Rich Schmidt: Oral History Interview

This interview is with Rich Schmidt of the Linfield University Archives and the Oregon Wine History Archive. In this interview, Rich speaks about his education at Willamette University, where he got his first job in a library and developed an interest in interlibrary loan. He goes on to describe his first experience working in an archive and what it was like being hired at Linfield. He talks about launching the archive program at Linfield and beginning the Oregon Wine History Archive. He discusses what it’s like to keep records of people’s lives, talks about some of the interesting people he’s met, and tells some funny stories. He goes on to describe how the Wine Archive is different than other archives, and how it is recording history as it takes place. He speaks about how the archive works with Linfield and the Oregon community, and how it helps Linfield students. Finally, he gives advice about what people can do to further support the program. This interview was conducted by Evan Bellingar at Bellingar Estates in Newberg on March 11, 2021.