Exhibits

Current Exhibit

Many Shades of Being Darcelle: 52 Years of Fashion, 1967 – 2019

August 30 – December 8, 2019

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

Portland’s own Darcelle XV (the stage name of Walter Cole) has been headlining the Darcelle XV Showplace since 1973. This first-ever exhibit features several of Darcelle’s more than 1,500 extravagant costumes spanning over 50 years, often designed and constructed by Walter himself. The exhibit is part of the Darcelle Project, which includes Triangle Production’s fall production of the musical That’s No Lady.

• Family-friendly
• Free for Members
• Researchers
• Teachers

Current Exhibit

Wild About Dance: Oregon Ballet  Theatre Celebrates 30 Years

August 2 – December 15, 2019

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

Oregon Ballet Theatre enriches the community with beautiful, exhilarating, and athletic dance. This exhibit celebrates Oregon Ballet Theatre’s (OBT) first 30 years with vibrant film footage and photographs, costumes, and theatrical artifacts that highlight the Company’s excellent performances, school, and education outreach programs. For those who love OBT and the art of dance, the exhibit will elicit memories of favorite performances and dancers through the years. For those who have yet to discover this Portland-based gem, the exhibit will surely captivate visitors through Oregon Ballet Theatre’s kaleidoscope of classical and contemporary dance.

• Family-friendly
• Free for Members
• Researchers
• Teachers

Current Exhibit

Fighting for the Right to Fight: African American Experiences in World War II

July 12, 2019 – January 12, 2020

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

In the years leading up to World War II, racial segregation and discrimination were part of daily life for many in the United States. For most African Americans, even the most basic rights and services were fragmented or denied altogether. To be black was to know the limits of freedom — excluded from the opportunity, equality, and justice on which the country was founded. Yet, once World War II began, thousands of African Americans rushed to enlist, intent on serving the nation that treated them as second-class citizens. They were determined to fight to preserve the freedom that they themselves had been denied. This is their story.

• Family-friendly
• Free for Members
• Researchers
• Teachers

Current Exhibit

The All American Toy Company: An Oregon Original

September 10, 2019 – January 26, 2020

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

For generations, the All American Toy Company has captured the interest of children and adults alike. Beginning in 1947 with its first release of the Timber Toter, a logging truck, the company’s lineup included a series of vehicles that represented expanding industries in Oregon, including dump trucks used in construction, cattle liners that transported the region’s livestock, fire trucks, and box vans, among others. Those toys, when viewed as cultural artifacts, are capable of illuminating Oregon history during a specific place and time.

• Free for Members
• Family-friendly
• Researchers
• Teachers

Current Exhibit

Flaxen: From Flax to Linen in the Willamette Valley, Oregon

October 8, 2019 – March 31, 2020

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

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
• Free for Members
• Researchers
• Teachers

Upcoming Exhibit

Nevertheless, They Persisted: The Nineteenth Amendment and Women’s Voting Rights

March 13 – November 8, 2020

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

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
• Free for Members
• Researchers
• Teachers

Permanent Exhibit

Experience Oregon

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

Visitors of all ages, and from all parts of the world, come to the Oregon Historical Society each year to learn about Oregon. Whether you were born here, have chosen to make this place home, or are just passing through, it is undeniable that there is something special about this state. From its varied geography to its innovative legislation, Oregon is complex and distinctive, filled with people whose stories are the foundation of the state we see today. A dynamic educational space, Experience Oregon allows visitors to learn about the countless people, places, and events that have shaped this place.

• Family-friendly
• Free for Members
• Teachers
• Researchers

Online Exhibit

“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

Online Exhibit

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

Online Exhibit

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

Online Exhibit

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

Online Exhibit

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

Online Exhibit

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

Online Exhibit

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