Lost Plaque Finds Its Way Back Home
Earlier today the archives staff drove to Clackamas, Oregon not for an interview, but to pick up a lost artifact from Linfield’s history.
Last week, the Sandy Historical Society called the archives wondering if a plaque, given to them by an anonymous donor that found it in the back room of a local business, came from Linfield College. The plaque had no indication that it belonged to the school, but after a google search they found that some of the information matched that of Memorial Hall.
A quick history on Memorial Hall. It was built in 1947 and officially named in honor of the men and women who lost their lives in World War II. It is unique in the fact that it is connected to the football stadium, because at the time Linfield really wanted to build one, but didn’t have the funds. To get around this problem, the college included dorms in the building so they could use a government grant to build it. Sometime between it’s dedication and present time, the plaque was taken from the building and made it’s way up to Sandy, Oregon.
Once the archives found out that the museum had this plaque, we did some research to see if it really did belong to us and everything seemed to match. After setting a time and the long drive up, the staff got to see this piece of history for themselves. The brass plaque has now been safely returned home and we are excited to share this missing artifact with the rest of campus.
