Negatives by Year

Substation transformer Cars in front of substation Group of men seated at table Crowd sitting in bleachers Man speaking into microphone Group of men next to street Linemen working on utility pole Parade float Parade float Baseball players at night Unidentified river and dam Unidentified river and dam Group event with bar Man speaking to group Utility poles in unidentified forested area Parade float Baseball players at night Man speaking to seated group Linemen working on utility pole Salem at night Utility poles in unidentified forested area Men in field with transmission lines Men in field with transmission lines Electrical substation at Eliot School Man holding utility pole lever Men working on river Waterfalls on Columbia River? Waterfalls on Columbia River?
Results 1 to 28 of 358 Show all

Identity elements

Reference code

Org. Lot 151.B

Name and location of repository

Level of description

Series

Title

Negatives by Year

Date(s)

  • 1949 - 1965 (Creation)

Extent

359 safety film negatives

Name of creator

(1888-)

Administrative history

Portland General Electric Company was founded as Willamette Electric Company in 1888 by Edward L. Eastham and Parker F. Morey. Beginning with a hydro-electric generating plant on Willamette Falls, Station A, the company grew quickly. It acquired many of the other electrical interests in the Oregon City area and in 1892 it was reorganized as Portland General Electric. Between 1892 and 1906, PGE acquired many other small electrical utilities and electric railroads, growing its holdings rapidly.

In 1906, the company once again reorganized itself as Portland Railway Light & Power Company. It operated several electric streetcar lines, including an extensive system in the city of Portland. Ridership fell in the late 1920s and the company again reorganized itself into Portland Electric Power Company (PEPCO), with two subsidiaries: Portland General Electric as the electric utility and Portland Traction Company as the railroad. PEPCO went into bankruptcy in 1939, ultimately selling all of its railroad holdings to the Portland Transit Company in 1946 and reorganizing one final time into Portland General Electric (PGE) in 1948. It was bought by Enron in 1997 but as of 2006 PGE is independent.

PGE built many power generating plants in both Oregon and Washington. These plants were primarily hydro-electric, but they also built several steam plants, a gas plants, a coal-fired plant and a nuclear power plant

Content and structure elements

Scope and content

Negatives documenting company activities, including electrical infrastructure, employees, power generation and distribution throughout Portland, the Willamette Valley and the Oregon Cascade Range. Additional general images include employee parties and picnics, street lighting, power line installation, Rose Festival floats, office buildings, and dam infrastructure.

System of arrangement

The negatives in Series B are arranged by original numbers assigned by Portland General Electric based on year.

Conditions of access and use elements

Conditions governing access

Physical access

Due to the high-risk nature of the format, the Portland General Electric negatives are not available to the public for physical access.

Technical access

Conditions governing reproduction

Images created before 1900: No Copyright - United States http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Images created after 1900: Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, ShareAlike (BY-NC- SA) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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Finding aids

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