![Oral history interview with L. Raphael Geisler [Sound Recording 01]](/images/generic-icons/audio.png){kind=icon}
Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Oral history interview with L. Raphael Geisler
Date(s)
- 1976-06-10 (Creation)
Extent
.1 cubic feet; 1 audiocassette (50 min., 22 sec.)
Name of creator
Biographical history
Louis Raphael Geisler was born in 1890 in Portland, Oregon. He attended the University of Oregon and graduated in 1912, then taught high school for a few years. He then studied law at Columbia College (now Columbia University) in New York. During World War I, he served as U.S. vice consul to Cologne, Germany, from 1916 to 1917, and to Zurich, Switzerland, from 1917 to 1919. After the war ended, he returned to Columbia College and completed his law degree. He then worked in the foreign banking department of the Irving Bank and Trust Company, managing branches in London, England; Berlin, Germany; and Paris, France. In 1919, he and Gertrude Blackmar were married; they later had one child. When the Depression struck in 1929, the Irving Bank branches closed, and Geisler returned to the U.S. to become a patent lawyer. He returned to Portland around 1935. After Gertrude Blackmar's death in 1957, he and Florence Elton married in 1960. He died in 1982.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This oral history interview with L. Raphael Geisler was conducted by Charles Digregorio at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon, on June 10, 1976. In this interview, Geisler discusses his family background and early life in the Portland Heights neighborhood of Portland. He also briefly shares his memories of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition.
Geisler discusses his experience as vice-consul to Cologne, Germany, and to Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I. He then speaks briefly about his career in banking after the war until the Depression, and then working as a patent lawyer in Portland. He discusses his involvement with Trinity Episcopal Church, including his memories of the 1902 fire that destroyed its original building on SW Sixth Avenue and SW Oak Street in downtown Portland. He closes the interview by speaking briefly about his parents.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Collection is open for research.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and the estate of L. Raphael Geisler. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
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Finding aids
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Notes element
General note
Preferred citation: Oral history interview with L. Raphael Geisler, by Charles Digregorio, SR 9394, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
General note
Incomplete transcript (14 pages) is available for in-person use at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), 2nd Edition.
Sources used
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Digregorio, Charles (Contributor)
- Trinity Episcopal Church (Portland, Or.) (Subject)