10 Questions with…. Tiah Edmunson-Morton, curator of the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives at Oregon State University.
What path led you to becoming an archivist?
When I started college, I wanted to be a lawyer, a career I was completely unsuited for. I was an English major, so after graduation I went to graduate school in English literature and dreamt of wearing tweed and standing on desks (probably c/o Dead Poets Society). One of my classes, Renaissance rhetoric, included a weekend field trip to the Newberry Library in Chicago, where an archivist shared rare books from the period. It totally blew my mind that someone had kept those things safe for so long and that I was now holding them in my hands. Concurrently, my dad was serving on the Oregon State Library Board, and while I’d never considered librarianship as a career it suddenly seemed like a perfect fit.
What makes you passionate about higher education?
I really love being around people who are learning. I’ve been at OSU since 2006, and certainly know way more than when I started, but I am constantly learning something new. I also really like the rhythm of a term – the mania of week 1 in fall, drudgery of week 5 in a rainy February, and the glee of a sunny week 10. It’s exciting to see people experience things for the first time.
How did you end up focusing on hops and brewing?
I spent my first seven years at OSU managing the University Archives public services and teaching, but after we merged with Special Collections, I had an opportunity to think about collections work. In the same way my visit to the Newberry lined up with a new graduate school path, a friend’s 2013 wedding at “Chateau Rogue” in Buena Vista lined up with a shift in my job focus. We took a tour of a hop drier and learned about the history of the farm and brewery, and I walked away knowing someone should document these industries. My family has been in Oregon for generations, and for a time grew hops outside of Springfield, but I didn’t know that much about hops or brewing. Fortunately, we already had great collections related to OSU research, and the communities have been very kind in sharing stories and collections.
What advice would you give the younger version of yourself who was just starting college?
Go to office hours. I regret not making more of a connection with my professors, and so when my daughter went to college going to office hours was a mandate.
Do you have a favorite historical era or subject that you are passionate about?
For the past couple of years, I’ve been really interested in the Industrial Revolution, which has been surprising to me since I wrote my English lit thesis on censorship in the ‘20s and love cozy British mysteries from the ‘40s. Growing up in Oregon, I had my fair share of the Oregon Trail pioneers, which my sister liked way more than I did, but now I’m writing a book about 19th century Oregon women… So, life continues to surprise.
What was your favorite course in college?
I never identified as someone who was particularly good at science, so the easy answer is “all the humanities.” But, fortunately, I had requirements outside of that. I took a couple of botany classes; one was a super basic intro to plant structure that has stuck with me (I love to garden) and another on viticulture and wine tasting (it was very, very hard). Oddly, I didn’t take any history classes.
Why is it important as a research university to look back to the past as well as look toward the future?
Archivists focus a lot on the context that surrounds events, discoveries and individual people, and working with archival collections asks researchers to consider context and think critically about evidence. For me, this means considering what was recorded and not recorded – and why. Being an archivist means seeing history repeat itself… But I continue to feel grateful I can help people think about our history, their place in it, and how we can build a more inclusive representation of OSU.
Have you learned anything in your role as curator that was surprising or amusing?
Maybe more ironic than surprising? Archives are a no food, no drink, no pen place, but I collect things like brew sheets and coasters. And those things tend to have beer on them.
What is the status of your OSU Press book?
I am writing about women who inherited or took over breweries in Oregon in the pre-Prohibition era, and there are many more than I thought there would be so I have too many words. Right now, I am in a final editing push before it goes out to the peer reviewers.
It’s interesting (and often tedious) work – I say my research feels like picking up scraps of paper, putting them in piles, and then trying to find connections with the standard Oregon beer history story (the story of men making beer and drinking it in saloons). I’ve been an archivist for a long time, but doing this deep research myself has given me a much different perspective on the researchers I work with. I don’t know how anyone ever finishes writing a book.
What is your favorite non-academic pursuit or passion?
Right now, it feels like all I do is think about beer in 1870… But top of my list this month is watching holiday movies with my husband and sending kitten videos or Elf movie gifs to my daughter. When it isn’t cold, I also really like to dig in my yard and plant veggies. This summer I built a big shed (picture is me in front of it), a big challenge because I don’t like reading instructions.
