Introduction to OHP Interpretive Essays

Interpretive Essays

Abigail Scott Duniway's Quilt
In 1900, when Abigail completed this one extant example of her “wifely” work, she was 66 years old. Thirty years had passed since she had first assembled it, intending it to mark the birth of her sixth child.

The Vanport Flood
In 1948, the Columbia River punched a hole in a railroad embankment, starting a flood that would leave 18,000 people homeless and alter race relations in Portland forever.

The Legacy of Mr. Jones
Mr. Jones may have had a significant impact on Oregon history, bringing with him a disease that left 90 percent of Lower Columbia River Indians dead.

The Death of Peter French
French's death at the hands of a settler stirred passions for years to come.

A Look Back At Portland Jazz
Jazz was popular in Portland as early as the 1930s but it flourished after World War II, mostly because the need for workers in the shipbuilding industry during the war significantly increased Portland's African-American population.

Interpretive Essay Collective Bibliography
A bibliography containing Books, Articles, and On-Line sources used in these interpretive essays.

Introduction to OHP Interpretive Essays

In the search to better grasp both Oregon and U.S. history, it is important to explore the various avenues through which we may understand the past. Interpretive history uses primary documents, like journals, autobiographies, newspapers, and photographs, to re-imagine a particular moment, a person, or issue that shaped the past. Interpretive history engages audiences by offering narratives that are also critical analyses and by providing a glimpse of the past that allows room for questions by the reader.

Interpretive history incorporates primary and secondary documents into the telling of history. The documents used to write this type of history are available at local libraries, historical societies, and in everyday spaces, like family photo albums or sidewalk murals. These essays encourage readers to ask questions about the nature of people and events and about how local players fit into the national historical context.

The first essay presented in this portion of the Oregon History Project focuses on suffrage activist, Abigail Scott Duniway. After migrating to Oregon, Duniway married and eventually became one of the most outspoken woman suffragists in the nation. She published syndicated newspapers and wrote books that provided a forum for women and men to speak their minds about suffrage and equal rights. She was a close friend and colleague of nationally recognized woman suffrage activist, Susan B. Anthony. Through her work, Duniway forged for herself a name among state and national activists and dramatically altered the lives of women in Oregon and the nation.

The second essay discusses the development of the city of Vanport, located along the Columbia River. When it was built in 1940 by local shipbuilding giant, Henry Kaiser, the city stood as an emblem of war mobilization, especially with its large shipbuilding and iron smelting industries. Originally built to house the many thousands of laborers who migrated to work in Kaiser’s shipyards at the start of World War II, Vanport became recognized as a symbol for complicated state and national race relations.

These essays introduce two important state and local historical pictures and encourage the reader to ask questions about the lives of those who lived in particular periods of immense change. Incorporated within these essays are photographs and additional reading materials that will lead readers to a number of other educational resources.