Ethel Allen

Title: Ethel Allen
LC Subject: Universities and colleges--Faculty Portraits College publications Library employees
Creator: Hise Studio
Description: Ethel Allen worked as an assistant professor and assistant editor at Oregon State’s publications office from 1917 to 1948 and then from 1950 to 1955. She received her undergraduate education from Oregon Agricultural College in 1916. Initially, she worked in the library, but was promoted to Assistant in Office Publications in 1923 and in 1931 she was promoted to Assistant Editor of Publications. She was born in 1883, in Rickreall, Oregon. Before working at OSU, she was a rural school teacher, and taught in Independence, Oregon. Her annual salary was $2200. Before she retired, she made $2600. She was a member of the Business and Professional Women’s Club. After working at OSU for 20 years, she took sabbatical leave in 1937. Ethel Allen came to OSU because there was a shortage of staff in the library, as one of the employees was helping an ailing mother and was getting engaged, which meant she would not be working anymore. Allen was hired onto the library staff, working seven hours a day for $38 a month. She initially made about $600 a year. Ida Kidder wrote a letter to President Kerr in 1917 to ask for a rise in the wages of her library staff, pointing to the rise in living expenses, and recommended that Allen’s wages be raised to $720 a year. Kerr granted the salary increase. She retired in 1948, but came back in 1950 to work part time. Her previously held position was difficult to fill, as women often left to have babies, get married, or they found a better-paying job. Initially, she was only supposed to work for a year, but the rate of turnover for female staff was so great that she stayed on until 1955. Other faculty frequently said she was extremely skilled and experienced.
Work Type: photographic prints photographs black-and-white photographs
Identifier: P092:0081
Rights: In Copyright
Local Collection Name: President's Office Photographs, 1923-1998 (P 092)
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Set: OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center Historical Images of Oregon State University
Primary Set: OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center
Institution: Oregon State University