A group of women students gathered outside Benton Hall. Of the 336 students enrolled at OAC during the 1897/98 academic year, almost half (151) were women. Women have been students at OSU since its establishment in 1868.
After the Memorial Union was completed in 1929, trees and shrubs were removed from various sites around campus and transplanted around the Memorial Union. Perhaps that was the destination for this large shrub which was apparently removed near Benton Hall (visible on the left).
This view of Oregon Agricultural College from the lower campus shows (from left to right): Waldo Hall; Education Hall; Fairbanks Hall (cupola visible on skyline); Strand Agricultural Hall; the Women's Building; Benton Hall; and Apperson Hall. Fourteenth Street was not extended across lower campus until the 1960s.