ORA Research Fellowship Application is Open
Receive funding to visit the Archive!
The Outdoor Recreation Archive is the hub for the history of the outdoor industry. We preserve catalogs, magazines, documents, photos, and more from brands, gear innovators, and enthusiasts. This newsletter is a glimpse into our collections and the stories we find. Pull up a chair and flip through the pages of the archive with us.
ORA Research Fellowship
Each year, the Outdoor Recreation Archive sponsors two research fellowships that provide a stipend for creatives, academics, historians, journalists, and designers to access the archives at Utah State University to produce some type of creative or scholarly work. The fellowship, generously supported by REI (thank you!), has provided access to the archive for a number of individuals with projects ranging from tent-inspired art installations, podcasts investigating the connection between outdoor clothing and the military, and books documenting the history of the outdoor industry.
If you have a project that would benefit from a visit to the archive, apply before December 1, 2025, to be considered!
Examples and descriptions of past projects and previous fellows can be found on our website.
One of our 2023 Fellows, the amazing Avery Trufelman, is sharing the result of her visit to the archives in the form of her latest season of Articles of Interest. In this seven-part series, she dives deep into the relationship between outdoor clothing/gear and the military!
Check out her Substack and her podcast, Articles of Interest, for the latest episodes.
Thanks for reading! The archive is a collaboration between Special Collections & Archives at Utah State University and Outdoor Product Design & Development (@usuoutdoorproduct). It currently houses over 15k catalogs and magazines from 1000 brands with a growing manuscript and photo collection from outdoor brands and gear pioneers.
View an up-to-date list of our catalog, magazine, document collections
🌐 ORA Website 🎧 Interviews with gear pioneers (Apple / Spotify) ✉️ Substack 📍Pinterest 🕺🏼TikTok ❌ Twitter / X 🧵 Threads 📷 Instagram
We love visitors. If you want to visit the archive for research or if your brand / creative team wants to use the collection in person for a research trip or offsite, schedule a visit! ✈️
📖 We also have a book coming out with our friends at Thames & Hudson and Actual Source. Take the book home with you and order below!
US | Canada | International | Amazon
The collection is built by YOU. If you have materials you want to donate, a gear pioneer we should interview to preserve their story, or you’d like to give a monetary donation, please reach out!