Unintended Captivation.

February 27, 2019

This morning I found a piece of creative storytelling in modern day multimedia journalism—a piece which took me completely by surprise. At work I was sifting through OPB’s webpage in search of a news story regarding a recent action in the state legislature that was sure to be deep in policy and short on creativity. Instead I found myself on an unexpected journey, traversing through another one of Oregon’s incredible, historical achievements which, being a lifelong resident, was unbeknownst to me. 

It seems that Oregon was the first state in the nation to have woman as its chief executive. The story I stumbled upon was written by Bryan M. Vance and is titled, The Governor Who Couldn’t Vote:Why History Forgot Oregon’s 1st Female Head Of State. It was a drawing enough line for me to simply click the link, but what I found completely enthralled me and took more than a half hour of my already overallocated work day. 

The first female governor in America, Carolyn B. Shelton, served in Oregon’s state capitol for 48 hours and 55 minutes in 1909, more than a century ago. The storyline alone was captivating enough, especially considering the nature of women’s empowerment movements that have swept through nearly every aspect of our culture in the past year—including the very legislative assembly that Ms. Shelton would have guided into lawmaking. Perhaps what made the story come to life was the author’s use of a variety of historic photos, modern accounts, and a podcast with a small panel of experts, all of which helped to lay the foundation for the narrative and the recounting of a life lived and quickly erased. 

There is a variety of images, mostly historic in nature, featuring Shelton in what then, could presumably be called an action shot: a professional shot of her sitting at a desk with a scattering of papers resting in the background. The author incorporates plenty of grainy pictures of her as a young woman then later in life, photos of her husband with the then-future President Harding, as well as a rendering of the old state house she led for a weekend. 

The photos embedded in this piece of writing come from multiple sources—Library of Congress, Oregon Historical Society, the Oregonian, and the Willamette Heritage Center. They accompany the story so well as they help to profile, from the begin, middle, and end, the life of a woman, who, in many accounts was a trailblazer, yet who is largely unknown to those who followed in her footsteps. The author even finds a surviving relative who renders even more information about Oregon’s unknown heroine. What Vance does with this piece is not only present a captivating narrative, but he also utilized aspects of multimedia to facilitate and illuminate what could very easily have been a dry, tired story.

Lastly, I think this story took significance for me largely in part, because of where it was positioned within the OPB webpage— the Arts & Lifesection is, admittedly, an area of journalism where I can’t say I’ve ever ventured into. Perhaps this will lead me to revisit for more content—a testament to the unintended captivation that was found within it. 

-Preston Korst