Ava Milam Clark and Jesse C. Clark Photographic Collection (P 152)
ca. 1890-1968
.20 cubic feet (approx. 120 prints and 5 color slides)

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of personal photographs taken and/or collected by Ava Milam Clark and Jesse C. Clark. Most of the images are of Ava Milam Clark and Jesse Clark and their families and friends. Of special note is an album of photographs and postcards from Ava Milam Clark's 1948 trip to China and Japan.


Forms

The bulk of the collection is a photograph album with about 90 b/w photographs and postcards (some color). The remainder of the collection consists of b/w prints and 5 color slides.


Organization and Arrangement

All of the non-album photographs have been assigned individual item numbers (P152:1-34 and P152:36-37). The photograph album has been assigned the number P152:35.


Biographical Note

Home economics dean Ava Bertha Milam was born on November 27, 1884 in Macon Missouri, one of 5 daughters of Ancil and Louisa Milam. She taught at the Blees Military Academy from 1904 to 1907 and came to Oregon Agricultural College in 1911 as professor and head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition. She was appointed Dean of the School of Home Economics in 1917 and served in that capacity until her retirement in 1950. In 1948, she acted as a consultant in home economics colleges in Korea and China. Ava Milam married Jesse C. Clark in 1952. She died in 1976. Milam Hall on the Oregon State University campus is named in Ava Milam's honor.

Alumnus Jesse Claude Clark graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in 1904 and joined the staff of the YMCA in Portland. In 1907, he married Julia Fuller (a 1906 OAC graduate) and they had 3 children; she died in 1951. During his 40-year career with the YMCA, he spent 12 years in Shanghai, China and several years as general secretary of the Seaman's Y in New York City. After his retirement in 1944, he became director of the Northern Baptist Assembly summer conference center at Green Lake, Wisconsin. He returned to Oregon in 1952 and married Ava Milam. He died in 1956 after a brief illness.


Related Materials

The Ava Milam Clark Papers provide extensive documentation of the personal and professional activities of both Milam and Clark and include many photographs.


Shelf Location:

1 document box on Photograph Collections shelves

Inventory
1    Composite photograph of the Class of 1904: J.C. Rinehart, T.W.
     Scott, Etta Carter, G.W. Moore, J.R. Howard, Lucy Dilley,
     Juanita Rosendorf, J.C. Burns, P.A. Cupper, J.W. Buster, Lena
     Rusk, H.G. Brodie, Nellie Pate, J.T. Witty, A.S. Wells, T.W.
     Espey, Blanche Hershner, M.W. Bartmess, Mary Sutherland, V.C.
     Staats, Isabel Whitby, D. Hirgtel, Maude Cochran, E.P.
     Jackson, C.L. Proebstel, Carrie Byerlee, Etta Fuller, Inez St.
     Germain, C.C. Cate, A.S. Hall, E.E. Hinrichs, A.O. Horton,
     W.H. Weeks, Jesse C. Clark, C.L. Shepard. 

2    Jesse C. Clark and group when he was at Seaman's House under
     the YMCA at New York; ca. 1935

3    The Jesse C. Clark family in White Plains, New York; ca. 1941

4    Model village in Shanghai, China. Built by the YMCA, designed
     by J.C. Clark; ca. 1935

5    ROTC Cadets, J.C. Clark; 1905
6    J.C. Clark and friends; ca. 1905

7    J.C. Clark and friends in China; ca. 1920

8    J.C. Clark and Ava Bertha Milam on their wedding day in
     Whittier, California; Nov. 1, 1952

9    Ancil Milam (b. 1854) - Ava Milam Clark's father; ca. 1920

10   Ava Milam Clark's house, 127 North 26th Street

11   Ava Milam Clark and her class at Blees Military Academy,
     Macon, Missouri, ca. 1905.

12   Ava Milam Clark and Miss Kaufman; ca. 1955; color slide.
13   Jesse C. Clark and friend; ca. 1955; color slide.
14   Ava Milam Clark and friends; ca. 1955; color slide.
15   McKenzie Bridge, Ava Milam Clark, Ruth Hammond; ca. 1955;
     color slide.

16   McKenzie, Oregon; ca. 1955; color slide.

17-20     Ava Milam Clark's home at 127 North 26th Street,
          Corvallis:
     17        Living room
     18-19     Backyard

21   Mary Louisa Milam - Ava Milam Clark's mother; ca. 1900

22   Ava Milam Clark; 1949

23   Ancil Milam - Ava Milam Clark's father

24   Portrait of unidentified woman (perhaps Home Economics
     faculty).

25   Jesse C. Clark family in Kuling, China; ca. 1930

26-32  Ginling College Home Management House in Ginling, China;
       Spring 1947

33   Elva Widlund Everest (Class of 1933) with Chinese interpreter;
     1968

34   Sh'h Chien Home Economics College, China; 1968

35   Photo album of Ava Milam Clark's 1948 trip to China and Japan. 
     The album includes about 90 photographs and postcards of the
     group before their departure and on board the ship "Empress of
     Russia" enroute, various landmarks and sites in Shanghai,
     Nanking, and Tokyo including the Great Wall; groups of people
     they visited; and the interiors of homes and gardens in China
     and Japan.

36   Composite of portraits of five women, including Ava Milam
     Clark; perhaps Home Economics faculty.

37   Mounted albumen print of a family (3 women, one man, and 4
     young girls), ca. 1890.
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