Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 60/Review: Dictionary of Oregon History
Book Reviews
In the decade of the 1930s a considerable amount of historical material dealing with Oregon was assembled under the direction of Verne Bright, Howard McKinley Corning and the late Claire Warner Churchill. This historical gathering and research project was sponsored by the Oregon State Library and the publishing firm of Binfords and Mort. The project was abandoned because of World War II and the material deposited in the State Library at Salem.
Mr. Corning began to re-work the material in the fifties. He added some research results of his own and incorporated some additional references. The result is the Dictionary of Oregon History.
The book will be found especially valuable by journalists, teachers and folklorists. The historian working on a research project will not find much that he does not know already. For the person seeking an individual's identity and chronological place in the story of Oregon, the Dictionary of Oregon History provides a quick and easy reference help. As Mr. Corning mentions in his foreword, however, there are unintentional omissions.
In addition to being a biographical dictionary, the book is encyclopedic in that it includes items relating to Indian tribes, folkways, places and industry. Probably these entries could have been best treated in separate subsequent volumes. Following each entry are references that may be used for further reading. Sometimes there may be an assumption on the part of the reader that the reference is also a source. This is not always the case. An instance in point is the item titled "Appaloosa Horse," with F. Haines' The Nez Perces cited as a reference.
The style of the book is interesting and most of the entries are well written. Some have literary embellishments, however, somewhat at variance with the sparce, informative style usually found in reference books of this sort. This is easily understood when one recalls that three novelists, three poets, one folklorist, and a journalist or two wrote up the subjects originally.
It should be noted that there is some imbalance in the treatment of persons. For example, Thomas Milton Gatch, a notable figure in the history of college education in Oregon gets thirteen lines while Stephen Hall Meek comes up with twenty-seven.
This reviewer feels that the Dictionary of Oregon History is valuable because it represents a start in the right direction. We have too few refer ence books dealing with Pacific Northwest history and any addition is welcome. It can be assumed that future editions will be published and that many of the oversights and misinterpretations in this edition will be corrected.
During this Centennial year interest in Oregon history is high and the Dictionary of Oregon History will be in detmand in libraries and schools. It should have a place beside the well known book by McArthur dealing with Oregon place-names.
The book contains a facsimile of the signatures of the men who signed the statehood Constitution of 1857. It is hoped that future editions will include a map of the Old Oregon Country.
ARTHUR SAMUEL TAYLOR