Exhibits

Photograph of a sign reading “I Am An American” that was placed on the Wanto Co. store in Oakland, California, on December 8, 1941. Photo by Dorthea Lange, March 1942. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-23602.

Current Exhibit

I Am An American: Stories of Exclusion and Belonging

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

Amidst a rise of xenophobia and cultural erasure, The Immigrant Story presents an exhibition that explores the different facets of Asian American experiences through portraiture and accompanying narratives created in partnership with photographer Jim Lommasson and artist Roberta Wong.

  • Family-friendly
  • Free for Members
  • Researchers
  • Teachers
Full set of Jackson 5 outfits. Photo by Rebecca Sapp, GRAMMY Museum.

Current Exhibit

Motown: The Sound of Young America

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

Curated by the GRAMMY Museum®, this exhibition traces the evolution of the Motown label, focusing on its major artists and musical achievements, and explores how the sound of Motown continues to influence some of pop music’s most important artists today.

  • Family-friendly
  • Free for Members
  • Researchers
  • Teachers
“Vista House and Columbia River Gorge from Women’s Forum State Scenic Viewpoint.” Photograph by Peter Marbach.

Current Exhibit

A Century of Wonder: 100 Years of Oregon State Parks

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

In celebration of the centennial of Oregon State Parks, OHS commissioned photographer Peter Marbach to document the beauty and geographic diversity of many of Oregon’s 254 state parks. These contemporary photographs show how the park system has preserved these breathtaking natural spaces.

  • Family-friendly
  • Free for Members
  • Teachers
  • Researchers
Members of the Portland Women’s Forum Save the Gorge committee on the trail in front of Latourell Falls in Guy W. Talbot State Park. OHS Research Library, Org. Lot 1284, box 41, 1964-9.

Current Exhibit

A Walk in the Park: Historic Images of Oregon State Parks

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

Featuring photographs from OHS’s research library collections, this exhibition provides a historic look at Oregon State Parks over its 100-year history.

  • Family-friendly
  • Free for Members
  • Researchers
  • Teachers
Produced for 1992 Democratic Party candidates Bill Clinton and Al Gore, Roy Lichtenstein, offset lithography. Courtesy of private collection.

Current Exhibit

Sign of the Times: The Great American Political Poster, 1844–2012

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

American political posters have historically hidden in plain sight, intended to capture attention, and votes, through visual language. This exhibition explores the design trends and evolving styles of this persuasive art form through some of the most exciting and rarely seen American political posters.

  • Family-friendly
  • Free for Members
  • Researchers
  • Teachers
Leghorn,-Italy029-with-eyes-open

Current Exhibit,Traveling Exhibit

What If Heroes Were Not Welcome Home?

The History Museum of Hood River County
300 E Port Marina Dr
Hood River, Oregon 97031

This poignant exhibit examines the prejudice that Japanese American veterans from Hood River, Oregon experienced upon their return home from serving our country in World War II. These American citizens served heroically with the United States Armed Forces in the South Pacific and in Europe, yet many of their families were unjustly incarcerated in concentration camps on American soil.

  • Teachers
  • Family-friendly
Experience Oregon opening banner

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
Children at Swan Island refugee center set up by the Red Cross after the Vanport Flood, 1948. OrHi 90661. Photographs: Portland - NE Neighborhoods - Vanport [graphic]; Photo file #1689-A; 1948/05

Permanent Exhibit

History Hub

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

History Hub is an exhibit where Oregon’s youth, students, and families can explore the topic of diversity through fun, hands-on interactives, objects, and pictures. History Hub is developed in partnership with an advisory committee of students, teachers, cultural organizations, and museums to tell the stories of people who live in Oregon, today and in the past. The content of History Hub spans grades K-12 with a focus on 4th – 8th grade.

  • Free for Members
  • Family-friendly
  • Teachers
Main Street, Central Point, Oregon. OHS Research Library, Wesley Andrews postcard collection, Org. Lot 87, OrHi 14537.

Upcoming Exhibit

Main Streets: Wesley Andrews Photo Postcards

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

Main streets are familiar yet distinctive to their time and place. This exhibit, using photographs from the Wesley Andrews postcard collection preserved in OHS’s research library, captures both the homogeny and uniqueness of main streets across Oregon during the 1920s.

  • Family-friendly
  • Free for Members
  • Researchers
  • Teachers
The Oregon Historical Society’s second location on 2nd Street in Portland, Oregon, with assistant curator J.S. Greenfield standing outside the building. OHS Research Library, OrHi 26021.

Upcoming Exhibit

Our Unfinished Past: The Oregon Historical Society at 125

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

For over 125 years, the Oregon Historical Society has preserved Oregon’s history through its collections, library, educational programs, exhibitions, and scholarship. This exhibition explores the people, events, and stories that have shaped our institution, reflecting on OHS’s complex history and its mission to be the collective memory of Oregon.

  • Family-friendly
  • Free for Members
  • Researchers
  • Teachers
Klamath man overlooks giiwas (Crater Lake) Curtis Collection Photo provided by Taylor R. David, Klamath Tribes News Dept.

Upcoming Exhibit,Traveling Exhibit

Oregon Is Indian Country

Independence Heritage Museum
281 S. 2nd Street
Independence, Oregon 97351

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
Proponents of Oregon’s 1953 Public Accommodations Act pose for posterity. OHS Research Library, OrHi 44402

Upcoming Exhibit,Traveling Exhibit

Oregon Voices Traveling Exhibit

Portland Parks and Recreation, The Portland Building
1120 SW 5th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97204

Our Oregon Voices traveling exhibit is a mobile version of the OHS permanent exhibit by the same name. The exhibit has five, three-sided pop-up kiosks that explore some of the important people, industries, organizations, and laws that have shaped the state from the end of World War II to 2020.

  • Family-friendly
  • Researchers
  • Teachers
Yaquina Bay Bridge undated bb007717

Upcoming Exhibit,Traveling Exhibit

Oregon's Landmark Legislation

Independence Heritage Museum
281 S. 2nd Street
Independence, Oregon 97351

Oregon has repeatedly led the nation in creating, revising, and implementing laws shaping the quality of life of its citizens. While Oregon’s innovations have evoked controversy, they have charted the course for other states and nations. The 16 exhibit panels highlight groundbreaking legislation that Oregon has passed since Statehood either by Politician, Legislative Action, or Public Initiative. Arranged chronologically, the window panels present legislation that focuses on environmental, social, and land use issues.

  • Teachers
  • Family-friendly
Governor Mark Hatfield and Antoinette Hatfield celebrate at his campaign headquarters after winning the governorship, November 7. 1962. OHS Research Library, bb011059.

Upcoming Exhibit,Traveling Exhibit

The Call of Public Service: The Life and Legacy of Mark O. Hatfield

Tamastslikt Cultural Institute
47106 Wildhorse Blvd
Pendleton, Oregon 97801

This traveling exhibit focuses on Mark Hatfield’s legacy in Oregon and across the nation. Featuring three, three-sided pop-up kiosks, the exhibit highlights the main issues he championed: healthcare, education, equal rights, the environment, and world peace.

  • 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

Online Exhibit

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
Black United Front leader, Ron Herndon, stands on a desk at a School Board protest against the closure of Harriet Tubman Middle School, March 30, 1982. Steve Nehl, Oregon Journal. OrHi 95005 ba018353

Online Exhibit

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
Portland Sunset 2, 2020. Copyright James Foley.

Online Exhibit

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 online exhibit

Online Exhibit

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
Org Lot 1335 folder 1

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
Caterpillar-drawn flax puller, head on, 1930s, OHS Research Library, Portland Public School Collection

Online Exhibit

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
Scans from the KOIN and the KPTV 16mm News Film Collections

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
Broadway at night during Portland Rose Festival, ca. 1916. OHS Research Library, Portland General Electric Photograph Collection; Org. Lot 151; Box 8; PGE 138-50

Online Exhibit

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
Main Dinning Room, Hotel Portland, Portland, ORE.

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
Oregon Journal Photograph Collection, Org. Lot 1368, 371N2965

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
Portland, June, 1858. 5488

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
Valley of the Willamette River 1845 HJ Warre OrHi 49030

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
Fred Meyer poses for an advertisement photo checking out groceries, circa 1950. Ackroyd-Marks Studio Coll 199 b7.f2 ba026202

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
Bobby Robinson, 1928, Oregana 1929, UO Special Collections and University Archives, Eugene, Oregon

Traveling Exhibit

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
Special Olympics Oregon athletes practice for an 880-yard run, 1980. OHS Research Library, 023701.

Traveling Exhibit

Brave in the Attempt: Celebrating 50 years of Special Olympics Oregon

This traveling exhibit highlights the 50th anniversary of Special Olympics Oregon.

  • Family-friendly
  • Researchers
  • Teachers
Vineyard Mehama ca1900 Ray L Stout #434

Traveling Exhibit

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
Governor Tom McCall and Secretary of State Clay Myers empty a bag of aluminum cans during the Bottle Bill campaign, 1971. OHS Research Library, Org Lot 353, box 2, folder 4.

Traveling Exhibit

Many Happy Returns: 50 Years of the Oregon Bottle Bill

This traveling exhibit highlights the 50th anniversary of the Beverage Container Act or Bottle Bill and the environmental concerns of the 1960s and 1970s.

  • Family-friendly
  • Researchers
  • Teachers
The Three Sisters, John Yeon Lantern Slide Collection

Traveling Exhibit

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
Digging in the sand at Clatsop Beach. OHS Research Library, OrHi_94797

Traveling Exhibit

Places by the Sea

In 1910, going to Oregon's places by the sea from Portland wasn’t an easy trip. After 1890, a train connected Portland as far as Seaside. These photos on display were taken between 1906 and 1920 and show the Oregon coast as a place of bustling activity and as a place of solitude. The photos come from an album commissioned by the SP&S (Spokane, Portland & Seattle) Railway to promote Oregon’s coastal beauty and ease of rail travel.

  • Family-friendly