Featured Collections

French for "visiting card," the carte de visite was the same size as a Victorian calling card, a 2¼ x 3¾ inch print on a 2½ x 4 inch card. It was the primary portrait produced in most photographic galleries in the 1860s and 1870s, and it was the first photographic form used to mass produce portraits of celebrities.
The Oregon Historical Society Research Library's extensive collection of cartes de visite (c. 1860-1898) includes portraits of Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet, Civil War generals, and national celebrities. The collection is rich in portraits of Oregon Trail pioneer families after they settled into Willamette valley farms and towns, as well as portraits of the region's prominent business leaders, lawyers, ministers and missionaries, politicians, teachers, and just plain folks, most often dressed in their best.

The entire Cartes de Visite Collection is digitized and is available for research through the Collections Online Catalog. Do a Simple Search and type in the person's name in the form of last name, first name (i.e. Abraham, Miriam). You may purchase prints through Photographic Services.

The Maritime Photograph Collection consists of thousands of images of military vessels, non-military vessels, and foreign vessels from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Spain, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States. Ship types include transports, hospitals, aircraft carriers, PT boats, escort carriers, submarines, battleships, patrol craft, tugboats, riverboats, sailing vessels, barges, row, pilot and police boats, fishing boats, and rafts.

The collection also depicts ship construction by Kaiser, Standifer, Grant Smith-Porter Co., Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Commercial Iron Works, Peninsula Shipyard, and Supple & Ballin Shipbuilding Company.

To search the Collections Online Catalog for Maritime images, perform a simple search with the name of the vessel or shipbuilding company. Prints may be purchased through Photographic Services.

Benjamin Stark was a prominent Oregonian born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 26, 1820. He attended school in New London, Connecticut.

In 1845, Stark sailed for Oregon, where he purchased an interest in a Portland land claim. Later, he entered a New York business partnership to ship merchandise to California during the gold rush. When the New York parent company went bankrupt, Stark was only able to salvage his Portland property. In 1850, he moved to Portland, where he married Elizabeth Molthrop in 1854. He was appointed to complete the unexpired term of Oregon senator Edward D. Baker in 1862. Stark moved to New London after his senatorial term, where he died in 1898.

The Benjamin Stark Papers at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library (Mss 1155) include Stark's family and business correspondence and subject files that document law suits, business accounts, the Masonic Lodge, the Columbia River Steam Navigation Co., Couch & Co., and Ladd & Tilton.