Please join us for the next Eugene History Pub talk:

“Allen Hendershott Eaton (1878-1962), Rural Craft, and the History of Collections at UO”
featuring Vera Keller, University of Oregon Department of History
Monday, January 10, 2022
7:00–8:30 p.m. PST
Live via Zoom (registration required, see below)

This event is cosponsored by the University of Oregon’s Department of History, Lane County History Museum, and Viking Braggot Co. Open to the public and free to attend. For any questions, please email felaw@uoregon.edu.

Register for Event

Please register by 5:00 p.m., January 10 to receive Zoom event link.

This event has passed.

Description

Vera Keller discusses the early history of the University of Oregon, the role of the arts and crafts movement in Eugene, and the ways that a certain political view of craft shaped campus and its collections. The topic centers on Allen Hendershott Eaton, UO class of ’02, who has been all over the news recently for the collection of objects made by Japanese Americans in internment camps, which has recently been acquired by the Japanese American National Museum and has been touring the country.

Eaton championed cultural diversity in craft throughout his national career and worked to increase access to art collections, including by designing exhibitions for the blind. He also founded the first art and bookstore in Eugene in 1902, where he hosted art shows and artists such as the celebrated Japanese painter Ikka Nagai. Although Eaton was kicked out of UO in 1918 for attending a pacifist event, he remained thoroughly involved in UO affairs (and in fact returned to teach summer school).

However, Eaton has been rather forgotten locally; his home on Eaton Drive in Fairmont was torn down a few years ago.

About the Speaker

Vera Keller is an associate professor and department head of the UO Department of History. She is also  researches the emergence of experimental science in early modern Europe. Her first book, Knowledge and the Public Interest, 1575–1725 (Cambridge UP, 2015), explores the effects of new theories and practices of political “reason of state” and interest upon knowledge.

Learn more about Keller’s research and publications