Exhibits

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Peter Franc, Xuan Chen and Company in Bournonville’s Napoli, Oregon Ballet Theatre. Photo: Jingzi Zhao

Current Exhibit

Wild About Dance: Oregon Ballet  Theatre Celebrates 30 Years

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
Wartime color guard ceremony of the 41st Engineers at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Courtesy National Archives.

Current Exhibit

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

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
Items from Meier and Frank Santaland on exhibit at OHS

Current Exhibit

Meier and Frank Santaland

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

Generations of Oregonians have fond memories of the downtown Portland Meier & Frank department store’s Santaland. A ride on the iconic Monorail and a chance to sit on Santa’s lap became a Christmas tradition for many families. Following the closure of Macy’s downtown store (which purchased Meier & Frank in 2005), a small number of items from Santaland were donated to the Oregon Historical Society and the Portland Business Alliance. This holiday season, come visit the OHS Santaland display, featuring Santa’s chair, Rudolph, animatronic elves, and decorated Christmas trees!

  • Family-friendly
  • Free for Members
Whale Cove, Oregon, 1932 (detail). Color block print by Norma Bassett Hall

Current Exhibit

Norma Bassett Hall: Color Block Prints in Oregon Collections

Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205

Norma Bassett Hall was born in Halsey, Oregon, in 1888. Just eighteen years later, she entered the School of the Portland Art Association in its first year, and by 1929, had achieved national recognition for her art. Yet, with her local roots and strong ties to Oregon art, her work has never been the feature of a solo exhibition in Portland – until now.

  • Family-friendly
  • Free for Members
  • Teachers
An early sand cast Timber Toter with the original rectangular logo and brass air horn for steering, 1947. Frank Barnett Photography.

Current Exhibit

The All American Toy Company: An Oregon Original

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

Current Exhibit

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

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