Oregon Historical Society Research Articles

Our Unfinished Past: Exploring 125 Years of Institutional Viability and Relevance

Sice its founding, the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving evidence from the past and making it accessible through exhibitions, publications, and programs. To commemorate this anniversary year, OHS developed an exhibition, Our Unfinished Past: The Oregon Historical Society at 125, that explores significant moments in the organization’s history as well as ongoing work to further its mission. In this exhibit essay, Curator of Exhibitions Megan Lallier-Barron describes for readers how the exhibit explores the many people who have “shaped and re-shaped OHS,” and that work has “has woven a thoroughly complicated history of Oregon.”

Mark O. Hatfield: Oregon Statesman by Richard W. Etulain

Reviewed by: Mark O. Hatfield: Oregon Statesman by Richard W. Etulain Laura Jane Gifford MARK O. HATFIELD: OREGON STATESMAN by Richard W. Etulain University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2021. Illustrations, bibliography, index. 232 pages. $24.95 paper. Historians are not, as a general rule, inclined toward the counterfactual. Exercises in what might have been stand at odds with historians’ commitment to facts, themes, and context. Nonetheless, a brief foray into the land of “what-if” illustrates in glowing relief the poignancy of a Mark Hatfield biography in this third decade of the twenty-first century. Speaking of Hatfield’s also-ran status among contenders for the Republican vice-presidential nomination in 1968, Richard W. Etulain observes that had Richard Nixon chosen the Oregon senator, he [End Page 103] “may well have become president in 1974” (p. 156). With apologies to Gerald Ford, an upstanding citizen in his own right, if only we had been so lucky. Love him or dismiss him — and Etulain clearly loves him — this newest biography of Hatfield illustrates well the longtime Oregon politician’s most compelling quality: in the words of then-president William Clinton at Hatfield’s 1996 retirement, he was a man “who has lived his convictions as well as any I have known in public life” (p. 177). Hatfield was not perfect, and to his credit, Etulain is willing to share both Hatfield’s strengths and his weaknesses. In today’s era of strife, polarization, and growing threats from White Christian nationalism, however, Hatfield’s life in public service reminds us that our political and cultural landscape need not look this way. Etulain’s concise prose chronicles both prosaic struggles over state budgets during Hatfield’s time as governor and the many courageous stands the World War II veteran took, sometimes alone, against military expansionism and the war in Vietnam. As a Republican state legislator, secretary of state, and governor, Hatfield was often viewed as more liberal than his Democratic opponents — a helpful reminder that our partisan categories have not been static over time. He was an early and committed advocate for civil rights in a state with a notoriously racist history. As a five-term senator during the years when the Religious Right gained an ever-stronger foothold in GOP politics, Hatfield’s evangelical Christian convictions led him to support social programs and oppose increases in defense funding. This brief volume favors accessibility over documentation; there are no footnotes, although Etulain includes a brief essay on sources and his bibliography is comprehensive. The book would have benefitted from more careful fact-checking; while the prose is sound, the reviewer noted a series of minor errors ranging from confusing I-84 with I-80 to situating Hatfield’s 1964 GOP convention keynote speech in 1965. More glaring is a recurrent infatuation with spouse Antoinette Kuzmanich Hatfield’s “sparkling prettiness,” “bright eyes,” and vivaciousness (pp. 59, 91). Perhaps the author intended this as counter-point to his frequent references to Hatfield’s youth and handsome visage. Both contribute to an overriding sensation that the book was written much earlier than 2021. Etulain focuses most of his time and attention on Hatfield’s years as a state official. He notes in the preface that while he initially planned a more comprehensive biography, continuing restrictions on the largest archive of Hatfield materials rendered a broader project infeasible. The recent opening of Hatfield’s primary manuscript collection at Willamette University, and newly accessible oral histories at the Oregon Historical Society, present important new opportunities to make deeper forays into Hatfield’s life and work. Now more than ever, we need to learn from the wisdom of statesmen like Mark Hatfield. Laura Jane Gifford Portland, Oregon Copyright © 2023 Oregon Historical Society

Oregonscape

Oregonscape Matthew Cowan Click for larger view View full resolution D’ZAMA MURIELLE poses on a train, likely in 1933 when she rode her bicycle from Oregon to attend the Century of Progress and International Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. OHS Research Library, OrHi 27 D’ZAMA MURIELLE was a Portland musician, orchestra conductor, collector of rare instruments, and according to a profile in the Oregonian on July 23, 1978, an “early day free spirit.” Murielle often referred to herself as a “vagabond” and was known for hopping freight trains, bicycling to Chicago, and leading a number of musical groups. At age twenty-five, Murielle debuted as a conductor at the Fine Arts Theatre in Boston and later led several orchestras and musical groups, including the Portland Women’s Symphony and the Rigler Community Orchestra. In an October 25, 1936, notice, the Oregonian referred to her as the youngest woman orchestra leader in the country. Murielle taught music for many years in Portland Public Schools and held performances and educational programs during her career. An October 11, 1962, profile in the Oregonian, noted that when not hiking “she loads her collection of African drums in to a ‘53 car and takes off for her lecture dates.” Two years later, she premiered a concert and slide show titled the “Musical Vagabond,” aimed at telling the story of music from “primitive to modern times.” Murielle passed away on June 3, 1985, at age of eighty-four in her northeast Portland home. [End Page 112] Matthew Cowan OHS Moving Images and Photography Archivist Copyright © 2023 Oregon Historical Society

Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and People (Second Edition) by Carl Abbott

Reviewed by: Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and People (Second Edition) by Carl Abbott Joel Zapata PORTLAND IN THREE CENTURIES: THE PLACE AND PEOPLE (SECOND EDITION) by Carl Abbott Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2022. Illustrations, bibliography, index. 2012 pages. $21.95 paper. Portland has perhaps an outsized place in the national and even global imagination. Oregon’s metropolis is often depicted in film, television, and print media as an archetypal twenty-first century city filled with hipsters and alternative cultures alongside yuppies and technological startups. It recently appeared in Time’s list of “The World’s Greatest Places,” together with the Great Barrier Reef and the storied, transcontinental city of Istanbul, Turkey. During the past decade, news media across the globe has also covered Portland for its position as an at-times tumultuous meeting place among hate groups, social justice activists demanding the city and the nation transform into a more equitable place, and often-abusive and right-leaning police forces. And amid protests and counterprotests, as news media also points out, Portlanders live in a city that exemplifies the nation’s growing economic and housing disparities. Almost always, however, mass media leaves Portlanders, Oregonians, and, indeed, global citizens to wonder how the city became what it is. Carl Abbott’s revised and expanded second edition of Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and People provides us with timely answers. Overall, Abbott combines broad historical strokes with granular detail in telling Portland’s story. In so doing, the author strives to include Portland’s diverse past and present population. Alongside extensive coverage of businessmen and politicians, he includes women, workers, union members, activists, and artists. Notably, as the book repeatedly makes clear, Portland “has never been as ‘white’ as its reputation” (p. 8). For example, the author includes the Indigenous people present at European arrival to what is now Portland during the opening years of the [End Page 100] nineteenth century. The author also traces the history of Indigenous people — who endured invasion and epidemics — participating in the early colonial transport, trade, and agricultural economy of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. That is, Portland and Oregon were in no small part created by the continent’s first people. Continuing that story, Abbott includes Portland’s twentieth-century Indigenous community that began growing with the migration of people into the city to fill war-industry jobs during World War II. He goes on to cover various aspects of Portland’s African American, Hispanic, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Jewish history. Nevertheless, as a whole, narratives on women, minoritized people, and working-class communities fill less space in the book’s pages than traditional narratives. Together, these social groups, of course, have constituted the majority of Portland at any given time. Yet, this shortcoming will hopefully inspire other scholars to continue filling in Portland’s multifaceted story. With a clear and approachable writing style, Abbott also deeply describes Portland’s economic and demographic trends. Likewise, the author delves into the city’s geography and infrastructure. Amid the various historical lines he follows, Abbott manages to offer entertaining factoids throughout the text, such as mentioning how the “Hollywood western Bend of the River (1952) features a steamboat race up the Columbia before James Stewart disembarks for some adventures on the slopes of Mount Hood” (p. 38). In addition, the book includes various maps and photographs that aid readers in imagining Portland’s past. For those readers wanting to delve deeper into Portland’s history, the author caps the book with a broad and detailed bibliographical essay. Indeed, after turning through the book’s pages, many readers will conclude that Portland’s place in the national and global imagination is justified. They will want to continue reading and learning. If we are lucky, this revised edition will also encourage others to continue writing on the city. Joel Zapata Oregon State University Copyright © 2023 Oregon Historical Society

Reaching into the Community to Interpret Labor History

Reaching into the Community to Interpret Labor History

Oregonscape

Oregonscape Matthew Cowan CAMP WYETH, pictured here in 1942, was a civilian public service camp during World War II where conscientious objectors — those who opposed participating in the military due to religious or philosophical beliefs — fulfilled their military service. Founded on November 27, 1941, the camp was also known as Camp #21. Located 14 miles west of the Columbia River Gorge, projects at Camp Wyeth were overseen by the U.S. Forest service and included a variety of maintenance, repair, and cleanup duties in and around the Gorge. Day-to-day work included constructing roads and trails, maintaining camp grounds, fire fighting, and building lookout towers. According to an article published in the Oregonian on March 1, 1942, the camp housed men from thirty different religious denominations, thirty-three occupations, and eight states. One of the most well-known residents to work at the camp was Lew Ayres, an actor known for his role in the film All Quiet in on the Western Front and his marriage to Ginger Rogers. In 1951, Daniel Goldy, regional administrator of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, recommended the establishment of eighteen camps for conscientious in Oregon. He went on to suggest that the Northwest region, including Washington and Idaho, could profitably support twenty-four camps. The cost was estimated at $35,000 for construction of each camp, with operating costs of $30,000 per year. While this recommendation was made to Congress, these camps never materialized in the post-war era. You can read more about Camp Wyeth in Jeffrey Kovac’s “Civilian Public Service Camp #21” entry in The Oregon Encyclopedia (www.oregonencycloopedia.org). Click for larger view View full resolution THIS IMAGE, published in the Oregonian on March 1, 1942, captures a view of Camp Wyeth, which had formerly housed Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) members. At the time the photograph was taken, the camp housed 113 pacifists of military age who were assigned to the camp by draft boards during World War II. The circle on the image is a crop mark made by Oregonian editorial staff in preparation for publication. OHS Research Library, OrHi 71456 [End Page 416] Matthew Cowan OHS Moving Images and Photography Archivist Copyright © 2022 Oregon Historical Society

Justice Betty Roberts’s Work for Equality in Oregon: Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series Post-Lecture Discussion

On April 13, 2021, Amanda L. Tyler spoke about her book, Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union in a virtual presentation as part of the Oregon Historical Society’s (OHS) annual Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series. In this virtual roundtable discussion held on Thursday, April 15, 2021, following the lecture, the Oregon Historical Society organized the panel to share stories about Betty Roberts’s influence in the courts, as a state senator, and as a mentor to women. Tyler also joined the conversation to reflect on how Roberts’s work in Oregon mirrored the work of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s work nationally.

The Northwest Gardens of Lord & Schryver by Valencia Libby

Reviewed by: The Northwest Gardens of Lord & Schryver by Valencia Libby David Porter THE NORTHWEST GARDENS OF LORD & SCHRYVER by Valencia Libby Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2021. Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 256 pages. $29.95 paper Valencia Libby exhaustively recaps the lives and work of Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, life partners who founded the first women-owned landscape architecture firm in the Pacific Northwest. The two women met by chance in the dining salon of an ocean liner in 1927. The voyage was the first leg on a tour of Europe’s great gardens and monuments. Their chance meeting and felicitous first encounter made them traveling companions. After docking in Edinburgh, Scotland, the tour took them across the Continent. It is easy to imagine their journey had a flavor of romantic adventure worthy of the cinema. On side trips, for example, they flew to Spain and Morocco; the Moorish gardens inspired some of their later designs. They discovered shared perceptions and tastes as they traveled. Ultimately, they believed that they would find opportunity in their profession if they started out in Oregon where Lord’s family connections could help them succeed. Schryver, daughter of an industrious entrepreneur from New York, and Lord, child of a leading family in Salem, Oregon, found much in common. Both were passionate about gardens, design, and landscape architecture. Schryver at age twenty-six was already employed in a New York firm, while Lord, age thirty-nine, was studying at Lowthorpe, a landscape program in Massachusetts that trained women professionals who could be economically independent. Gardening with her mother had sparked Lord’s horticultural interest. In 1922, her work improving the grounds of a local country club won praise, which led her to Lowthorpe and eventually Schryver. After the two women launched their firm, they cultivated clients eager to own knowledgeably conceived and constructed gardens. The firm’s early years were challenging as the Great Depression unfolded. Libby describes their fortitude facing challenges, their willingness to do the necessary work themselves, and the steady growth of their reputation for designing gardens that not only pleased the eye but also “stir the imagination” in the words of their friend Alice Brown Powell (p. 72). The book recounts the development and construction of ten private gardens in the Pacific Northwest. Undoubtedly, Lord’s social connections helped the firm succeed. During those years, they also took on public projects, such as an extensive design for Breitenbush Hot Springs in the Willamette National Forest. Also notable was their work in 1938 developing a landscape plan at historic McLoughlin House in Oregon City. Closest to their heart was the design and construction of their Salem home, Gaiety Hollow, and its gardens. Lord and Schryver’s reputation later prompted the Portland Garden Club to hire them to design its headquarters in Portland. Lord and Schryver had a notable effect on regional landscape architecture. They helped the profession build its credibility with architects, horticulturists, and contractors, making clear that women were capable practitioners in all of these areas. They brought new perspectives on garden design, incorporating novel elements they had seen in their far-ranging travels. They broadened the plant palette employed in Northwest gardens with knowledge of plants from the East Coast and other areas where they had made connections. This book will satisfy readers who are deeply interested in these women and in landscape design’s evolution through the twentieth century. [End Page 315] David Porter Gresham, Oregon Copyright © 2022 Oregon Historical Society

Civil Rights in Oregon: Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series Post-Lecture Discussion

On May 11, 2021, Jon Meacham spoke about his book, His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope, published in 2020, as part of the Oregon Historical Society's (OHS) annual Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series. This roundtable discussion was a special event held on Thursday, March 13, 2021, following the lecture. Nkenge Harmon Johnson, President of the Urban League of Portland, organized the panel of civil rights leaders in the fields of politics, culture, and farmworker and labor organizing. The panelists reflected on Meacham's talk and on the ways their lives and work have been influenced by John Lewis. Through their reflections on Lewis's work and leadership, the panelists wove together aspects of Oregon history, personal convictions, and present-day fights for justice.

Clifford Gleason: The Promise of Paint by Roger Hull

Reviewed by: Clifford Gleason: The Promise of Paint by Roger Hull Bruce Guenther CLIFFORD GLEASON: THE PROMISE OF PAINT by Roger Hull Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon, 2020. Illustrations, photographs, index. 96 pages. $24.95 cloth. Once again Roger Hull and the Hallie Ford Museum of Art have published an essential building block for constructing a more complete and comprehensive history of visual arts in Oregon during the modern period. Attractively designed to privilege the artworks, Clifford Gleason: The Promise of Paint was published in conjunction with an exhibition at the museum of the artist's paintings and drawings, and it provides the first scholarly, researched biography and exhibition history of the artist in print. This beautiful book succeeds in documenting the trajectory of Gleason's artistic evolution from precocious student to committed professional artist. It also identifies the individuals and institutions who assisted and validated his considerable talent and illuminates some of the artist's financial and emotional struggles, including the impact on Gleason of the period's society-wide persecution of homosexuals. Considered an "artist's artist" for his independent aesthetic and painterly prowess, Oregon-born Clifford Gleason (1913–1978) was a life-long resident whose forty-year painting [End Page 220] career evolved from European modernism to a highly personal American abstract expressionism in the solitude of his successive studio situations in Salem and Portland; that evolution is handsomely evident in the volume's elegantly reproduced and sequenced artworks. Gleason earned early institutional support for his work from the Portland Art Museum and enjoyed successive representation throughout his career in the regional commercial galleries of the period. Hull gives graceful shape to the family and community the artist grew up in and to Gleason's early discovery of his life's passion in painting. The clearly written text illuminates the artist's development decade to decade, marching along without needlessly encumbering arcane art language, and is accompanied by wellselected historical photographs, paintings, and the commentary of Gleason's friends, patrons, and associates. Hull's skill in creating a portrait of the artist is grounded in deep research into public and private archives and the use of previously unpublished material, including a host of fresh interviews of surviving individuals who knew the artist in varied circumstances. One regrets that the fine Sources and Resources chapter does not include a traditional exhibition history that organizes a chronological summary of the artist's public and commercial exhibitions cited in the research notes. A concise exhibition history, preliminary as the reconstruction may be, would be another tool in understanding this neglected artist's actual career path. Similarly, given the rich discussion of the paintings, this reader notes that the discussions of Gleason's personal life — homosexuality and alcohol — are flawed by quotes from archival materials and interviews that reveal the heteronormative assumptions and anti-homosexual biases of the day. Unacknowledged and unchallenged, these sources distort and weaken the portrait drawn of the artist. It will be up to another generation of scholars to take on the untangling of those prejudices, evident even among Gleason's closest advocates, to bring forward a more balanced, fulsome understanding of the man, his life, and his important contribution to the art of Oregon. Bruce Guenther Portland, Oregon Copyright © 2022 Oregon Historical Society

The Spokane River ed. by Paul Lindholdt

Reviewed by: The Spokane River ed. by Paul Lindholdt Larry Cebula THE SPOKANE RIVER edited by Paul Lindholdt Washington University Press, Seattle, 2018. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. 296 pages. $24.95 paper. Who can tell the story of a river? Such a tale requires more than one voice. Geologists have their stories, as do Native peoples who live along its banks. Biologists see a river of interconnected life, while urban planners see a barrier to transportation and an urban amenity. Historians, environmentalists, and even lawyers have things to share. It is an interdisciplinary effort. It is to the credit of editor Paul Lindholdt that the anthology The Spokane River includes all of these voices and more. The twenty-eight chapters of the book include historical essays, policy reviews, poems, and personal experiences. The Spokane River begins as the outlet of Lake Couer D'Alene in Idaho. Over the course of its 111 miles, it rolls through the fertile Spokane Valley, plunges over a series of basalt cliffs in downtown Spokane, and snakes across ancient landscapes, gaining tributaries and volume until unites with the Columbia River beneath the waters of Lake Roosevelt. Its spectacular waterfalls are both the City of Spokane's most impressive sight and the reason for the town's existence. Yet, the river is not what it was. Dams turn long sections into slack-water lakes, some covered with algae blooms and dead fish in late summer. Houses crowd the banks in some places, and even where the river runs cool and clear, it carries heavy metals from long-ago mining operations and PCBs from paper plants. Signs warn anglers to limit their consumption of fish taken from the deceptively clear waters. Native voices in the book are strong. In the chapter titled "The River Gives Us Our Way of Life," Margo Hill of the Spokane Tribe recounts how her grandmother told her "the salmon hung from the horn of the saddle and stretched toward the ground" (p. 85). Her great grandmother Sadie Boyd made fish head soup, and when Hill would check to see what was cooking on her stove, she recounted: "Quite often I saw salmon eyes staring back at me" (p. 94). Fellow Spokane tribal member Barry Moses writes of the Spokane dialect of Interior Salish and how traditional names remind us of the Native uses and perceptions of the river. Lindholdt offers his own chapter, a biography of Lokout, brother of Qualchan and son of the Yakama chief Owhi. Born in the 1830s, Lokout's long life included stints as a linguist, a guide, a warrior, and finally a subject for photographer Edward Curtis in 1910. Other sections of the book focus on river history, efforts at environmental protection, The Expo '74 (Spokane's world's fair that reclaimed the banks of the river as a public park), personal essays, poems, and analyses of future threats to the Spokane River, including a loss of water and industrial contamination. The Spokane River is not only a superb book, it is a model for the kind of interdisciplinary collection that can be created around a common feature such as a river. The chapters are short, readable, and uniformly interesting. The book would work well in a college classroom. [End Page 216] Larry Cebula Eastern Washington University Washington State Archives Copyright © 2022 Oregon Historical Society

Oregonscape

94 OHQ vol. 122, no. 1 OREGONSCAPE Margaret A. “Mikki” Tint December 3, 1951–January 2, 2021 Mikki Tint was a stalwart member of the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) Research Library staff for over twenty-five years, from 1983 to 2008. A lifelong Portlander, Mikki earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Oregon, followed by a Masters in Library Science. She first worked as a cataloger in the OHS film archives, helping get control over a large, rich, and highly regarded collection of films and video. Mikki and OHS Film Preservationist Michele Kribs were instrumental in creating the Association of Moving Image Archivists, and then hosting an international meeting in Portland for one hundred attendees. Mikki later joined the staff of the OHS photographs department as Assistant Photographs Librarian. Researchers, staff, and the general public seeking historical photographs would first be greeted by Mikki’s welcoming smile. Her keen perception and knowledge of the collections enabled Mikki to assist users in an efficient and friendly manner. Her work with the photographs of famed Portland Egyptologist Lindsley Foote Hall inspired Mikki to travel to Egypt. After retirement, Mikki continued to contribute by researching and writing the Oregon Historical Quarterly’s OregonScape feature from 2010 to 2016, highlighting interesting and sometimes obscure facts from Oregon’s past. Outside of OHS, Mikki developed an interest in taking photographs, going on photo outings with OHS Photographer Evan Schneider and OHS Manuscripts Librarian Kris White, and experimenting in the home darkroom the three built. Mikki also had an entrepreneurial side in the form of her successful beading business, Beady Little Mind, resulting in many staff wearing her lovely creations. With her best friend since college, Janet Trygstad, Mikki volunteered at Portland Center Stage and for other theater productions. Mikki’s greatest devotion, however, was to the Wild Rose Garland dance team, of which she was a founding member. Mikki’s love of traditional English dance was her inspiration for the group, which first performed in 1995. Dressed in historical costumes and holding brightly decorated half hoops, Mikki, Janet, and the team performed a variety of dances, including honoring the centuries-old tradition of heralding the arrival of spring or summer by performing at dawn on May Day. After her retirement, Mikki ensured that the personal connections forged among OHS staff continued by organizing monthly pub gatherings called Second Fridays. Recalling her kindness, generosity, quick wit, and the twinkle in her eye, we raise a glass to our beloved colleague and friend. — Sue Seyl, Former Director of Image Collections, Oregon Historical Society MIKKI TINT is pictured here in the spring of 2007 on Cape Kiwanda with a tripod and camera. She enjoyed taking photographs and took photo outings such as this one with her colleagues at the Oregon Historical Society. Evan Schneider ...

Editor's Note

OHQ vol. 122, no. 2 102 Editor’s Note© 2021 Oregon Historical Society ONE YEAR AGO, the Oregon Historical Quarterly (OHQ) published our first issue of the COVID-19 era. As we bring this issue to publication, we reflect on the transformations wrought by the virus and the ways human beings, our governments, our scientists, our social institutions, and our cultural organizations have responded. Loss of life in the United States and around the globe has been devastating and is ongoing. Here in Oregon, today, the number of cases of infection is rising, but so is the number of people receiving vaccinations. It truly has been a year unlike any other. This issue is almost entirely focused on White women’s history, including three pieces specifically addressing the work of uncovering that history from the shadows. We offer this compilation for its own value, as we do all issues of OHQ, but also in honor of the missed opportunity to spend 2020’s centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment exploring in person the ways women have shaped Oregon and U.S. history. The first day of COVID-19 closure for the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) was March 14, 2020 — the day we planned to open to the public our new exhibition, Nevertheless, They Persisted: Women’s Voting Rights and the 19th Amendment. That exhibition explores state and national history, showcases the work of women from many eras and backgrounds, and highlights how racism plagued the movement. As racism, voting rights, and women’s rights continue to be major issues of concern and debate in Oregon and the United States today, we are pleased to have extended the exhibition’s run through December 5, 2021. And, as the articles and public history roundtable in this issue demonstrate, there is still much tenacious work to be done in the ongoing effort to bring women — and particularly women of color — from the margins to the center of our historical narratives. For an editor’s note in the Summer 2020 issue, I wrote about the changes to our workflow here at OHQ. Since then, we have settled into the habits of working at home and meeting through our computer screens. Portland State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Rose Tucker Charitable Foundation renewed their support for our partnership; Helen Ryan completed her graduate studies, and Sarah Harris joined our editorial team as the Rose Tucker Fellow in September 2020. OHS’s research library remains closed to the public — as its permanent home undergoes renovation and staff adhere to the social-distancing rules that have helped keep Canty-Jones, Editor’s Note 103 countless people safe — but our coworkers there have continued to assist with research requests for primary documents and images. We are grateful for all the people who have persisted in the myriad work necessary to produce OHQ — authors, peer-reviewers, archivists, oral historians, librarians, curators, photographers, and everyone whose memberships, contributions, and daily work on staff keep OHS running. One part of our work that has been difficult to keep on a regular schedule is our book-review section, the production of which has long relied on regular office work from our stalwart volunteers. Full length book review sections will return; we promise We have so many exciting manuscripts in the pipeline for future issues, as scholars carry on the work of seeking out and making meaning from the remnants of the past. Whatever the future holds, we remain confident that OHQ will be here, every three months, to continue making sense of the people, places, and events that have shaped Oregon. — Eliza E. Canty-Jones THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S exhibition Nevertheless, They Persisted: Women’s Voting Rights and the 19th Amendment was scheduled to open on March 14, 2020 — the day it closed to the public to slow the spread of COVID-19. The exhibit, curated by Lori Erickson, will be on display through December 5, 2021. Oregon Historical Society ...

Homeward Bound: The Battleship Oregon Pennant and Imperialism in Oregon

In July 1901, a company of Oregon National Guard soldiers presented three flags — a Union Jack, a naval ensign, and a homeward bound pennant — from the battleship USS Oregon. The battleship and its crew had returned that year from engaging in pivotal battles Spanish-American War, and “brought fame and glory not only to its crew but also to the faraway state for which it had been named.” In this Object Feature, Silvie Andrews explores the rediscovery of the homeward bound pennant in the Oregon Historical Society’s museum collection and discusses the “sociopolitical forces surrounding the pennants creation, dedication, display and descent into obscurity.”

OregonScape

IN JUNE 1981, new owners of the Apostolic Faith Building , located in Portland, Oregon, at West Burnside Avenue and Sixth Avenue, removed the iconic “Jesus The Light of the World” sign that had loomed large over downtown visitors since 1917. The sign, first located on a building on Front Avenue along the waterfront, moved to its final location in 1922 when the Apostolic Faith Church completed its twostory building. The church moved to a new location in 1979. Marko Susnjara and Betty Susnjara, the new building owners, decided that the religious messaging was not appropriate for their vision of public, mixed-use building. The Susnjaras removed the lettering, star, and support structure — weighing an estimated at 4.5 tons and standing 60 feet tall. It was not until March 1983 that the building would again operate a rooftop sign, this time to promote performances at the Starry Night Club (now the Roseland Theater), which operated out of the top floor of the building in the church’s former large meeting hall. According to the June 18, 1981, Oregon Journal article that accompanied this photograph, the company hired to remove the sign indicated that there were few parts that could be recycled or salvaged. Thomas Vaughan, then executive director of the Oregon Historical Society, “expressed regret over its pending demise” but declined to add it to OHS’s collections “because of its sheer bulk.” OREGONSCAPE OHS Research Library, Oregon Journal Collection, Org. Lot 1027, “Signs #3” Folder ON JUNE 18, 1981, photographer Steve Nehl captured this street scene with the “Jesus The Light of The World” sign that once sat atop the Apostolic Faith Building in Portland, Oregon. Later that month, new owners removed it. — Matthew Cowan, OHS Moving Images and Photography Archivist ...

White Supremacy in Oregon History: Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series Post-Lecture Discussion

On Tuesday, October 27, 2020, Henry Lous Gates, Jr., spoke about his book, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, as part of the Oregon Historical Society’s (OHS) annual Mark O. Hatfield. This roundtable discussion was a special event held on Thursday, October 29, 2020. Justice Adrienne Nelson moderated a conversation among three Oregon scholars — Dr. Karen Gibson, Dr. Darrell Millner, and Dr. Carmen P. Thompson — who reflected on how Gates’s scholarship connects with their own work, offering new ways of understanding our state’s history and its place in the nation and the world. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Gates’s talk and this roundtable were held virtually.

White Supremacy in Oregon History: Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series Post-Lecture Discussion

On Tuesday, October 27, 2020, Henry Lous Gates, Jr., spoke about his book, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, as part of the Oregon Historical Society’s (OHS) annual Mark O. Hatfield. This roundtable discussion was a special event held on Thursday, October 29, 2020. Justice Adrienne Nelson moderated a conversation among three Oregon scholars — Dr. Karen Gibson, Dr. Darrell Millner, and Dr. Carmen P. Thompson — who reflected on how Gates’s scholarship connects with their own work, offering new ways of understanding our state’s history and its place in the nation and the world. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Gates’s talk and this roundtable were held virtually.

Women on the Bench in Oregon: Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series Post-Lecture Discussion

On Tuesday, January 12, 2021, Evan Thomas, spoke about his book, First: Sandra Day O’Connor, as part of the Oregon Historical Society’s (OHS) annual Mark O. Hatfield. This roundtable discussion was a special event held on Thursday, January 14, 2021, following the lecture. OHS Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk moderated the discussion between women judges of Oregon — Judge Ann Aiken, Judge Darleen Ortega, Justice Adrienne Nelson, and Chief Justice Martha Walters — who reflected on their experiences as women in these roles. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Thomas’s talk and this roundtable were held virtually.

From Stories to Salt Cairns: Uncovering Indigenous Influence in the Formative Years of the Oregon Historical Society, 1898-1905

Established in December 1898, the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) was founded to “collect and preserve a library of historical material related to the history of the state,” and Sarah Keyes notes that its mission also included “the gathering and preservation of Indians’ traditions.” In this research article, Keyes examines how “through their participation in the formative years of OHS, Native Americans shaped the archival and material collections as well as interpretive documents that continue to serve as the primary organs of preserving and disseminating Oregon history.” Keyes focuses on the first seven years of OHS’s existence shedding “light on early cross-racial and cross-cultural conflict and collaboration within OHS.” Building on scholarship on historical societies in the West and extensive research in OHS’s institutional archives, Keyes examines the close connections between Native and non-Natives in OHS’s formative years, which “contributes to our understanding of OHS and settler-colonialism in Oregon.”

Native Belongings and Institutional Values at the Oregon Historical Society, Then and Now

Oregon Historical Society (OHS) Deputy Museum Director Nicole Yasuhara reflects on Sarah Keyes’s Summer 2020 article titled “From Stories to Salt Cairns: Uncovering Indigenous Influence in the Formative Years of the Oregon Historical Society, 1898–1905.” Yasuhara’s primary role of “safeguarding the institution’s three-dimensional cultural resources” at OHS also involves “delineating and safeguarding the information we have about each object” — a task that is often extremely difficult. There are approximately 5,200 Native belongings in the OHS Museum collections, most collected during OHS’s formative years, and as Yasuhara attests, those objects “were stripped of their history,” no doubt due to “power structures between pioneer collectors and their Native sources.” Yasuhara also discusses current institutional practices and goals that guide confront this history and “begin to address the inherently colonial practices of early collecting institutions, including OHS.” That change, she urges, must grow from deeply personal ideological shifts in which practitioners recognize our own privilege and utilize an inclusion and equity lens in our everyday lives.”