Events Calendar

From our interactive museum exhibits to our Research Library to our premier meeting and event space, there's always something fun happening at the Oregon Historical Society. See below for upcoming events.

Unless otherwise noted, programs take place at the Oregon Historical Society building in downtown Portland (1200 SW Park Avenue) and are free of charge with museum admission. Click on links or call (503) 222-1741 for more information.

Free Day Programs
We Celebrate the Gifts from Our Past

 

Noon-3pm

Pavilion
Baskets Gifts of Beauty

Learn about and practice the skills required to create Native American baskets with Linda Higgins, a traditional Klickitat basket maker. She makes cedar root baskets, regalia, beadwork and other traditional Native American art.

1p-3p
Pavilion & the exhibit - Oregon's Legacy: The New Deal at 75
Fireside Chat: Living with Gifts from the New Deal

Join Exhibit Curator Sarah Munro, Linny Adamson, Curator at Timberline Lodge, and Nicole Nathan, Collections Manager from the Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft, for an informal conversation and tour of our newest exhibit Oregon’s Legacy: The New Deal at 75.

 

Tour all of the exhibits at the Oregon History Museum for free courtesy of the Barbara Davies Trust. See the award winning, Oregon My Oregon exhibit as well as our selection of current featured exhibits. For a complete list off all current exhibits at the Oregon History Museum,

click here.

WHERE: Oregon Historical Society, 1200 SW Park Ave., Portland, Oregon.
WHEN: Thursday, May 8, 2008, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
COST: Free to the public.

On May 8, 2008, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. the Oregon Historical Society will host a free presentation entitled “Sympathy and Prompt Attentions: the US Schooner Shark in the Oregon Country, 1846.”

Winter storms recently uncovered two short-barreled guns (carronades) on the beach near Arch Cape, Oregon. The source of the carronades has been the subject of much speculation and interest throughout the Pacific Northwest. Some believe these large objects may have belonged to the U.S. Schooner Shark and were torn loose from the vessel after it wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia River in September, 1846. The story has since garnered national attention, with the PBS television series History Detectives filming a segment exploring the relationship between the Shark and the carronades.

Using first-hand accounts, archival documents, maps, and private letters, Greg Shine, chief ranger and historian at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and the Northwest Cultural Resources Institute, will describe U.S. Schooner Shark’s activities in the Pacific Northwest and its demise at the dangerous Columbia River Bar. His PowerPoint presentation will illustrate why the vessel was sent to Fort Vancouver and the Oregon Country, and how the schooner’s officers interacted with Hudson’s Bay Company officials, officers from the British sloop of war HMS Modeste and local residents. Their stories of cooperation, intrigue, shipwreck, rescue, and even horse racing will help create an understanding of the Oregon Country as it rose to international importance in the 1840s.

Following Shine’s presentation, David Pearson, Curator for the Columbia River Maritime Museum, will deliver an update on the identification and conservation of the carronades, and answer questions.

Together, these historians provide a thoughtful, illuminating and provocative way to preserve and interpret the past.

This is a free public program co-sponsored by the Center for Columbia River History with the Oregon Historical Society, the National Park Service and the Northwest Cultural Resources Institute and the Columbia River Maritime Museum.

DETAILS: For more information contact the Center for Columbia River History, 360-258-3289.
WEBSITES: http://www.ccrh.org, http://www.nps.gov/fova/, http://www.crmm.org/

The Hatfield Forum is a lecture series held at the First Congregational Church in downtown Portland (1126 SW Park Ave.). Lectures begin at 7:30 pm.

To receive a brochure or to reserve tickets, please call (503) 222-1741. Tickets can also be purchased from the OHS Webstore.

 

The speakers for the 2009 Mark O. Hatfield Distinguished Historians Forum will be announced soon.

These special Research Library events aim to teach new research and preservation techniques.

Check out these upcoming Research Library programs & workshops.