Dr. Ina Heumann, Resident Scholar

Dr. Ina Heumann, a historian of science affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, is the most recent individual to complete a term as Resident Scholar in the Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections.  Heumann spent two months in Corvallis studying the Roger Hayward Papers and the Ava Helen [...]

“There is no substitute for doing things with your own hands.”

In the archival world, scrapbooks are typically regarded to be “high-value” items, deserving of close descriptive and preservation attentions.  As we work our way through the arrangement and description of the Roger Hayward Papers, we are reminded again as to why scrapbooks are held in such high regard. Though the Hayward Papers consist primarily of [...]

Blivets from Roger Hayward

Roger was always interested in the meaning and interpretation of art, vision, and especially color. As his vision started to fail, he resigned from professional work and started to tinker. One interest was the development of drawings and articles for the Worm Runners Digest, for which Roger authored many publications. The first and perhaps best-known [...]

Thingums from Roger Hayward: A Few Sketches

We are very pleased to announce that the Roger Hayward Papers are now part of the OSU Libraries Special Collections.  To commemorate the occasion, here are three sketches from Hayward’s notebooks. In 1925, Hayward moved to Cram and Ferguson, a well-known Boston architectural firm specializing in gothic design. Cram and Ferguson were working on the [...]

A Thingum from Roger Hayward

Mother was an artist’s daughter. I was expected to draw just as I was expected to eat or talk or anything else, and I wasn’t praised for the results. I decided on architecture because I hoped that it would provide a balanced diet of aesthetics and mechanico-science. The diet is short on science, and so [...]

Reflections on Year One of The Pauling Blog

Today marks the first anniversary of The Pauling Blog, and in celebration we’re announcing a new addition to our blogroll, archivematica. Over the past few months, The Pauling Blog has featured a number of posts on our digitization projects which have, in turn, garnered a fairly-substantial amount of reader interest. While we will continue to [...]

Now Available: “Face Furniture,” by Roger and Elizabeth Hayward

“The Haywards were not aiming to improve people’s physical vision in the real world.  Their endeavor was intended as fun stuff, exploring possibilities for facial adornment appropriate to a type of individual.  This eyewear was designed with the wearer in his/her right mind, or out of it, as the case may be.“ – Jim and [...]

Thinking Structurally: The Roots of Pauling’s Hemoglobin Work

“Linus Pauling is one of that select group of individuals whose lives have made a discernible impact on the contemporary world. His contributions to molecular chemistry have been substantial and fully deserving of the recognition that he received in the form of a Nobel Prize in chemistry….Pauling continued to do productive scientific work throughout his [...]

“It’s in the Blood!” A Revised, METS-based Website

“It [hemoglobin] is a good substance from the standpoint of a chemist, because of its availability. All you need to do is to catch somebody, introduce a hypodermic needle and draw out a sample of blood. A standard victim of this practice, weighing perhaps 120 pounds (it’s easier to catch them small!) contains in the [...]

Contents of The Pauling Catalogue

[Part 3 of 9] The Pauling Catalogue is a mammoth publication — six volumes, more than 1,700 pages and over 1,200 illustrations, the entirety of which is held in a slipcase and weighs in at over twenty pounds per set.  The six volumes are effectively a detailed outline of the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling [...]