Ida M. Matsen

Title: Ida M. Matsen
LC Subject: Universities and colleges--Faculty Portraits Art--Study and teaching
Description: Ida Martha Matsen was a Professor of Art from 1927 to 1948. She was born in 1894 in Bickleton, Washington. She studied for two years at the Chicago Art Institute, and then graduated from the Normal Art Department of Pratt Institute, New York in 1920. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Washington in 1925, and an Master of Arts in Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1926. Before coming to OSC, she was an art instructor for a cumulative seven years in high schools across Washington and California, and also performed clerical work for the Department of Labor in Washington, DC, in 1918. She was involved in an annual exhibition of the Northwest Artists’ Association in Seattle, and received two honorable mentions in water color painting. In 1927, she reached out to Oregon Agricultural College offering her services as an instructor of art, and, as officials at OSAC found it difficult to find her, most of her appointment negotiations were conducted by telegram. Those who recommended her said she was of excellent character, a pleasing personality, but not a “strong disciplinarian” with elementary children. She became an assistant professor in 1934 and an associate professor in 1937, and was consistently underpaid for her rank. OSAC was grateful to find such a well-trained teacher on such a low salary, although in 1928 she successfully leveraged her position at OSAC to receive a raise of $100. She took sabbatical leave once for three months in 1939 in order to travel and study the teaching of art throughout colleges and art schools in California and Washington. This request was conditional on Professor Fairbanks resuming his work in the department. For the year of 1946-47 she also took sabbatical leave to study, teach, and rest. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church. She submitted her resignation in 1948, wishing to spend the remaining years of her life focusing on her own art, health, and family. On the advice of administration she instead took a leave of absence, intending to postpone official retirement until 1951, at which point she would reach official retirement age and be granted a service allowance. Superiors at OSC intended to grant her the rank of professor, but chose not do so until her official retirement. She planned to spend her first year on leave on Whidby Island, in an art colony of northwest artists, and to have a studio workshop in the future. Unfortunately, she passed away in 1949. She was hired at $1,800 in 1927 and resigned at a salary of $4,410.
Work Type: photographic prints photographs black-and-white photographs
Date: 1926-02
Identifier: P092:0383
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