The All American Toy Company: An Oregon Original

September 10 – January 26, 2020
Location:
Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205
Get Directions
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.





























In The All American Toy Company: An Oregon Original, rare documents, vintage photographs, and cast-aluminum toy trucks reveal the untold stories of children who formed lifelong attachments to the toys and the industries they represented. The exhibit also displays exquisitely detailed 12:1 and 16:1 scale models produced in the late twentieth and early twenty-first-centuries — no longer toys but limited edition collectibles for adults.
The exhibit is also the inspiration behind a forthcoming Oregon Historical Quarterly article that will debut in Fall 2019.