The museum's roots go back to 1876 when the university hired Thomas Condon as one of its first three professors hired. He brought along his large fossil collection, which would become known as the Condon Collection and a museum was established in his name—the Condon Museum. This museum and another one established in 1935 called the&nbsp;State Museum of Anthropology were combined to form the current one a year later. The museum was designed to replicate the Pacific Northwest Native Longhouses.

The Museum of Natural and Cultural History was established in 1936.

The museum's exhibits feature artifacts and specimens that highlight Oregon's natural and cultural history. 

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The Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon was created in 1936. It is the state's primary repository for anthropological and paleolithic artifacts. It contains hundreds of thousands of archaeological and ethnographic objects, fossils, biological specimens from around the state, the Pacific Northwest, and the world. The museum also contains a large zoological collection but archaeology, anthropology, and paleontology remain the institution's primary focus. The museum's website has links to web galleries that show highlights from the collections.

Unversity of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History

This short walking tour includes some of the historic buildings and leading museums and cultural sites on the University of Oregon campus. The tour begins at Deady Hall which was the first building on campus and was the center of a debate about the naming of campus buildings. 

Despite a student petition calling on the university to change the name of this iconic campus building owing to Deady's early positions and his frequent use of racist language, university administrators decided in 2017 to keep the name unchanged. Although Deady once opposed funding for the state university, he later served on the board of regents and helped to establish the university's law school and was a member of the American Antiquarian Society.&nbsp; During the antebellum period, Deady was one of a small number of Oregonians who hoped to extend slavery to Oregon and prohibit free people of color and other nonwhites from entering the territory. He also opposed citizenship for Native Americans at that time. Deady served as a federal judge in Oregon from 1859 to 1893, a period that saw his gradual support of suffrage and citizenship for African Americans.&nbsp;

Constructed in 1876, Deady Hall was the University of Oregon's first building and remained the university's only building for almost ten years after its construction. In 1893, the building was named in honor of Matthew Deady, a politician in Oregon's territorial period who passed away that year. Together with Villard Hall, Deady Hall was named a National Historic Landmark in 1977 owing to their status of two of the oldest campus buildings on the West Coast. 

Deady Hall

Gertrude Bass Warner donated the collection to the university in 1920 to her honor her late husband, Murray. They had lived in Japan and China for a number of years. The collection was housed in the women's building on the campus but it was not a suitable location, largely because it was not fully waterproof. Fundraising for a new building&nbsp;got underway in the early 1920s but unfortunately, the university president, Prince Lucien Campbell, passed away in 1925. The fundraising campaign proceeded in earnest after his death and the new museum was finished in 1930 and named after Campbell. The name changed to its current one after the museum&nbsp;underwent major renovations and expansion in 2005.

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon's campus in Eugene. The original building was constructed in 1930 to house a large Oriental art collection comprising of 3,700 artifacts that were donated by Gertrude Bass Warner (the museum's website states that the museum opened in 1933). It was designed by Ellis F. Lawrence, the former Dean of Architecture and Allied Arts. Its main collections are Chinese, Korean,  Japanese, and American art, but art from around the world are displayed as well. It is the only academic museum in Oregon accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The original part of the museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

In the early 20th century, communities across the United States put up public statues honoring western pioneers. Oregon rancher, attorney, and civic leader Joseph N. Teal sought to celebrate early Oregon settlers by erecting a bronze monument. Teal viewed Oregon settlers as western counterparts to the earliest English settlers in North America. He therefore asked prominent sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor to create a sculpture modeled on Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ famous 1899 bronze tribute to The Puritans. But the Paris-trained artist instead turned to imagery drawn from his own western youth.Phimister Proctor, as he was known, was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1860. His family gradually migrated south and west via covered wagon until arriving in Denver, Colorado, in 1871. As a young man growing up in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, Proctor prized hunting and fishing ahead of his art. Even as an older man, he routinely abandoned his eastern studio to embark on large game hunts in the West. He studied living wild animals and dissected dead ones—many of which he shot himself—to reproduce their musculature accurately. For the Oregon pioneer monument, Proctor hired an old trapper named Jess Cravens from near Burns, Oregon, to serve as his model.Proctor’s resulting 1918 statue for the University of Oregon campus features a heroic-sized rugged buckskin-clad frontiersman carrying a rifle and whip, striding purposely into the West and the future. Viewers appreciated that Proctor’s Pioneer appeared ready to conquer nature, American Indians, or anything else that might stand in his way. The Oregon Daily Journal praised Proctor’s “faithful visualizing and reproduction of the frontier type.”1At the statue’s 1919 dedication, Oregon Historical Society president Frederick V. Holman gave a speech praising Proctor’s statue and celebrating what he considered white Oregon settlers’ racial superiority. He declared that<blockquote>“There were great numbers of savage Indians to be encountered and forced to respect the rights and property of these immigrants.”2</blockquote>Such justifications for white settlement on Native lands were typical of that era, but would become controversial a century later.A decade after sculpting The Pioneer, Proctor created a seated Pioneer Mother as a companion to the swashbuckling Pioneer. Pioneer Mother was placed in the center of what was then known as the Women’s Quad, facing toward The Pioneer. Today, The Pioneer is an important campus landmark, but few students know that the Pioneer Mother exists.In recent years, some have begun to challenge the long beloved Pioneer statue. In 2011, students adorned the statue with a rainbow-colored balloon arch to mark National Coming Out Day, which encourages students and others to identify publicly as homosexual, bisexual or transgender. The juxtaposition of virile masculinity and homosexual pride was striking but short-lived. The balloons were removed from the statue within forty-five minutes.Even more recently, as the nation debated removing Confederate monuments due to their racist origins, students and faculty have drawn attention to the racial underpinnings of the Pioneer’s origins. In April 2018, University of Oregon students installed temporary exhibits that responded to the Pioneer and Pioneer Mother. The Pioneer installation was called Destiny Manifested. Students layered objects inside a plexiglass pedestal at the base of The Pioneer to represent the unforeseen consequences of white settlement. The following year, protestors sprayed the statue in red paint, and dozens of students and faculty called for its removal. Meanwhile, the university formed a “presidential working group to review campus monuments, plaques and public art installations and recommend whether any changes need to be made to those features to recognize the diverse histories of our community.”3 Then, in June 2020, as people throughout the United States and beyond debated the fate of monuments to Confederate generals and leaders of white expansion, protesters tore down the "Pioneer Father" and Pioneer Mother statues. The University moved them into storage as discussions of how to move forward continued.

One of the few monuments erected to a generic pioneer man in the early 20th century, this statue of a white frontiersman dressed in buckskin was dedicated on the University of Oregon campus in 1919. A companion pioneer woman was erected a decade later in the women's quad. A century later, the statue would become broiled in debate for its glorification of white settlement. Protestors removed both statues in June 2020; the statues were placed in storage.

Pioneer statue (Eugene, Oregon)

Dozens of public monuments celebrating frontier women in sunbonnets were erected between World War I and World War II. Most pioneer mothers sculpted in the late 1920s are depicted actively guiding their children westward. In this statue, donor Burt Brown Baker instead asked sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor to depict an elderly woman resting from her labors, gazing contemplatively at the partially-open book in her lap. But like other pioneer monuments erected in this period, the Pioneer Mother celebrated white women bringing Euro-American “civilization” to the western United States. In recent years, students and faculty at the University of Oregon have begun to challenge its glorification of manifest destiny.In the late 1920s, cities throughout the western United States put up statues honoring white “pioneer mothers.” Two of the best known were the widely publicized “Pioneer Woman” competition for Ponca City, Oklahoma, and the Pioneer Mother equestrian grouping in Kansas City, Missouri. New York City attorney Burt Brown Barker admired both those project. He decided to donate a pioneer mother statue to his home state of Oregon. In contrast to the Ponca City and Kansas City monuments, though, Barker did not the Oregon statue to emphasize the hardships of frontier life. Rather than memorializing the “battles and sorrows of pioneering” portrayed in other pioneer memorials, the donor explained to the sculptor that he wanted this statue to remember pioneer women as “they sat in the evening glow resting from their labors.” For<blockquote>“Others have perpetuated her struggles; I want to perpetuate the peace which followed her struggles. Others have perpetuated her adventure; I want to perpetuate the spirit which made the adventure possible, and the joy which crowned her declining years as she looked upon the fruits of her labor and caught but a faint glimpse of what it will mean for posterity.”1</blockquote> The completed statue depicts an elderly woman seated in a chair. She contemplates a partially-open book resting in her lap. By depicting the pioneer woman seated in an ornate chair resting from her labors, the A. Phimister Proctor emphasized frontier women’s domesticity. That image was in marked contrast to the active male Pioneer carrying a rifle and whip that Proctor had previously sculpted for the University of Oregon campus. That Pioneer Father—as he became known—stood posed to conquer the frontier.The male Pioneer was installed in the heart of campus near Johnson Hall in 1919. The Pioneer Mother was installed in the Women’s Quadrangle near Gerlinger Hall and Hendricks and Susan Campbell dorms. It was dedicated on Mother’s Day in 1932. The bronze Pioneer Mother was installed directly south of the Pioneer Father, and sat facing north toward him. But Johnson Hall stood between them, maintaining visual separation between the male and female settlers.Soon after commissioning the Pioneer Mother, donor Burt Brown Barker moved back to Oregon. He was appointed vice president of the University of Oregon with the understanding that he would not have to live in Eugene, and that he would not be paid. Instead, he and university president Bennett Hall agreed that his salary would help cover the costs of the pioneer mother statue.The statue depicts Oregon’s pioneer mothers as the donor recalled his mother and grandmothers “drinking in the beauty and peace of the afterglow of [their] twilight days.”2 But the sculptor did not completely abandon his own interest—shared with many Americans at the time—in the hardships that women faced on the overland trail. On the left and right sides of the statue’s base Proctor installed bronze bas-reliefs depicting hardship and sorrow. In one, pioneers bury a dead family member beside their covered wagons. In the other a male pioneer cracks his whip over a team of oxen straining to pull a covered wagon up a steep slope. His wife is seated inside the wagon, clad in the sunbonnet typically associated with pioneer women.On the front of the pedestal appear the words “The Pioneer Mother” and “PAX,” the Latin word for “peace.” On the back of the base is an excerpt from a letter written by donor Burt Brown Baker to sculptor A. Phimister Proctor soliciting what became the Pioneer Mother statue. In it, Baker dedicates the statue to the memory of “my mother, Elvira Brown Baker, a pioneer of 1847, in the sunsets of her life.” “But,” the plaque concludes, “to us there lives that spirit of conquering peace which I wish posterity to remember.”What did Baker mean by a “conquering peace”? Elsewhere in the letter from which this epitaph was drawn, Baker described the ideal pioneer mother as a “helpmeet in blazing the westward trail that the course of empire might take its way, as the God of civilization has ordained.”3 In other words, pioneer mothers assisted pioneer men in the project of Manifest Destiny. Like many white Americans of that era, Baker believed that white settlers were responsible for spreading Christian “civilization” to a supposedly “savage” frontier. Thus female settlers like Baker’s mother were agents of the conquest of indigenous peoples.One hundred years after their erection, the Pioneer statue stood in a highly visible location. The Pioneer Father is considered an important campus landmark and is included in campus tours for prospective students. The Pioneer Mother, though located only about 100 yards away, was in a less heavily traveled part of campus and few students know she exists.In recent years, students and faculty began to question the legacy of white racial dominance at the University of Oregon. In April 2018 students created a temporary art installation called Peace (PAX) for Who? They surrounded the statue with white signposts documenting acts of racial injustice that occurred in the region. The art installation drew public attention to an often ignored statue. It also encouraged viewers to consider the racial implications of Burt Brown Baker’s tribute to early Oregon settlers.In June 2020, protesters tore down the Pioneer Mother and "Pioneer Father" statues. The University of Oregon moved the statues to storage as it considered alternate ways to display the statues.

This little-known companion to the 1919 Pioneer statue honored Oregon’s female settlers. In the 1920s and 1930s, cities throughout the western United States put up statues honoring white “pioneer mothers.” Most depicted young women striding purposely westward. In contrast, this statue depicts an elderly female settler resting from her efforts to bring Euro-American culture to the frontier. In recent years, the University of Oregon community has debated the meaning and future of both its pioneer statues. In June 2020, protesters tore down both pioneer monuments on the University of Oregon campus.

Pioneer Mother statue (Eugene, Oregon)

Hayward Field was established in 1919. It is the track and field venue of the Oregon Ducks. Hayward Field received its name after a long time track and field coach, Bill Hayward. The stadium currently holds a capacity of 10,500 people.    In 1919, Hayward Field was created primarily for football with a track that was added. In 1967, Autzen Stadium was built as a new venue for football. This led to Hayward Field becoming Oregon University's track facility. Today, the field provides long jump, triple jump for men and women, pole vault, high jump, and javelin.    Hayward Field held its first NCAA championship in 1962.  is the only track venue to organize three consecutive U.S. Olympic Trials. It has also hosted seven U.S. championships. Steve Prefontaine's collegiate career consisted of entering the University of Oregon in the fall of 1969 and graduating in the summer of 1974, he won seven NCAA titles (three in cross country (1970, '71, '73), and four in the three-mile in track (1970 (13:22.0), '71 (13:20.2), '72 (14:01.4-5K) and '73 (12:53.4)--the first collegian to accomplish the feat in track and the second ever in cross country). In Pac-8 Conference track competition, he won 3-mile titles in 1970 (13:27.4), '71 (13:18.0), '72 (13:32.2) and '73 (13:10.4) and also the mile title in 1971 (4:01.5). In his first outdoor track race, he won the 2-mile (8:40.40.0) at a triangular against Fresno State and Stanford at Fresno, Calif., on March 21, 1970. Later in that first track season, he clocked 3:57.4 for the mile at the Oregon Twilight (6/5/70), finishing second and setting an Oregon freshman record and a then-personal best. Adding to those victories' drama, Pre's first NCAA 3-mile track title came with a dozen stitches in his foot after a diving board accident days before. The final cross country win came after making up a 100-yard deficit on Western Kentucky's English distance star Nick Rose. At the close of his collegiate career he had set nine collegiate track records. Pre's first-year notoriety earned him. Pre raced at Hayward Field in 38 races between 1970-75, losing only three times, all at one mile. His first loss came as a freshman at the Twilight Meet on 6/5/70, running an Oregon freshman record and then-PR of 3:57.4. As a sophomore, he finished second to teammate Arne Kvalheim at the Twilight Meet (6/6/71) in a time of 3:57.4. He lost his other race in front of "Pre's People" in one of the greatest mile races ever. In a rare appearance as a rabbit, Prefontaine paced '72 Olympic 800 gold medalist Dave Wottle through an attempt at the American record on June 20, 1973. Pre led until 200 meters remaining and finished second in a PR of 3:54.6. Wottle kicked to the win in what was then the third-fastest American mile and a PR of 3:53.3.Sports Illustrated cover honors (6/15/70), showing him running on a ridge near Bowerman's house. Altogether, he never lost a race more than a mile in length as a member of the Oregon team.

This now world-famous track and field venue opened in 1919 and is named in honor of Bill Hayward, Oregon's track and field coach from 1904-1947. Hayward Field has hosted numerous championships. and remains the home of the Oregon track team. It is also a site of remembrance in the life of Steve Prefontaine who set numerous records in the 1970s and inspired nationwide interest in distance running prior to his death at age 24.

Hayward Field 

The center, which was originally named Eugene Art Center,&nbsp;was founded in 1950 by Kerns and other local artists. Kerns was born in Portland, Oregon and attended the University of Oregon, the California School of Fine Arts, and Columbia University. After her studies, she traveled through Asia and Europe. She was particularly influenced by the avant-garde artists she encountered in Europe&nbsp;such as Wassily Kandinsky. Her work was very colorful, dynamic, and reflected her spiritual character. She mentored many artists and&nbsp;fostered new teaching techniques, such as painting to music. The center was renamed after her when she passed away in 1965.

The Maude Kerns Art Center is an art museum and educational art center near the University of Oregon campus. It is named after Maude Irvine Kerns (1876-1965), an artist and former head of the University of Oregon Arts Department. The center is dedicated towards the promotion and understanding of art. It achieves this through its exhibitions, educational programs, lectures, workshops, and other programs. 

Highlights of the University of Oregon walking tour

Unversity of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

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