Randall V. Mills (1907-1952) was a professor of literature with a variety of interests related to the Pacific Northwest, including steamboats, railroads and folklore.

Early life and education

Randall was born in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

in 1907. In 1929 Mills received his undergraduate degree from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA). His master's degree was received from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1932.

University of Oregon

He became part of the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

English faculty in 1938. Mills had a variety of interests. One of his main interests was in the history of transportation in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

, especially

steamboats A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

and

railroads Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

. He was also interested in all aspects of

covered bridges A covered bridge is a timber- truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered wo ...

. Another subject for which Mills showed enthusiasm was

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

, particularly proverbs, dialects, songs, superstitions and place names.

Folklore

He was the founder and first president of the Oregon Folklore Society. He served as Director for the Oregon branch of the

American Dialect Society The American Dialect Society (ADS), founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society p ...

, he also chaired the state sub-committee for the collection of dialect sayings. He held the position of associate editor for

Western Folklore ''Western Folklore'' is a quarterly academic journal for the study of folklore published by the Western States Folklore Society (formerly the California Folklore Society). It was established in 1942 as the ''California Folklore Quarterly'' and ob ...

. Mills died in 1952 at the age of 44.

Legacy

The University of Oregon named its folklore archives in honor of Mills. The Randall V. Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore, established in 1966, serve as a repository for information collected in Oregon by scholars and students of folklore. The archives are the largest facility of their kind in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. During his life, Mills assembled a collection of photographic negatives and prints of photographs depicting covered bridges and steamship captains in Oregon and railroad locomotives and cars in the western United States. This collection is now held by the University of Oregon.

Books by Mills

*''Stern-Wheelers up Columbia: A Century of Steamboating in the Oregon country''. by Randall Vause Mills. Publisher: Lincoln :

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press (UNP) was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the University of Ne ...

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

References

External links

Randall V. Mills Folklore Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Randall V. Educators from Oregon Academics from Wisconsin 1907 births 1952 deaths University of Oregon faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni