Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/589

 history of a more specialized nature. Albert R. Sweetser, professor emeritus of botany in the University of Oregon, is at work on a history of the pioneer botanists of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, beginning with David Douglas. Mirpah G. Blair, of the Oregon State Library, has written an interesting article on the early libraries in Oregon. Frederick W. Goodrich, Portland musician, has for several years been gathering material for a history of music in Oregon, a field that has received little attention. At the University of Oregon, Dr. H. D. Sheldon, of the school of education, and Professor George S. Turnbull of the school of journalism, are respectively writing a history of education in Oregon and a history of Oregon newspapers. At Oregon State College, Dr. E. T. Hodge is a sort of Hugh Miller of the state, through his writings on geology that go back to real antiquity, as in his Mt. Multnomah, with its convincing theory that this was the ancient ancestor of the Three Sisters; and Dr. E. L. Packard has written extensively on the paleontology of Oregon, digging valuable history out of the ground with a spade. How interestingly such specialized talents can be applied to history is indicated in the article of O. F. Stafford, a chemistry professor, on "The Wax of Nehalem Beach." Other instances of special training applied to history are Chinook dictionaries by linguists; Trade and Currency in Early Oregon by Dr. James H. Gilbert, a well-known economist; and the articles on the historic houses of Oregon by Jamison Parker, an architect.

The writers of such histories, in possessing technical competency, do not escape the customary require-