Allan Krieg photographs

Collection

Identifier: WCMss-491

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Allan Krieg Photographs, dating from 1946 to 1950, contains negatives and prints documenting Whitman College campus life, events, and people. The collection includes photographs of sporting events and athletes, sorority and fraternity dances and performances, portraits of faculty, staff, and students, and coverage of events in Walla Walla more broadly.

Dates

1946-1950

Creator

Krieg, Allan (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Biographical Note

Allan Krieg was born on February 20, 1996 in South Dakota. Krieg was a student at Whitman College from 1946 to 1950, where he served as the unofficial campus photographer. Working out of a darkroom in the basement of Billings Hall, Krieg documented campus events and people for the administration, the yearbook, the student newspaper, and the Greek organizations on campus.

Krieg graduated from Whitman College in 1950, and became a staff photographer at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin newspaper in Walla Walla, Washington. Krieg later attended business school at Harvard University, and became a publicist for Union Pacific Railroad, where he worked for over thirty years. Krieg made award-winning industrial films, and wrote a newspaper column called “Wish You Were Here,” about train trips in California. He also wrote a book called “Last of the 3-Foot Loggers,” which is about the logging railroad that once operated in Yosemite, California. He married Marjorie Krieg, and together they had two sons. He died on September 13, 1996 in California.

Extent

.9 Linear Feet (3 document boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Allan Krieg was a professional photographer who graduated from Whitman College in 1950 and went on to become a staff photographer for the Walla WAlla Union-Bulletin and a publicist for Union Pacific Railroad. During his time as a student at Whitman College, he served as the unoffical campus photographer, documenting campus events and people for the administration, the yearbook, the student newspaper, the Alumni Office, and Greek organizations. This collection, dating from 1946 to 1950, contains negatives documenting both campus life as well as events in Walla Walla more broadly.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

The negatives in this collection are on cellulose acetate film and are chemically breaking down and exhibiting vinegar syndrome. In most cases the negatives are no longer useable, and print access copies must be used instead of the originals.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated to the Whitman College and Northwest Archives by Allan Krieg in the 1980s. The accession number associated with this donation is retro-0120.

Processing Information

In the mid-1980s after the collection was donated to the Whitman College and Northwest Archives, the Archives matched up the negatives with their prints, placed them in protective sleeves, and stored them in binders. Using yearbooks and student newspapers, archives staff and volunteers worked to identify the people and events documented in each negative that were not identified by Krieg. This resulted in a 185-page inventory printed from a typewriter. In 2018, a collection-level finding for the collectionw was created. In 2020, Archives staff converted the original item-level inventory into an EAD finding aid. Some identifier numbers were skipped, and some negatives identified on the original inventory are missing from the collection. While most of the identifying information from the original inventory was maintained and not verified against the collection, we did update the file-level descriptions to identify harmful and racist content where we knew it existed.