Climbing One Mountain After Another: The Story of Kathleen Gemberling-Adkison

Posted on April 22, 2026 at 2:33 pm.

By Olivia Jacobsen, Class of 2028

It’s commonly understood that there’s no correct response to death, no correct way to grieve. After experiencing great loss, people behave in a vast array of sometimes peculiar ways. As Joan Didion wrote in her 2005 memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, “The power of grief to derange the mind has in fact been exhaustively noted.” That said, most people wouldn’t hike to the Mount Everest base camp for the first time, at the age of 68, almost directly after the death of their husband. Then again, Kathleen Gemberling-Adkison was not like most people.

Kathleen Gemberling Adkison at Mount Everest Base Camp, 1993 (photo: Jean Kendall)

Born Kathleen Parks in Beatrice, Nebraska, in 1917, Katahleen would go on to become a well-known Pacific Northwest landscape painter. During the Great Depression, the Parks family moved to Seattle, Washington, where, in Kathleen’s final year of high school, she first received formal art instruction. But it wasn’t until she was mentored by renowned abstract expressionist, Mark Tobey, that she began to develop her distinct style. In a time when female artists were discouraged from painting anything other than portraits and genre paintings, Tobey’s instruction was highly subversive, as he never gave assignments and always encouraged his students to paint what they found interesting. “Before that class, I felt guilty for painting,” Gemberling-Adkison remembered, “I’d been punished in school for drawing, and made to feel that it was something I should try to ‘get over.’ He [Tobey] made me realize that painting was of some worth.”

In 1950, Kathleen moved to Spokane, Washington, where, removed from Tobey’s guidance, she spent time acquainting herself with the area’s natural landscape, later explaining that she enjoyed painting natural landscapes because she liked exploring the mysterious and unexamined places in nature and hoped for her paintings to be “something a person could meditate on” and for them to have elements “that couldn’t be seen at the first viewing.” It wasn’t ever just about the landscape, however. She viewed her landscape work as a metaphor for the layered complexities of human relationships more broadly, stating that “The closer you look, the richer people seem.”

Gemberling-Adkison was married three times. Not much is known about her early marriages aside from the understanding that, if given an ultimatum, Kathleen would invariably choose being a painter over being with a man. In an interview, she stated: “After my first marriage broke up, a psychiatrist told me if I’d just quit painting, my marriage would be OK. I never went back to him.”

Naturally, Kathleen wanted a spouse who would encourage her desire to create, not repress it, and, in 1968, she married Tom Adkison, a prominent Spokane-area architect. She and Tom would go on to travel the world together, visiting Europe and Asia, oftentimes hiking extensively and giving Kathleen inspiration for her paintings. Tom’s companionship indicates his support of Kathleen’s artistic endeavors, but it went further than travel and spending time in nature together, as he participated in shaping the work itself. In a 1978 interview, for instance, Kathleen gave Tom credit for naming all of her pieces. “I like titles, but I don’t name them and can’t think of any titles,” she said. “My husband thinks of all the titles.”

It is impossible to know what emotions Gemberling-Adkison was experiencing when Tom died in March of 1986, but, shortly after his death, she hiked to the base camp at Mount Everest with her friend Jean Kendall. After so many hikes in other countries with Tom, it’s difficult not to see this hike as a way of feeling connected to him after his death. Indeed, in April of 1986, Kathleen painted Everest. It’s difficult to conceptualize the vastness of the world’s tallest mountain, just as it’s impossible to fathom the death of a spouse, and Gemberling-Adkison captures this struggle in Everest. As with any colossal form encountered at close range, the painting has no distinct lines or shapes, emphasizing above all the inability to see, let alone understand, something so tremendous.

This inability to capture and decipher the whole picture can also be found in the undated work Base Camp. Depicting the conditions at Everest, the bright white colors work in tandem with warmer light pinks and yellows to create a very airy feeling, but it’s more than that. It’s an image that captures the camp’s beauty, but also a feeling of transcendence in the literal sense—not just of being at very high altitude, but of being enveloped in a cloud-like, heavenly state. This is a feeling, perhaps, that follows accomplishing a great feat in the face of hardship. Nor would Kathleen be willing to let that feeling go. Indeed, in 1993, at the age of 76, she completed the hike for the second time, again with her friend Kendall, proving once more that she was nothing if not stoutly determined to defy any and all conventions in her art, in her marriages, and in her grief.

Sources:

Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. p.134 Newspaper clippings, 1980-1989, Series I, Box 1, Folder: 4. The Kathleen Gemberling Adkison

papers, WUA053. Willamette University Archives and Special collections.

Newspaper clippings, 1990-1999, Series I, Box 1, Folder: 5. The Kathleen Gemberling Adkison papers, WUA053. Willamette University Archives and Special collections.

Newspaper clippings, undated, Series I, Box 1, Folder: 6. The Kathleen Gemberling Adkison papers, WUA053. Willamette University Archives and Special collections.

Adkison interview, 1978 October 6, Series I, Box 1, Folder: 9. The Kathleen Gemberling Adkison papers, WUA053. Willamette University Archives and Special collections.

Adkison, Kathleen Gemberling. Adkison at Everest Base Camp. Photograph. Exhibitions, 1970
1999, Series I, Box 1, Folder 8. Kathleen Gemberling Adkison Papers (WUA053). Willamette University Archives and Special Collections.

Kathleen Gemberling Adkison Artworks, 1917-2010, OWS_WUA053_Adkison_art, https://digitalcollections.willamette.edu/collections/a4228fc3-ccaa-4132-b06f-28117b369 005

The Life and Death in Henk Pander’s Portraits

Posted on April 22, 2026 at 11:36 am.

Written by Susan Irwin

By Savanah Anderson, Class of 2028

“There is something fatal about a portrait. It has a life of its own,” writes Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Grey.1 Consider, for instance, the Mona Lisa. What can you tell me about that woman and her famous smile? Probably very little. In this way, it seems, the creation of a portrait is both a birth and a death; the original model replaced by a reproduction of themselves. This is the dilemma at the center of portraiture. How can an artist pick through the contents of a life like junk at a garage sale and decide how the subject will be remembered? This question is likely one intimately familiar to Henk Pander.

Pander, a Portland-based painter from the Netherlands, was primarily known for his Pacific Northwest landscapes and poster art, but it is his portraits I am concerned with.

Pander produced several portraits in his career, the most notable of which are Portrait of Delores and Prayer Before the Night. These paintings show in Pander’s body of work a unique fascination with death, so much so it might as well have been holding the brush. Both paintings are of figures nearing the ends of their lives, and it is through them and with the help of written archival information that we can begin to understand this strange pattern and how an artist like Henk Pander chooses to memorialize those closest to him.

Spurned by the negative reaction to his exhibition at Portland State University, Pander retreated from the art world to work at the Storefront Theater in Portland. There, he would work closely with director and costume designer Ric Young. In his own words, the two “began a long and creative friendship, which lasted until he died in the winter of 1992.”2 Perhaps, they felt a certain kinship, each being highly criticized artists and Ric being described as “vehemently opposed to any form of censorship.3 An ironically Wilde-esque figure, Young was an eccentric, ostentatious, and avant-garde artist. By all (admittedly limited) accounts, Ric was loved and admired within the theater community and, although often disliked by critics, he was certainly a topic of discussion for many of them. All things considered, he seems a man worth writing about, and maybe for a time he was, yet little information about him remains online.

“Prayer Before the Night”, Henk Pander, 1992

What remains, however, is Prayer Before the Night. This painting, now kept in the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, shows Ric Young as he lay dying due to complications of AIDS. Although perhaps not the same lively man he used to be, this portrait is an homage to the life and legacy of a man not to be forgotten. He lay surrounded by colorful, ornate fabrics, his frail figure swallowed by a large, draped kimono. A peacock, commonly used as a symbol for beauty and extravagance, sits on the bed beside him. He wears edgy black cowboy boots and a large, gold crown. As Henk would write in a piece on Ric, “he became famous for his great head pieces”4 which he designed for the Storefront Theater.

This painting immortalizes a man, not who he was soon to become, but how he was and is remembered by those who knew and loved him. It tells us little about his illness, his family, or his body of work, and instead creates an image of beauty and extravagance—of a richness of life.

Portrait of Delores tells a very similar story. Pander married his second wife, Delores Rooney in 1978. Generally, following a line of curiosity and conventional essay structures, now would be when I tell you about Delores, and I wish that I could. Yet, little about Delores is known to the public. One obituary claims she took an “extraordinary supporting role”6 in her career. A biography, (on Henk, of course), says her “support…allowed him to focus on his paintings”7 Her life before her marriage to the artist is seemingly lost to time. She was a shadow in the legacy of her husband’s work. Or, that would be the case, if not for her portrait.

Portrait of Delores is a portrait of strength. Her posture is relaxed, yet her expression is stern and unrelenting. She holds a large book on her lap, an homage to her work in the literary field, and a colorful ceramic vase sits on the table beside her. She wears bright red Wizard-of-Oz-esque shoes, matching the elegant red of the drapes behind her. She is dignified and unafraid. Delores would be diagnosed with cancer in 2010, which would take her life shortly after. Henk kept a journal documenting the process of her treatments until she passed, now kept in the Hatfield Archives, which details the agonizing experience of the decline of her health. She became thin and haggard, dwarfed by her hospital bed, her bones showing through her skin like the wings of a bat. This painting does not show this time in her life, but who she was in spite of it. As Henk would say in his journal, “she has been strong, fearless, independent, dignified, and sad throughout the ordeal,” and although she was hard to recognize, “she is very much the same person”.8

“Portrait of Delores,” Henk Pander, 2009 9

A painting will never be able to hold a life within its frame. We will never know Ric or Delores as Henk did and their portraits cannot laugh and speak as they did. And yet their portraits outlive them, and the talent of Henk Pander cements the image of these figures, not as they died but as they lived, in our minds and history, impervious to the weather of time. Each of these paintings hold fragments of what can be found in archives, after hours of concentrated digging—a love of fashion or literature, a sense of strength, their family’s talents—condensed into a singular representation. And whether in a museum or a collection online, they exist for all to see and remember.

1 Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Sterling Publishing Company, Incorporated, 2020), p. 116.

2 “Ric Young, 1974, 1989–1992,” Series I, Box 5, Folder 12, Henk Pander Papers, WUA064, Willamette University Archives and Special Collections.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Henk Pander Catalogue of Artworks, 1991-2000, Willamette University Archives

6 Martha Ullman West, “Delores Pander, 1938–2010,” Art Scatter, June 25, 2010. Accessed October 22, 2025.

7 Roger Hull, “Henk Pander (1937–2023),” Oregon Encyclopedia, April 24, 2024. Accessed October 22, 2025.

8 The Delores Journal, January–June 2010, Series III, Box 12, Folder 11, Henk Pander Papers, WUA064, Willamette University Archives and Special Collections.

9 Henk Pander Catalogue of Artworks, 2001-2012, Willamette University Archives

Romans, Reformation Artists, and Willamette: The Travels of an Early Christian Text into the Hatfield Library Vault

Posted on December 11, 2025 at 4:01 pm.

Written by Doreen Simonsen

By Doreen Simonsen
Humanities & Fine Arts Librarian, dsimonse@willamette.edu

any people have been involved with the creation, printing, illustrating, selling, and purchasing of this particular book over the centuries. The most recent owner this book was Dr. John M. Canse, President of the Kimball School of Theology, a part of Willamette University from 1906 to 1930. The book is called L. Coelii Lactantii Firmiani Diuinarum institutionum libri VII or The Divine Institutes, and the large initial M on the left is one of the illustrations by Hans Holbein the Younger inside this book. “Printed entirely in Latin…it shows the struggle between the ideas of Paganism and those of Christianity… and in 1926, Dr. J. M. Hitt, State Librarian of Washington State considered it to be the oldest book from moveable type found in the Northwest at that time.” ¹

On June 17, 1953, Dr. Canse gave this book to Willamette University, and inscribed it with the following:

“This author was the silver-tongued Christian of the 4^th century. This copy came from a German Monastery to Fort Wayne, Ind. Where I secured it in 1906. Perhaps the oldest book in Moveable type in the Northwest.”²

This silver-tongued Christian was Lactantius, who was born a citizen of the Roman Empire circa 250 C.E. in the northern African town of Cirta, where he taught Latin. Emperor Diocletian summoned him to his court in Nicomedia in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) to teach Latin Rhetoric to administrators of his empire. As a courtier, Lactantius met another follower of the Roman (Pagan) religion, the future emperor Constantine. Both eventually converted to Christianity, and Lactantius fled the region during Emperor Diocletian’s Great Persecution of Christians in 303 C.E.

While in exile, Lactantius wrote this work, The Divine Institutes, “a treatise which sought to commend the truth of Christianity to men of letters and thereby for the first time set out in Latin a systematic account of the Christian attitude to life.”⁵ “It is the earliest systematic account of Christian morality in Latin.” ⁶ His written command of the rhetoric of classical texts and “pagan” mythology created a rational argument for Christianity that led him to be called the Christian Cicero. Later he was also called a Christian Humanist and was widely read and published during the Renaissance.

The Dutch philosopher, Erasmus, was one of the many 15^th and 16^th century Humanistic authors who published an edition of Lactantius’ Divine Institutes. In 1521, the year that our copy of this book was published, Erasmus had settled in Basel, Switzerland, where he befriended the young artist, Hans Holbein the Younger, who painted this famous portrait of him. Erasmus introduced Holbein to his friend, Sir Thomas Moore of England, whose portrait he also painted, and through his connection with Moore, Holbein became the court artist of the Tudors, especially Henry VIII.

Cratander’s Printer’s Mark
by Holbein, 1525 ⁹

However, while living in Basel, Holbein also created designs for several woodcuts used by printers in that city,⁸ including Andreas Cratander, who printed our book in 1521. Besides the beautiful title page, Holbein designed Cratander’s Printer’s Mark. An earlier version can be seen on the bottom of the title page of our 1521 book, and the 1525 version is included the images of Printers’ Marks on the ceiling of the West Corridor. Library of Congress Thomas

Jefferson Building.¹¹ “Cratander repeatedly used as his mark the figure of Occasio, or Opportunity. Bald at the back, her hair blown before her, with winged feet she strides the world; in her hand she carries a razor to show how sharply is divided the fleeting present from the irrevocable past.”¹²

Basel was a major center for Renaissance Humanist and later Protestant publishing during the Reformation. On the title page, Holbein includes putti (cherubs) at the top and the bottom of the page, a classical Italianate frame around the text, and images of women on each side. On the left is Lucretia, a noblewoman of Ancient Rome, who committed suicide by stabbing herself under her breast after being raped by Tarquin, the king’s son. The other woman is Judith, a Israelite widow who beheads Holofernes, an Assyrian general, in order to protect her city. At the bottom are two more putti holding the printer’s mark of Cratander between Roman medaillons in bottom corners. Cratander also used this same title page border later that year for a work by Johannes Oecolampadius, a German Protestant reformer, for whom he continued to publish Protestant works for several years.¹⁴

On top of the text of the title page is a stamp from the book’s next known destination, the Jesuit Monastery of Gorheim, in Sigmaringen, Southern Germany, which was in operation from 1852 – 1872. ¹⁵

This may be where the booksellers Simeon & Brother at 714 Calhoun Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana found and purchased our book. They were noted vendors of German and Theology books.¹⁷ And they were also listed in the International Adressbuch des Deutschen Buchhandels (Addressbook of German Bookstores) as the only only German bookstore in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1905.¹⁸ This is where Dr. Canse must have found and purchased this book in 1906.

Born in Orland, Indiana in 1869, Dr. Canse graduated with the class of 1899, at DePauw University (a Methodist University) in Greencastle, Indiana, where he later earned his Doctorate in Divinity in 1918. In 1907 he moved from Fort Wayne to the Pacific Northwest, where he served as a minister to several places in Oregon and Washington. He researched the early Methodists in the region and was also active in the Washington State Historical Society. In 1926 he was offered the position of President of Kimball School of Theology by Willamette University’s Board of Trustees, and he held this position until the school closed in 1930. ¹⁹ “He gave considerable attention to original research on the Indian Mission Period of Old Oregon. A text entitled, “Missionary Colonizers of the Pacific Northwest,” was written. It appeared first in the Pacific Christian Advocate,”²⁰ a newspaper founded in 1859 in Salem, Oregon by Alvan Waller, one of the founders of Willamette University.

In 1930 Canse published a biography of Jason Lee called Pilgrim and Pioneer: Dawn in the Northwest. His book includes chapters on “Red Tribes Seek the White Man’s Secret of Success, Indian Camp Meetings and War Clouds, and Indian Missions Fade into White Churches.” In 1932 a reviewer noted that work was “uncritical of Lee…Its chief value, and this is important, is its emphasis upon the religious devotion and zeal that animated Lee’s work.”²²

The terror of Diocletian’s Great Persecution of Christians in 303 C.E. forced Lactantius to flee Nicomedia and inspired him to write his arguments in favor of Christianity for educated Latin readers of the 4^th century. The printing whirlwind of 16^th century Basel produced religious tracts at the beginning of the Reformation, including our book which ended up at a Jesuit monastery in Germany. An American bookseller found it there and added it to his inventory in Indiana, where it fell into the hands of a scholar who celebrated the colonizing of the Northwest by Methodist missionaries. This text has traveled through centuries of religious convictions, conflict, and conversions. If you would like to see this book for yourself, please contact Doreen Simonsen, dsimonse@willamette.edu to make an appointment.

Endnotes:

1. “The Oldest Book of Northwest is Possession of Doctor Canse.” The Willamette Collegian. Vol. VI, No. 7, April 1895, p. 1.

2. Lactantius, Markos Mousouros, Andreas Cratander, and Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus. L. Coelii Lactantii Firmiani Diuinarum institutionum libri VII … Basileae: apud Andream Cratandrum, 1521. Mark O. Hatfield Library. https://orbiscascade-willamette.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01ALLIANCE_WU/2i92kk/alma9930454435201454

3. “Kimball to Close during 1930-31.” The Willamette Collegian. Vol. XLI, No. 18, February 20, 1930, p. 1.

4. “Fourth-century mural possibly depicting Lactantius (also possibly Apuleius). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lactantius.jpg

5. Edwards, Mark. “Lactantius.” In The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. : Oxford University Press, 2022. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199642465.001.0001/acref-9780199642465-e-4053.

6. Baldwin, Barry. “Lactantius.” In The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. : Oxford University Press, 1991. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-2984.

7. Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/8 – 1543), Erasmus, 1523oil on wood, 73.6 × 51.4 cm. The National Gallery, London. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holbein-erasmus.jpg

8. Schmid, Heinrich Alfred. “Holbeins Thätigkeit für die Baseler Verleger.” Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 20 (1899): 233–62. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25167403.

9. Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/8 – 1543), Printer’s Mark of Andreas Cratander, 1525, Metalcut print on paper, 85 × 59 mm. The British Museum, London. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

10. Lactantius, Markos Mousouros, Andreas Cratander, and Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus. L. Coelii Lactantii Firmiani Diuinarum institutionum libri VII … Basileae: apud Andream Cratandrum, 1521.

11. Highsmith, Carol M, Photographer. Second Floor Corridor. Printers’ marks+Columns. Printer’s mark of Cratander in West Corridor. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. , 2007. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2007684459/.

12. Willoughby, Edwin Eliott. “The Cover Design.” The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy 21, no. 2 (1951): 127–127. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4303991.

13. Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/8 – 1543), Title-Border with Judith and Lucretia, 1521, Metalcut print on paper, 174 × 121 mm. The British Museum, London. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

14. Colombo, Matteo, Benjamin Manig, and Noemi Schürmann. 2024. “A Reformation in Progress: The Path toward the Reform of Johannes Oecolampadius” Religions 15, no. 9: 1147. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091147

15. “Kloster Gorheim.” https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Gorheim

16. “Simeon & Bros. Bookstore.” Souvenir of Fort Wayne, Indiana. 1888, page 12. https://archive.org/details/souveniroffortwa00fort/page/n11/mode/2up

17. “Simeon & Brother.” The Bookmart: A Monthly Magazine of Literary and Library Intelligence, Vol.2, No. 4, September 1, 1884, page 391. https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1ADAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA391&dq=Siemon+%26+Brother.+Booksellers+Wayne&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_lp225aL7AhWlCTQIHRQ5AEQQ6AF6BAgDEAI#v=onepage&q&f=false

18. “Fort Wayne (Indiana).” Adressbuch des Deutschen Buchhandels. 1905, V. Abteilung, Seite. 378. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092543537&seq=940&q1=amerika&view=1up

19. John Canse Papers, 1884-1958. Finding Aid. https://wshs-collections.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Ms%20148%20Finding%20Aid.pdf

20.“Kimball Policy Yet Uncertain: President Canse Here: Newly Elected Administrator is Well Known Figure in Northwest Circles.” The Willamette Collegian. Vol. XXXiX, No. 1, September 29, 1926, p. 1.

21. Canse, John M. Pilgrim and Pioneer : Dawn in the Northwest. New York ; The Abingdon Press, 1930. https://archive.org/details/pilgrimpioneerda01cans/mode/2up

22. R. C. Clark, Pilgrim and Pioneer: Dawn in the Northwest. By John M. Canse and Jason Lee: Prophet of New Oregon. By Cornelius J. Brosnan, Journal of American History, Volume 19, Issue 3, December 1932, Pages 447–448, https://doi.org/10.2307/1892791

Summer Fun

Posted on June 2, 2025 at 12:33 pm.

Written by Joni Roberts

person reading outdoors by water Summer often gives people more time to relax, rejuvenate, and, of course, read! Without the pressure of school and deadlines, reading can become a more leisurely, enjoyable activity. Readers can explore different worlds, enjoy a light “summer read” or a breathtaking thriller, and temporarily forget about their day-to-day life. For the travelers among us, books are wonderful company on those long plane, train, or automobile rides. The warmer weather and less likelihood of a sudden rainstorm, makes outdoor reading more feasible—there is something magical about reading while sitting on the beach or a park bench with the sun shining, the birds singing, and a gently breeze blowing…

The longer days of summer offer us the chance to tackle that long list of books we’ve been meaning to read, explore different perspectives, and learn something new. No matter what your plans are for the summer, a good book is a perfect companion. To get you started on your reading adventures, check out these summer-related titles available from the library’s collection on the WU Reads Reading Guide.

“There is a temperate zone in the mind, between luxurious indolence and exacting work; and it is to this region, just between laziness and labor, that summer reading belongs.” — Henry Ward Beecher

Psychedelic Pop Art and Pliés

Posted on May 19, 2025 at 10:43 am.

Written by bkelm

By: Sarah Samala, ‘28

When you think of ballet, what comes to your mind? For most, it’s pink tights, pale tutus and classical music. However, when I was going through the materials donated by visual artist Tom Cramer in the Pacific Northwest Artists Archive, I came across the bright, almost psychedelic backdrops and hand-painted costumes of Oregon Ballet Theatre’s Jungle. Seeing Cramer’s strange, pop-art-esque art that typically covered cars or carved wood totems adorn the bodies and stage of the Oregon Ballet Theatre brought to mind several questions. Why was Tom Cramer chosen to set and costume a ballet? What was Jungle about? And finally, how did Cramer’s sets play into its narrative? Through research and the wealth of papers in the Willamette University Archives, I discovered the history of Jungle, and why Tom Cramer’s art was essential to its role within the modern dance world.

*Jungle* dancers stand in a line in front of Cramer’s set (TomCramerArt).

Tom Cramer was born in 1960 in Portland Oregon. He earned his BFA at the Museum Art School, now known as the Pacific Northwest College of Art in 1982. Cramer often combined different cultural mediums in his art. His early work, which consisted of abstract art and hand-carved totems, took inspiration from a variety of techniques like traditional Native American wood-carving and German expressionism. Cramer’s bright and chaotic style even made it onto unconventional canvases, as evidenced by his painted Volkswagens. Tom Cramer’s art was loud and memorable, yet described as eerily dark and foreboding by many. It was these qualities that caught the eye of dance agent Alex Dubay, who reached out to the Oregon Ballet Theatre’s artistic director, James Canfield, and pushed the visual artist into the world of ballet and theatre.

The Oregon Ballet Theatre first featured Cramer’s work in the 1994/95 season, where his first ever ballet set debuted in the American Choreographer’s showcase. The showcase was a culmination of several young choreographer’s original works, meant to challenge choreographers and dancers alike through its experimental nature. Shortly after being imbursed for this initial commission, Canfield sought out Cramer for another piece, one that would become one of Canfield’s most well-known works.

Tom Cramer and the set for the Fifth American Choreographer’s Showcase (Box 3, Folder 2).

The 1996/97 season’s “James Canfield Signatures,” featured Jungle, a fast-paced piece meant to capture the violence and majesty of animal life. Unlike most productions, Jungle’s set, which was a thirty-by-sixty-feet mural that channeled the essence of nature in Cramer’s style, was actually created before the choreography. This unconventional choice challenged choreographers to mold their work around the energy of Cramer’s art, making it the foundation of the entire piece. The music used within Jungle was also an unusual choice; forms I, II, III and IV from Future Sound of London’s Lifeforms, uses ambient electronic sounds to mimic the bird and insect sounds of nature rather than carry the audience to a dramatic or climatic ending. The costumes reflect this unorthodox theme as well, instead of tailoring costumes to each dancer, Cramer painted a large piece of nylon in his colorful abstract style that was cut and sewn into the dancer’s outfits, meaning each costume carried a piece of the larger artwork. Some costumes were even painted directly onto the bodysuits while they were on the dancers.

Tom Cramer paints a large strip of nylon that will be cut and sewn into Jungle’s costumes (Box
3, Folder 2).

Aside from the American Choreographer’s Showcase, Jungle and its accompanying James Canfield Signatures were a modern first for the company, which typically produced traditional shows such as The Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet. Similar to Cramer’s innovative method of combining different mediums, artistic director Canfield wanted Jungle to change the expectations of a “standard” ballet by merging the traditional art form with unconventional practices and abstract art. Throughout his work in the Oregon Ballet Theatre, Canfield strived to “carry ballet from one century to the next” (Box 2, Folder 2) and elevate the older artform for growing modern audiences. Cramer’s unique art served as the backbone for Canfield’s goal, and the contemporary Jungle became an important fixture within the Oregon Ballet Theatre’s history.

After its run in 1997, Jungle went on to fulfill its show’s title and become a James Canfield Signature, eventually being revived in 2002 as one of James Canfield’s final pieces before he left the company. Even today, Oregon Ballet theatre continues to stylize their performances. In the 24/25 season’s Hansel and Gretel, an eerie silent-film aesthetic was combined with gaudy and colorful sets, creating a sense of unease and like with Jungle, causing the production to visually stand out. Cramer went on to paint one more ballet set for Ballet Pacifica’s As is Us, which makes both his work at the Oregon Ballet Theatre and Ballet Pacifica nearly one of a kind. Though Cramer’s art strays toward wood reliefs more than painted murals nowadays, the production still stands as a crucial part of his legacy, and an important milestone in the modernization of the Oregon Ballet Theatre’s shows.

Works Cited

Cramer, Tom. Jungle 1997. Tom Cramer Art. https://www.tomcramerart.com/pages/jungle1.htm
Future Sound of London. Lifeforms, Virgin Records, 1994. Youtube,https://youtu.be/nhOXE4wn6Sk?si=X1oLslwk1oHe3EZ9.
Newspaper articles about art, 1986-2012, Subseries B, Box: 3, Folder: 3. Tom Cramer papers,
WUA122. Willamette University Archives and Special Collections.
Newspaper clippings (and exhibit fliers and correspondence to Betty Perkins (mother) and
Francesca Stevenson), circa 1979-2011, Subseries B, Box: 3, Folder: 2. Tom Cramer
papers, WUA122. Willamette University Archives and Special Collections.
Oregon Ballet Theatre booklets and fliers (season schedules), 1994-1997, Subseries A, Box: 2,
Folder: 10. Tom Cramer papers, WUA122. Willamette University Archives and Special
Collections.
Oregon Ballet Theatre. Oregon Ballet Theatre, https://www.obt.org/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.
Oregon Ballet Theatre “Spring Romance” (article about Tom Cramer), 1995 March 9 – March 12,
Subseries B, Box: 4, Folder: 5. Tom Cramer papers, WUA122. Willamette University
Archives and Special Collections.
Portfolio and resume, circa 2005-2009, Subseries D, Box: 3, Folder: 14. Tom Cramer papers,
WUA122. Willamette University Archives and Special Collections.

Two Booklovers and the Laws of War, Peace, and Tariffs

Posted on May 12, 2025 at 11:44 am.

Written by Doreen Simonsen

By Doreen Simonsen
Humanities & Fine Arts Librarian, dsimonse@willamette.edu

Four hundred years ago, in 1625, the first edition of De iure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace) by the Dutch jurist and theologian, Hugo Grotius was published. Recently, the Hatfield Library was contacted about our 1646 copy of this book¹, which led to some amazing discoveries about the man who owned our copy and his Willamette University connections to historical and current world events.

Jan Wagenaar. *Hugo de Groot vlugt uit de Loevesteinsche gevangenis 1621*. (*Hugo Grotius Escapes the Loevenstein Prison, 1621*.) Print, 1754.

Hugo Grotius, born in Delft, the Netherlands, (1583-1645) was an intellectual prodigy, who graduated from the University of Leiden at the age of fourteen. After holding various municipal posts, he was arrested for treason in 1618 and given a life sentence in Loevenstein Castle. Here he regularly received a large crate of books for him to read while imprisoned, and his love of books eventually led to his own freedom. In 1621, his wife and her maid managed to fit him [he was a small man] into one of these book crates and it was shipped out of the castle to France,² where Grotius spent the rest of his life in exile.

Title Page of *De Iure Belli ac Pacis*,
7th Ed., 1646.

Hugo Grotius is considered to be the father of International Law. While living in France Grotius penned his most famous work, De iure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), which was published in 1625 during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). This work was Grotius’ response to “the ‘licentiousness’ of Europe’s Christian rulers in rushing to war for frivolous or imprudent reasons’… Grotius worked to lay a foundation of natural law on which the law of nations and its accompanying laws of war could be built.”³ The result is this three volume book.

An article from the November 20, 1897 issue of the Oregon Daily Statesman tells the story of how Willamette University received a copy of this work that now resides in the vault of the Mark O. Hatfield Library. A copy of this article was cut out and glued to the back inside cover of that book, and it shows the book owner’s bibliophilia:

“The Seventeenth Century Hands Down One of Its Literary Gems to a Prominent Salemite.”

“Perhaps it would not do to class President W.C. Hawley, of the Willamette University, a bibliomaniac, but that he is a bibliophile will scarcely be denied by any one cognizant of the professor’s love for books; the rarer the book the nearer he approaches the condition besetting the former devotee.

The last volume to cast the spell of its charm, born of antiquity and rare literary quality, upon this accomplished student, was one that crossed his path in Denver, Colorado, during his late visit there as a member of the head camp of the Woodmen of the World.

“Chain & Hardy’s
Parlor Book Store.”
1869-1879.
Denver Public Library. ⁴

Prof. Hawley was never known to go deliberately by an “old book” stand without stopping, and that he should bring up in front of Chain & Hardy’s stalls in that city, in one of his idle hours, needs no accounting for, but that he did so, is a matter of supreme gratification for him by reason thereof, he is the possessor of a copy of Hugo Grotius’ work on “International Law,” a treatise in Latin, that bears the same relation to the particular phase of jurisprudence that the first edition of Blackstone bore to English law. …

It is the star of his collection, and was aired here yesterday for the first time when he took it to his class in international law at the university, and unfolded its rare contents to the interested and delighted young people who have the good fortune to sit under him as pupils.”⁵

Bookplate in Mark O. Hatfield Library’s copy of
Hugo Grotius *De Iure Belli et Pacis* 1646.

The owner of this book was Willis C. Hawley, President of Willamette University from 1893-1902. In 1897 Hawley was a professor of Political History, Economics, and Political Science, and while at Willamette he studied Law, became a member of the Oregon State Bar and expert on tariff and tax law. The April 1895 edition of The Willamette Collegian describes how Hawley shared his expertise on tariffs with his students:

*The Willamette Collegian.* Vol. VI, No. 7, April 1895. ⁶

And the 1897 Willamette University catalog lists the textbooks that professors required for their courses.⁷ One of the texts that Professor Hawley frequently used in his courses was The Tariff History of the United States by Frank William Taussig. ⁸

“Willamette’s Representative in Congress.” *Weekly Willamette Collegian*, Vol. XVIII, No 16. Feb. 6, 1907. ⁹

In 1902, Hawley stepped down as President of Willamette University to prepare for a campaign to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served in Washington, D.C. as the Representative Oregon’s 1^st Congressional District as a Republican from 1907 to 1933, and is best known for introducing legislation, along with Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, that called for raising tariffs. ¹⁰

Rep. W.C. Hawley, Reed Smoot, 4/11/29. , 1929 ¹¹

“The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was legislation that increased average import tariffs by approximately 20 percent in an attempt to protect American farmers and businesses from foreign competition during the agricultural crisis of the late 1920s…. Some historians believe that the tariff was so high that it elicited foreign economic retaliation against the United States and helped convert what would have been a normal economic downturn in the U.S. economy into a major worldwide depression.” ¹²

To learn more watch this short video: Trade Wars: A Look at the Smoot-Hawley Tariff ¹³

Both Hugo Grotius and Willis C. Hawley loved books, but they are best remembered for their political writings and activities. Currently the headlines are filled with news about wars challenging International Law and new Trade Wars created by tariffs, issues that Grotius’ and Hawley’s words and experiences could help us to find some solutions. That Hawley owned a rare copy of Grotius’ major work and then donated it to the Willamette University Library is a happy coincidence. If you would like to see this book for yourself, please contact Doreen Simonsen, dsimonse@willamette.edu to make an appointment

Endnotes:

1. Cleary, Matthew, Edward Jones Corredera, Pablo Nicolas Dufour, Jonathan Nathan, Emanuele Salerno, and Mark Somos. “Hugo Grotius’s De Iure Belli ac Pacis: A Report on the Worldwide Census of the Seventh Edition (1646).” Grotiana 44, no. 1 (2023): 154-180.

2. Kingma, Marja, “Two Women, a Lawyer and a Book Chest” British Library European Studies Blog. 19 April 2021. https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2021/04/two-women-a-lawyer-and-a-book-chest.html.

3. Devetak, Richard. “Grotius, Hugo.” In The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace. : Oxford University Press, 2010. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195334685.001.0001/acref-9780195334685-e-296.

4. Duhem Brothers. “Chain & Hardy’s Parlor Book Store, Books, Stationery, Pictures, and Fancy Goods, 414 Larimer Street, Denver, Col.” Denver Public Library Special Collections, x-18530, https://digital.denverlibrary.org/nodes/view/1059480

5.“The Seventeenth Century Hands Down One of Its Literary Gems to a Prominent Salemite.” Oregon Daily Statesman. Saturday, November 20, 1897.

6. Local and Personal” The Willamette Collegian. Vol. VI, No. 7, April 1895, p. 12.

7. Fifty-Fourth Year Book of the Willamette University for the Year 1897-8 with Announcement and Curricula for 1898-9: pp. 45-46.

8. Taussig, F. W. (Frank William). The Tariff History of the United States : A Series of Essays. New York ; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1888.

9. “Willamette’s Representative in Congress: Hawley Leaves Willamette.” Weekly Willamette Collegian, Vol. XVIII, No 16. February 6, 1907.

10. Carlson, Luke. ” Willis Hawley (1864-1941).” The Oregon Encyclopedia. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/hawley_willis/. Accessed May 2, 2025.

11. Rep. W.C. Hawley, Reed Smoot, 4/11/29. , 1929. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016843632/

12. “Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930).” In Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, 2nd ed., edited by Thomas Riggs, 1219. Vol. 3. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2015. Gale In Context: U.S. History (accessed May 2, 2025). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3611000828/UHIC?u=s8887317&sid=summon&xid=b6439b7e.

13. “Trade Wars: A Look at the Smoot-Hawley Tariff,” posted on June 18, 2019, by CFR Education, YouTube, 4 min., 29 sec., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4CvLu8HA7I

Grotius, Hugo. The Rights of War and Peace. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, Incorporated, 2005. Accessed May 1, 2025. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Heritage Celebration

Posted on May 9, 2025 at 8:10 am.

Written by Joni Roberts

cherry blossom branch and three ceramic vases May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (also known as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month), which provides us with a great opportunity to celebrate the amazing heritage and history of people from these areas. Now is the perfect time to reflect on the traditions, languages, and contributions of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs). The vibrant and varied cultures of AANHPIs have enriched America’s history and culture in so many ways. Their impressive achievements in science, art, literature, music, dance, sports, agricultural practices, cuisine, and countless other areas, deserve recognition and appreciation. At the same time, it is also important to acknowledge the struggles and hardships experienced by AANHPIs both in the past and the present. Let’s take time this month to pay tribute to the many achievements and contributions of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders everywhere. Check out a selection of recent materials by or about AANHPIs available from the University Libraries and listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

For more information, see:

https://asianpacificheritage.gov/

https://fapac.org/AAPI-Resources

Passionate about Poetry

Posted on April 18, 2025 at 9:09 am.

Written by Joni Roberts

cup of tea, flowers, open books of poetry In the immortal words of Robert Frost, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” Do you love a good haiku? How about a Shakespearean sonnet? Perhaps free verse is more to your liking? Or maybe you prefer that old crowd favorite, a lyrical limerick? If poetry brings you solace, or inspiration, or just plain makes you happy, this is the month for you! That’s right, April is National Poetry Month! Established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, National Poetry Month gives us the chance to celebrate poetry and poets’ vital place in American culture. Join us in celebrating the wonder of poetry by revisiting your favorite poet or poem. Alternatively, check out one of these books of poetry or poetry-related titles available from the University Libraries and listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”–Emily Dickinson

“Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toenails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.”–Dylan Thomas

Introducing WUpedia

Posted on April 4, 2025 at 4:57 pm.

Written by bkelm

Did you know?

How the Bearcat became the mascot of Willamette University?
Which WU president lost his contract renewal due to tobacco use?
That the Quad was once an athletic field, and the theater building used to be a gymnasium?
A Freshman class challenge in 1909 sparked an annual Glee competition that lasted nearly 90 years?

WU Archives is excited to announce the launch of WUpedia, an online encyclopedia dedicated to exploring the people, organizations, places, events, and history of Willamette University. The site showcases student-written entries, with fresh content added each semester. Stay tuned as we continue to grow this resource, preserving and sharing fun stories, fascinating people, memorable events, and quirky campus history!

Spring Has Sprung!

Posted on March 4, 2025 at 9:08 am.

Written by Joni Roberts

pink hyacinth flower on open book The days are getting longer, early flowers are emerging in all their glorious colors, birds are excitedly chasing earthworms, the weather vacillates from sunny to rainy in mere seconds, and outdoor markets are starting to reopen everywhere. It’s beginning to look a lot like springtime in the Willamette Valley! March ushers in the official beginning of spring and offers a whole host of things for us to celebrate such as St Patrick’s Day, March Madness, and of course, who can forget Spring Break? If you enjoy wildly unpredictable weather, green grass, baby ducklings, and blooming flora such as daffodils, crocuses, tulips, and daphne, this is the season for you! So get on out there and chase a few rainbows and while you’re at it, check out one of these spring-related titles available from the University Libraries and listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” – John Muir

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” – Helen Keller

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