Public access to the Oregon Wine History Archive, housed at Linfield College, will receive a boost, thanks to an $8,000 Cultural Development Grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust.
Linfield, a first-time grantee of the Trust, received its award to organize four collections from the Oregon Wine History Archive, the equivalent of 80-100 linear feet. In 2011, pioneers of the early wine industry in Oregon’s Willamette Valley committed their collections to Linfield. The archive contains materials from seven Oregon wineries and vineyards including Adelsheim, Amity, Erath, Eyrie, Ponzi, Sokol Blosser and Weber, as well as the International Pinot Noir Celebration. To enhance public access, a finding aid will be contributed to the Northwest Digital Archive with highlights of the digitized materials uploaded to Linfield’s digital repository.
“We are grateful to the Oregon Cultural Trust for providing support for the preservation of contemporary documents of the early Oregon wine industry,” said Susan Barnes Whyte, Linfield library director, who noted that the Oregon wine industry is relatively young and that preserving and cataloging its history at this stage will help generations to come. “(This) constitutes an important part of the economic and agricultural history of Oregon.”
The Oregon Cultural Trust is an innovative, statewide private-public program raising significant new funds to support and protect Oregon’s arts, humanities and heritage. Some 17,000 donors have contributed over $25 million to the Trust since Oregon’s cultural tax credit took effect in December 2002. In nine years, the Cultural Trust has distributed $11.2 million in grants and built its permanent fund to $14 million. In 2003, the Oregon legislature moved the operations of the Oregon Cultural Trust to the Oregon Arts Commission, streamlining operations and making use of the Commission’s expertise in grantmaking, arts and cultural information and community cultural development. The Arts Commission and the Cultural Trust are part of Business Oregon, in recognition of the expanding role arts and culture play in the broader social, economic and educational arenas of Oregon communities.
Linfield College offers 47 majors and enrolls more than 2,600 students through three programs: a residential liberal arts and sciences program on the McMinnville campus, a nursing school in Portland and the Adult Degree Program, which supports students at eight Oregon sites and serves a virtual learning community across the globe. Linfield was named one of the nation’s top picks for high school counselors across the U.S. and has been nationally praised for combining affordability and excellence. Established in 1858, Linfield is one of the first colleges in the Pacific Northwest.
For more information, call Rachael Woody, Linfield archivist, at 503-883-2734.
