Efficiency: Early Photos of Benson Polytechnic High School
  The Gifford Studio Geoff Wexler, Oregon Historical Society Senior Archivist Guest Curator
Open through January 25, 2009
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Benson Polytechnic High School, one of the oldest and largest educational institutions in Portland. Begun as the boys-only Portland School of Trades in the northwest area of the city, the institution expanded greatly thanks to a $100,000 matching grant from lumber magnate Simon Benson in 1915 – a considerable sum at the time. Renamed Benson Polytechnic School, it moved to a new campus in northeast Portland in 1918, where it has remained to the present day. Over the years Benson has taught five generations of Oregonians a wide variety of skilled trades, from electrical work to metallurgy to aircraft engineering to radio production and printing. Its contribution to the economic well-being of the state has been immeasurable.
This exhibit features a series of striking photographs from the OHS Research Library, taken around 1921 by the studio of Benjamin A. Gifford (1859-1926), one of Oregon’s foremost photographers. The show provides not only a document of Benson High School’s early years, but also a sample of the meticulous commercial photography created by artists such as Gifford in the early 20th century. |