Digital Exhibits

Steam-Powered Grain Threshing

Threshing of a grain harvest, probably near Forest Grove or Banks, Oregon circa 1910-1914. A steam-powered tractor engine (right) turns a long belt which drives the threshing machine on the left. Men standing on the wagons with pitchforks are feeding harvested grain -- possibly oats -- into the thresher, which separates the grain from the chaff. Men standing by the empty horse-drawn wagon (left) are gathering the grain from a chute that extends from the thresher, while the chaff, or hay, is being shot into the air, forming huge pile (left, background). Additional workers wait nearby, while what may be a covered chuck wagon sits by the steam tractor. Cut grain that is waiting to be threshed waits in the field in the foreground. For a similar image by the same photographer, see Image PUA_MS154_023.

This is one image from a set of glass plate negatives created by William Alonso Clapshaw. Clapshaw was a clerk and shopkeeper who lived near Forest Grove, Oregon for most of his life. He was born in 1880, probably at the family's home in the Hillside neighborhood of Forest Grove, on what is now Clapshaw Hill Road east of Gales Creek. Around 1910-1914, William took an interest in photography and created a set of glass plate negatives documenting scenes near his family's lands as well as images of himself, his friends and family members. He most likely used a silver gelatin dry plate process. The photographs were donated to the Pacific University Archives in 2023.

Clapshaw, William Alonso, 1880-2003

circa 1910-1914

PUA_MS154_026

Agriculture

Agricultural laborers

Agricultural machinery

Harvesting machinery

Horses

Threshing machines

Forest Grove, Oregon

Banks, Oregon

Gelatin silver negatives

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Pacific University Archives