B.S. in Physics in 1922. In 1923, he became an instructor in Engineering. In 1924, Garman began teaching photography for the Physics Department, which he continued doing until his retirement in 1966. In 1969, he helped the Art Department set up classes when that department assumed the teaching of photography. In the 1920's, Garman, with Ed Yunker, established Photographic Services at OAC; Photographic Services is now part of OSU's Communication Media Center. In 1925, Garman married Florence Goff; they had three children. Garman passed away in November of 1989. (Full biography)

Related materials
Physics Department Records (RG#37) have Garman correspondence; oral history interview with Garman was made as part of the Horner Museum Oral History Collection (OH 10:979-1-36). An exhibit, The Photographs of John Garman, is available on-line. The Panoramic Photographs - Specialized Inventory includes duplicated photographs from this collection.

Shelf locations
Prints: 2 boxes on Photographic Collections shelves
4 oversized boxes
Oversize drawers 7 and 12
23x30 oversize box at 2/3/4/a
Glass negatives: 2/1
Copy negatives: 2/3
Lantern slides: 2/1
Autochromes: 2/1
Nitrate Negatives: LS 1/14/5/11

Inventory

Photographs Page