Exhibits
Current Exhibit,Traveling Exhibit
Brave in the Attempt: Celebrating 50 years of Special Olympics Oregon
Chehalem Cultural Center
415 E Sheridan St
Newberg, Oregon 97132
This traveling exhibit highlights the 50th anniversary of Special Olympics Oregon.
- Family-friendly
- Researchers
- Teachers
![Photo of Margaret Howe with Oregon shield during woman suffrage march in Washington, D.C., March 1913, Library of Congress, LC-B2- 2668-6 [P&P], Bain News Service Photograph collection](/museum/exhibits/images/Howe-with-Oregon-shield-at-march.jpg "Photo of Margaret Howe with Oregon shield during woman suffrage march in Washington, D.C., March 1913, Library of Congress, LC-B2- 2668-6 [P&P], Bain News Service Photograph collection")
Nevertheless, They Persisted: Women’s Voting Rights and the 19th Amendment
This original exhibit connects Oregon history to the national history of woman suffrage and commemorates the bravery of the women (and men) who demanded the vote and used their rights to shape our nation and our world.
- Family-friendly
- Researchers
- Teachers
Racing to Change: Oregon’s Civil Rights Years
From January through June 2018, the Oregon Historical Society was proud to host Racing to Change, presented by the Oregon Black Pioneers. Now, thanks to our partnership with Visiting Media, students and history enthusiasts across Oregon and beyond can experience the exhibit online. This exhibit illuminates Oregon’s vibrant black community and their courage, struggle and progress amongst a larger context of discrimination and displacement during the civil rights movement in Oregon in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
- Teachers
- Family-friendly
The View From Here
Photographer James Foley captures his adopted home of Oregon in this online exhibit featuring the shores of the Pacific, the High Desert of central Oregon, and the Portland skyline.
- Teachers
- Family-friendly
Windows on America
From June 2013 through February 2014, the Oregon Historical Society was proud to showcase Windows on America, the first ever public display of the world-class Mark Family Collection. Now, thanks to a new partnership with Visiting Media, students and history enthusiasts across Oregon and beyond can experience the exhibit online! Visitors to the virtual exhibit can experience the same content offered in the physical exhibit, as well as new digital enhancements. Get up close to artifacts, read text panels, hear recordings of historic documents, and go behind the scenes of some of the exhibit’s treasures in videos with OHS Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk.
- Teachers
- Family-friendly
“A Symbol of Home”: The Environmental and Political Legacy of Tom McCall in Oregon
Famous for his forceful language and political skill, Governor Tom McCall has remained the name and face of Oregon’s remarkable legacy of environmental lawmaking. His environmental efforts were not the earliest in the state, nor were his achievements his alone; but he provided people with a compelling and ambitious narrative that emphasized citizen responsibility to protect the land and its resources. This narrative continues to inform many aspects of lawmaking and advocacy in Oregon.
- Family-friendly
- Researchers
- Teachers
Flaxen: From Flax to Linen in the Willamette Valley, Oregon
Reproductions of hand-tinted glass lantern slides from the early 1930s document how flax was grown and processed to make fabric. The slides from the Oregon Historical Society’s Portland Public School (PPS) Collection were shown to schoolchildren to illustrate various Oregon industries and, in this case, children learned about making towels and napkins at the Oregon Linen Mill in Salem.
- Family-friendly
- Researchers
- Teachers
Frames Per Second: Selections from the OHS 16mm News Film Collection, 1969-1981
The images in this exhibit are scans from the KOIN and KPTV 16mm news film collections held at the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) Research Library. Every three frames of 16mm film represents 1/8 of a second — or just faster than the blink of an eye. These stories represent, in part, the day-to-day events that helped shape Portland from 1969 to 1981.
- Family-friendly
- Researchers
- Teachers
Harnessing the Power of Photography: Selections from the OHS Portland General Electric Collections, 1895-1979
The photographs in this exhibit show how Portland General Electric (PGE) used photography to promote its business over a span of more than 85 years. The images, all taken from the OHS Research Library, address the way in which PGE used photography to define and promote its various audiences: workers, engineers, managers, and customers.
- Family-friendly
- Researchers
- Teachers
Lost Portland
At the turn of the 19th century, Portland was still the metropolis of the Pacific Northwest, and its buildings reflected a sense of urban grandeur rivaling the great cities of North America. As the twentieth century progressed, many of these buildings fell victim to changing needs, economic imperatives, and a growing decentralization of urban life. While the Oregon Historical Society’s Davies Family Research Library holds thousands of images of lost Portland, few are so evocative of the city’s past grandeur as these postcards, created from re-touched and hand-colored photographs.
- Family-friendly
- Teachers
- Researchers
Mirror on the Modern Woman: Selected Images from the Oregon Journal, 1927–1932
The 1920s heralded the era of the Modern Woman, a more adventurous and independent type open to new possibilities. The new exhibit Mirror on the Modern Woman depicts some of these Modern Women, young and old, at work and at play. The exhibit features fifteen photographs from the 1920s and ’30s selected from the Oregon Historical Society Research Library’s collection of negatives from the Oregon Journal newspaper.
- Family-friendly
- Researchers
- Teachers
Portland: A Lot of People Have Lived Here
Call it the Clearing, Stumptown, City of Roses, P-Town, PDX, Ripcity, Bridgetown, or Little Beirut—Portland answers to them all. The city sits on the Willamette River, both sleepy and overwrought, dominating Oregon in population and voting trends. Obama loved it, George H.W. did not, Teddy Roosevelt slept here, and the Queen of Romania stopped by for dinner.
- Family-friendly
- Researchers
- Teachers
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
The people of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde represent almost thirty different tribes and bands that the U.S. government removed to the Grand Ronde Reservation in the nineteenth century. The history of the reservation—and how so many western Oregon Native people came to reside there—is long and complex. With support from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the Oregon Historical Society is working with scholars in an ongoing effort to create Oregon Encyclopedia entries on the people, places, and events connected to the history of the Grand Ronde people. Included in this new online exhibit are recently published entries by E.A. Schwartz, Kenneth Ames, David Lewis, Robert T. Boyd, Henry Zenk, William Lang, Dan Boxberger, Yvonne Hadja, and Chuck Williams. OHS archival material connected to the history of the Grand Ronde have been digitized and published on the OHS digital history websites.
- Family-friendly
- Researchers
- Teachers
The Fred Meyer Story
In many ways, the story of Fred G. Meyer and Fred Meyer, Inc. mirrors the story of the expansion and development of the city of Portland from a small, rugged, Western town to a booming metropolis. Follow the story of Fred Meyer from its humble beginnings to its expansion across the West.
- Family-friendly
- Teachers
- Researchers
Black Athletes Disrupting White Supremacy in Oregon
These exhibit panels were displayed on the campuses of the University of Oregon and Oregon State University during February 2014 to accompany public programs about national and state history related to African American football players. The exhibit panels were created by Dr. Darrell Millner of Portland State University in collaboration with OHS staff.
- Teachers
- Family-friendly
Clink! A Taste of Oregon Wine
OHS’s “Clink! A Taste of Oregon Wine” traveling exhibition explores the story of Oregon wine and some of the moments that make up its history. The narrative spans over 150 years, from the pioneers who brought grapevines on the Oregon Trail to the winegrowers who blazed a new trail in the 1960s to the innovations continuing to take place across the state. Learn about the seasonal workers who support an entire industry and the dedication of people who have grown, made, and embraced Oregon wine.
- Family-friendly
- Teachers
- Researchers
Oregon Is Indian Country
First exhibited in 2009 at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon Is Indian Country represents a groundbreaking project that brought together all nine federally recognized Oregon Tribes to present information, never-before-assembled in one exhibit, on contemporary indigenous cultures. This rich content is now available for museums and cultural institutions across the state as a traveling exhibit of vibrant banners.
- Teachers
- Family-friendly
Oregon: 150 Years of Statehood; 150 Million Years in the Making
In 2009, Oregon celebrated 150 years as a state. Oregon’s landscape has a much longer history — geological processes have been building the state's landscape for more than 150 million years! The windows in this exhibit illustrate how geology crafted Oregon’s landscape and natural resources and continues to shape the land and lives of its citizens. The most iconic of Oregon’s landscapes — Crater Lake, Multnomah Falls, Newberry Crater, Steens Mountain, the Painted Hills, and so much more — display Oregon’s geologic splendor.
- Teachers
- Family-friendly