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Marcus and Narcissa Whitman collection, 1834-1947

  • Mss 1203
  • Collection
  • 1834-1947 (inclusive)

The collection consists of papers of and relating to missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. A substantial portion of the collection consists of letters that they wrote to Narcissa Whitman's family. These letters describe the Whitmans' overland journey to the Pacific Northwest in 1836, and their lives as missionaries in the following decade. The letters also frequently express frustration with Native peoples' cultural norms and their reluctance to convert to Calvinist Christianity, often using patronizing and derogatory language. The letters also include pejorative terms for Roman Catholics and for biracial people of Native and European or Euro-American descent.

Other writings by the Whitmans include typescript copies of their correspondence with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and a typescript of Marcus Whitman's proposed legislation to establish outposts to assist Euro-American emigrants traveling westward. Other materials in the collection include original and reproduced materials regarding the Whitman killings and their aftermath; microfilm of Mary Saunders and Helen Saunders' recollections of the Whitman killings and aftermath; and items related to the memorialization of the Whitmans, including efforts in the 1890s to erect a monument in their honor.

Jason Lee papers

  • Mss 1212
  • Collection
  • 1834-1845

Collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Reverend Jason Lee. The papers date from 1834 to 1845. Included are Lee’s diary of his overland journey to Oregon and the construction of his mission with entries dating from 1834 to 1838; an 1844 report Lee made to the Methodist Missionary Board; miscellaneous papers related to the illness and death of Lee in 1845; and fragments of an undated biography of Jason Lee likely written by Harvey Kimball Hines. The collection also contains a folder of Anna Maria Pittman Lee's correspondence dated from 1834 to 1835.

Jason Lee was born on June 28, 1803, in Stanstead, Quebec. After his ordination in 1834, Lee and his nephew, Daniel Lee, journeyed overland to Oregon with the intention to establish a mission to minister to the Flathead Indians. He instead established his mission in the Willamette Valley near present-Day Salem, Oregon, in territory that was home to bands of the Kalapuyan people. Lee returned east in 1838 to justify his decision and recruit reinforcements for the Willamette mission, as well as missions at The Dalles and Clatsop plains. In 1840, The Great Reinforcement, a group of 51 men, women, and children, arrived in Oregon on the ship Lausanne in response to Lee’s promotion in the East. In 1843, Jason Lee participated in the founding of Oregon's provisional government and Willamette University. Lee was relieved of his missionary post in 1844. Lee married Anna Maria Pittman, who died in 1838, and then Lucy Lee who died in 1842. Jason Lee died on March 12, 1845.

Lee, Jason, 1803-1845

Oregon Constitutional Convention records, 1857-1859

  • Mss 1227
  • Collection
  • 1857 - 1859

Documents created during the Oregon Constitutional Convention of 1857. Includes: committee reports, drafts of articles and schedules, general notes, corrections, and other materials. Sections of the constitution represented include: preamble and bill of rights; suffrage and elections; distribution of powers; Legislative Department; Executive Department; education and school lands; finance; militia; corporations and internal improvements; seat of government; general provisions; boundaries; schedules, and related papers. Also includes printed speech of James Hughes of Indiana, on the admission of Oregon, delivered in the House of Representatives, 1859 February 10.

Oregon. Constitutional Convention (1857)

Oregon elections collection, 1846-1888

  • Mss 1231
  • Collection
  • 1846 - 1912

Collection assembled by the Oregon Historical Society regarding elections in Oregon. Included are Poll Books for Sauvie Island (1859), Astoria Precinct (1857), Elkton Precinct (1856), Santiam Precinct (1860), and Butte Creek (1872); contributors to the 1873 election fund; certified documents of electors, president and vice-president, U.S. (1876, 1880, 1888); and newspaper clippings and list of contributors to the 1888 election. Additional materials include oversize ballots and tally sheets (in 2 flat boxes), and 1860-1862 election materials (1 reel of microfilm).

Oregon. Constitutional Convention (1857)

Correspondence Collection

  • Mss 1500
  • Collection
  • 1800 - ?

Collection of materials assembled by the Oregon Historical Society comprised of various letters written from or to individuals in Oregon, ca. 1820-1973.

Women collection, circa 1899-1950

  • Mss 1534
  • Collection
  • 1899-1950

Collection of materials assembled by the Oregon Historical Society relating to women in Oregon, ca. 1899-1950. Included in the collection are postcards with anti and pro-suffrage images, the correspondence and diary of Mrs. Sylvia Thompson, the correspondence of M.H. Wicoxon, scrapbook of the League of Women Voters, papers of various women's political groups (including anti-suffrage groups) and newspaper clippings regarding women's rights, legal status and prominent women.

Stella Maris House collection

  • Mss 1585
  • Collection
  • 1940 - 1973

Ranging in date from 1940 to 1973, the Stella Maris House Collection consists of printed material, correspondence, and administrative, financial, and legal records created and collected by the Portland, Oregon-based social justice group during the course of their work. The collection demonstrates the local evolution of social issues key to the history of the United States during the 1960s. Over a third of the archive's content is dedicated to Oregon's migrant labor rights movement, and it also features records documenting the area's civil rights movement, urban renewal projects, interstate highway infrastructure, and social welfare programs initiated by the Economic Opportunity Act.

The bulk of the collection consists of printed material created by a number of local and national organizations between 1960 and 1972, then collected by the Stella Maris House. This portion of the archive includes programs, reports, studies, surveys, correspondence, brochures, and flyers generated by civil rights, migrant rights, and peace movement groups. Items of note include the Albina Neighborhood Improvement Project's plans for urban redevelopment (Series B), an African-American employment survey conducted by the Metropolitan Interfaith Commission on Race (Series E), and records documenting the Housing Authority of Portland (Series I). The collection also features printed material created by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Series E), the Valley Migrant League (Series J), and the United Farm Workers (Series J). Newspaper clippings that document events important to social justice movements constitute a substantial part of the collection.

A small but significant portion of the collection was created by the staff members of the Stella Maris House; it includes notes by the staff documenting the meetings of local groups. These meeting notes often provide remarkably candid insights into the workings of area groups. Additionally, Stella Maris House staff members also contributed group and program histories to the collection.

Stella Maris House (Portland, Or.)

Karen Beck Skold dissertation papers and interviews

  • Mss 1803
  • Collection
  • 1941-1980

This collection consists of papers and interviews gathered by Karen Beck Skold during research for her 1981 Ph.D. dissertation in sociology at the University of Oregon, entitled "Women Workers and Child Care During World War II: A Case Study of the Portland, Oregon Shipyards."

Digitized materials available online in OHS Digital Collections consist of 26 audio recordings of interviews that Skold conducted with people, predominantly women, who worked at shipyards and in child care in the Portland, Oregon, area during World War II. Most of the people Skold interviewed worked at the Kaiser shipyards, including the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation yard. A few were employed at Albina Engine Machine Works and Commercial Iron Works; one interviewee worked at the Tacoma-Seattle Shipbuilding Corporation in Washington. The interviewees were primarily welders, ship fitters, and drivers, but also include women who worked as teachers and nurses at child care centers in the shipyards or in war housing projects. Transcripts are available for many interviews, but not all transcripts are complete; only completed transcripts are available online. Also digitized and available online is a recording of a 1980 presentation that Skold delivered in Alameda County, California, titled "The Politics of Child Care during World War II: The Case of the Kaiser Child Service Centers."

Undigitized materials available for use at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library include photocopied reports and articles, mostly regarding children's services in Portland, as well as racism and sex segregation in the shipyards; newspaper clippings regarding Skold's research, 1975-1976; correspondence with sources, 1975-1976; biographical information about women who worked in shipyard child care centers, 1975; minutes of the Women's Advisory Committee, 1943; and a 1941 union agreement between the American Federation of Labor and the Pacific Shipbuilders.

Skold, Karen Beck

Early history of Tillamook

  • Mss 213
  • Collection
  • circa 1890-1904

This collection consists of the original manuscript of "Early History of Tillamook," by Warren N. Vaughn, as well as typescript copies and a microfilm copy of the history, and biographical information about Vaughn. The original manuscript, undated but probably created in the 1890s, is handwritten in four ledgers or notebooks, and consists of Vaughn's detailed recollections about the earliest emigrants to and events in the Tillamook Bay area, 1851-circa 1863. It begins as a history of Tillamook County but ends abruptly at the end of the fourth volume. Microfilm in the collection is a copy of Vaughn's original manuscript. The collection also includes two undated typescript transcripts of "Early History of Tillamook": one in which each volume is bound separately with paper and twine, and one that was copied, edited, and consolidated into a single book by Louise W. Goodrich of Tillamook, Oregon, for the Columbia Gorge Chapter of the Daughters of the American Colonists in Portland, Oregon. Other materials in the collection include an Oregon Historical Society questionnaire filled out by Vaughn and dated 1902, providing biographical and genealogical details, information on his journey to Oregon, and remarks on Native people, particularly Chief Kilchis; and a photocopy of a biography of Vaughn in "Portrait and Biographical Record of Western Oregon" (Chicago, Chapman Publishing Company, 1904).

Vaughn, Warren N., 1823-1907

Cleveland Rockwell papers

  • Mss 2163
  • Collection
  • 1862-1907

This collection consists primarily of pencil and watercolor sketches and drawings made by artist and cartographer Cleveland Rockwell from 1862 to circa 1905. The materials include eight bound sketchbooks, as well as loose sketches, many of which have handwritten page numbers that suggest they were once part of bound volumes. Rockwell's sketches predominantly depict landscapes, particularly coastal and mountain scenes, in Oregon, Washington, California, and Alaska, as well as British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. Of particular note is a panorama of Lassen's Butte from Big Meadows at Prattville (folder 3), and sketches of British Columbia and California in volume 7. In addition to landscape scenes, the collection features a significant number of sketches depicting Pacific Northwest and California wildflowers, some of which were drawn by Cornelia F. Rockwell, Cleveland Rockwell's wife. The sketches also include ships and boats, as well as portraits of unidentified people. Many sketches throughout the collection have handwritten notes about light and color in the scenes depicted.

In addition to artwork, the collection includes a small quantity of family and biographical materials. The family materials are a photograph of Cleveland Rockwell and Cornelia F. Rockwell's two daughters, circa 1898, and an original 1949 letter from their younger daughter, Cornelia Rockwell Kearney, to "Eleanor," probably Eleanor Graves, who donated many of the materials in this collection to the Oregon Historical Society Research Library. The letter discusses Cleveland Rockwell's life and career, his artistic process, and outings that he and Cornelia F. Rockwell took to sketch wildflowers. Other materials include handwritten notes, made circa 1965, with biographical information about Cleveland Rockwell and his family, including information from 1863 and 1864 U.S. Coast Survey reports, and from obituaries for Rockwell in the Oregonian newspaper on March 22 and March 23, 1907.

Rockwell, Cleveland, 1837-1907

Lee Owen Stone papers, 1903-1977

  • Mss 2423
  • Collection
  • 1930 - 1977

Collection includes: Correspondence, sermons, awards and certificates, files from his activity in the Urban League of Portland and other civil and philanthropic associations, minutes of meetings for Men's Club of St. Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church, missionaries' quarterly reports, etc.

Stone, Lee Owen, 1903-1977

Brown, Clawson, and Parvin Family Papers

  • Mss 2506
  • Collection
  • 1739-1978

The collection includes correspondence, clippings, documents, and ephemera, most of which relate to Zimiri Parvin, James Nassau Brown, Mamie Parvin Brown, Vivian Z. Brown, and Verne Clawson Brown. There are also some materials on the Sutton, Taylor, and Price families, all related by marriage to the Parvins and Browns. Included are: musical compositions by Zimiri Parvin, letters from James Nassau Brown to his wife Mamie, a biographical article by Doris Huffman (1976), diplomas and certificates, high school yearbooks, a pocket diary of Josephine Taylor Sutton containing recipes, a program for a banquet honoring Susan B. Anthony in Salem in 1900, a Taylor family history document from the late 18th century, a group of baggage tags from hotels, and a collection of bank notes from the early 19th century. Among James Nassau Brown's letters is one of 1903 from Salem describing a typhoid epidemic.

Portland Neighborhood History Project

  • Mss 2577-SR
  • Collection
  • 1976-1979

The Portland Neighborhood History Project was one of the first extensive oral history projects in Oregon. In the late 1970s, the Parks Department recruited volunteers to interview elders in their own neighborhoods in order to gather first hand accounts of the history and development of the various neighborhoods in Portland. The interviews were later donated to the Oregon Historical Society.

William L. Finley letters and scrapbook, 1946-1962

  • Mss 2654
  • Collection
  • 1946 - 1962

Collection includes: Scrapbook and letters, 1 vol. and 1 folder, 1946-1962, regarding personal matters, the Izaak Walton League, conservation, etc.

Finley, William L. (William Lovell), 1876-1953

Malaspina expedition papers

  • Mss 2814
  • Collection
  • 1789-1795

Documents relating to the voyage of scientific exploration, 1789-1794, conducted by the Italian mariner Alessandro (Alejandro) Malaspina, assisted by José Bustamente y Guerra, and sponsored by the Spanish crown. The expedition included stops in Trinidad, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, points along the coast of North America as far north as Nootka Sound, the Philippine Islands, Australia, and New Zealand. The documents relate to the American portion of the voyage as far as California and include documentation on inland explorations and the gathering of scientific data, including descriptions of conditions among the California missions. Also included are a group of items relating to preparations and supplies. Many documents were sent to or from the office of Spanish naval minister Antonio Valdés y Bazán. Some documents are contemporary copies.

Oregon Black History Project records

  • Mss 2854
  • Collection
  • 1844-1981

The Oregon Black History Project was a grant-funded project that conducted research on the history of African-Americans in Oregon up to the beginning of World War II. The project was directed by Elizabeth McLagan and culminated in her book "A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940," which was published by the Georgian Press of Portland, Oregon, in 1980.

The collection consists of administrative records, research files, and photographs gathered or created by the Oregon Black History Project. Most of the research files consist of notes and quotes, photocopies, or excerpts from primary and secondary resources concerning the history of African-Americans in Oregon from the late 18th century to the mid-20th century. Most of these source excerpts were assembled between 1976 and 1979. Topics include early African-American emigrants to Oregon; the slavery debate in Oregon; exclusion laws and other forms of discrimination or violence against African-Americans; African-American business, social, and activist organizations; and early 20th-century African-American newspapers such as The Advocate, the New Age, and the Portland Times.

Photographs include portraits of African-American Oregonians; African-American social groups and activities; residences; and businesses operated by African-Americans in Portland, Oregon. Some of the photographs are copies of images originally published in newspapers such as Portland Times and The Advocate.

McLagan, Elizabeth, 1947-

Yasui Brothers business records

  • Mss 2949
  • Collection
  • 1904 - 1990

The Yasui Brothers records primarily document the business, personal, and community-related activities of the Yasui family in Hood River, Oregon, from the start of the 20th century until World War II, when they were among the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. government.

The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence and records relating to the business activities of Masuo Yasui (1886-1957). These include the general store, Yasui Bros., that he ran with his brother Renichi Fujimoto; and orchards in the Hood River Valley and surrounding areas that the firm operated. Store records include a variety of advertising materials, while farming records include packing lists, crop reports, and records of local farming associations Masuo Yasui was involved with. The collection also reflects Yasui’s involvement in the local community, including his work assisting other Japanese immigrants to the United States. A small quantity of materials relates to the Yasui Bros. store’s forced closure and the management of the family’s property and assets while they were incarcerated during World War II.

The collection also includes personal papers of Masuo Yasui; his wife, Shidzuyo Yasui; his brother Renichi Fujimoto; and his children. These consist of correspondence, ephemera, and a personal history that Masuo Yasui wrote at the request of the Japanese consulate. Other materials in the collection include records from the 1970s and 1980s of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), in which Masuo Yasui’s son Homer Yasui and his wife, Miyuki Yasui, were active, and magazines and newspapers the family received in both Japanese and English.

A substantial amount of this collection is in a pre-World War II Japanese script that is distinct from modern Japanese. Some of these materials, particularly those in Series 1 (Business correspondence and related materials) and Series 6 (Personal papers) have been reviewed and summarized by translators. Selected documents have been translated into English and modern Japanese.

Yasui family

Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest Oral Histories

  • Mss 2988-SR
  • Collection
  • 2000 - 2013

The Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest (GLAPN) was established in Portland, Oregon, by Tom Cook in the early 1990s. Since then the organization has collected archival materials and oral histories from organizations and individuals active in lesbian and gay issues in the Portland area and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Many of these oral histories were gathered by Portland State University students, from the late 90s to present.

Morris H. Whitehouse Architectural Collection

  • Mss 3007
  • Collection
  • 1905-1974 (inclusive)

The collection documents much of the work of Morris H. Whitehouse (1878-1944), Portland, Or.-based architect whose firms and successors operated for 77 years, making it the longest lived architectural firm in Oregon history. The collection consists of architectural drawings (circa 1905-1974), including details, elevations, perspectives, plans, sections, sketches, tracings, and blueprints that trace the design development of hundreds of residential, commercial and government projects. The collection also contains records (circa 1910-1969), including contracts, correspondence, estimates, invoices, notes, and specifications. Many records correspond with sets of architectural drawings and provide detailed historic overviews of an assortment of jobs, particularly residences. The majority of the drawings and records in the collection are connected with projects in Portland, Or. Some jobs are included from various cities and towns in Oregon and Washington state. The collection also includes a small amount of Whitehouse's early personal papers (circa 1905-1919).

Joseph and Francis Jacobberger architectural papers

  • Mss 3040
  • Collection
  • 1895-1964

Collection includes: Index cards listing schools and churches, houses and flats, and buildings that the Jacobbergers worked on; Specifications, 8 pp, of a Catholic church on the SW corner of Grand Ave. and 15th St. in Astoria, Oregon; Sketch of St. Monica's Church in Coos Bay, Oregon by Francis B. Jacobberger, 25 June 1930; Watercolor sketches, 1895-1896; Receipts, 36 vols, 1911-1964; Ledgers of contracting bids, 5 vol, 1922-1950; Account book, 1 vol, 1930-1936; Architectural plans, ca. 1895-1964, primarily for residences in Portland, Oregon. Joseph (Josef) Jacobberger was born in Lautenbach, France on 1869 March 19 and moved to the United States with his family in 1872.

Failing Building sketch

  • Mss 3052
  • Collection
  • 1913

Collection includes: 1 rendering on 1 sheet of the Failing Building at SW 5th ave. and SW Alder St., delineated by Mr. Wilding, ca. 1907-1913. The building was used by Gevurtz Furniture Store. It was built in 1907 and more stores were added 1912-1913.

Isaac Hodgson, Jr. architectural illustrations

  • Mss 3055
  • Collection
  • 1891

The collection consists of two lithograph illustrations and two watercolor illustrations of buildings in Portland, Oregon, designed by architect Isaac Hodgson, Jr. The watercolors depict the entrance and the tower for the Chamber of Commerce building, one lithograph depicts the Chamber of Commerce building between SW 3rd Avenue and SW 4th Avenue, and one lithograph depicts the entrance to a proposed United Bank building. The United Bank lithograph is from a drawing by W. E. Donovan, while all other works were drawn or painted by J. Anderson. Both lithographs were printed by the Heliotype Printing Company of Boston, Massachusetts, and appeared in the September 26, 1891 and August 27, 1892 issues of "American Architect and Building News."

Doyle and Patterson architectural papers

  • Mss 3075
  • Collection
  • 1909-1917

Plans and specifications for residences and buildings primarily for Reed College and Meier & Frank in Portland, Oregon, 1908-1915. Doyle and Patterson was a Portland, Oregon architectural firm.

Willard K. Martin architectural papers

  • Mss 3077
  • Collection
  • 1963-1967

Collection includes: Plans and blueprints for buildings in Oregon, 1963-1967. Willard Kenneth Martin (1930-1985) was a Portland Architect who is best known for his design of the Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon.

Abraham Lincoln letters

  • Mss 324
  • Collection
  • 1858-1861

One autograph letter, A.L.S., from Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Ill. to Simeon Francis in Oregon, 1860 Aug. 4, discussing the upcoming presidential election and prospects for the winning of various states. Collection also includes photostatic copies of three additional letters: Lincoln to James Thornton, 1858 Dec. 2; Simeon Francis to Lincoln, 1859 Dec. 26; and David Logan to Lincoln, 1861 Sept. 5.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Thomas Alexander Wood recollections

  • Mss 37
  • Collection
  • 1890-1902

Collection consists of typescript and manuscript correspondence and reminiscences recorded by T. A. Wood from approximately 1890-1902. The reminiscences include typescript copies of accounts by Wood regarding his work as a Methodist minister between 1858 and 1876 and his time serving as a chaplain for the Union Army in Illinois during the Civil War between 1861 and 1862. also included are typescript and manuscript copies of his account of involvement in advocacy to admit the first Black children into Portland public schools which resulted in the establishment of a segregated school for Black students. Also included is a letter written by Wood in 1902 containing reminiscences about his involvement in conflicts with Native peoples, which contains a list of engagement details for Indian War Veterans. The collection also contains a 1902 manuscript copy of an undated letter from E. H. Lenox to Wood requesting the names of members of an 1843 wagon train and relating a story concerning rescuing a man from drowning.

Steamship Hassalo plans

  • Mss 4033
  • Collection
  • Circa 1860 - Circa 1950

Collection consists of 6 plans on 4 sheets of the sternwheel steamer Hassalo. The drawings include a side view of the Hassalo; a plan of the freight deck; a lines plan, with cross sections, labeled as being taken from a model of the steamer made by John Gates; and a cross section. Three of the sheets are stamped: "Oregon Historical Society - Portland, Oregon / from collection of L. C. Hosford." It is unknown whether the plans are original drawings or later reproductions.

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