The Oregon Encyclopedia

An Authoritative and Free Resource on All Things Oregon

Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915)

Outspoken and often controversial, Abigail Scott Duniway is remembered as Oregon's "Mother of Equal Suffrage" and "the pioneer Woman Suffragist of the great Northwest." As lecturer, organizer, writer, and editor, Duniway devoted …

Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy (1869-1967)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy (1869-1967)

Physician Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy took an active and significant role in public health reform, suffrage, and politics in early twentieth century Portland. Lessons she learned in Oregon became the foundation for …

Harriet "Hattie" Redmond (1862-1952)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Harriet "Hattie" Redmond (1862-1952)

Harriet “Hattie” Redmond was a leader in the long struggle for Oregon woman suffrage, especially during the successful campaign of 1912. The right to vote was especially important to Redmond as …

Kathryn Clarke (1873-1940)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Kathryn Clarke (1873-1940)

Kathryn Clarke, the first woman to serve in the Oregon Senate, made worldwide news for her accomplishment. She was born in Douglas County in 1873, the daughter of John and Catherine McGregor …

Lizzie Weeks (1879-1976)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Lizzie Weeks (1879-1976)

Lizzie Koontz Weeks was an African American activist in Portland in the years after women in Oregon had achieved the right to vote in 1912. She organized black women to empower them …

Marian B. Towne (1880 - 1966)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Marian B. Towne (1880 - 1966)

As the first woman elected to the Oregon House of Representatives (1914), and one of the first women in the state to serve with the Naval Reserve Corps in World War I, …

Marie Equi (1872-1952)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Marie Equi (1872-1952)

Dr. Marie Equi was a fiercely independent Oregon physician who was engaged in the political turmoil and social change of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She was a fearless advocate …

Mary Anna Cooke Thompson (1825 - 1919)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Mary Anna Cooke Thompson (1825 - 1919)

Controversial in her politics, yet honored in her lifetime as one of Oregon's pioneer doctors, Mary Anna Cooke Thompson practiced medicine in Portland for over forty years. Although she held no degree, …

Mary Laurinda Jane Smith Beatty (1834–1899)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Mary Laurinda Jane Smith Beatty (1834–1899)

Mary Beatty, one of the first Black women west of the Mississippi to advocate publicly for woman suffrage, attempted to vote in the 1872 presidential election and a year later addressed …

Sara Bard Field (1882-1974)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Sara Bard Field (1882-1974)

Poet and suffragist Sara Bard Field lived in Portland in the early part of the twentieth century. Her poetry, her support of women’s suffrage, and her controversial relationship with Charles Erskine Scott …

Woman Suffrage in Oregon (essay)

Woman Suffrage: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment

Woman Suffrage in Oregon (essay)

The campaign to achieve voting rights (also called suffrage or the franchise) for Oregon women from 1870 to 1912 is part of a broad and continuing movement at the regional, national, and …

Research Categories

The downtown Research Library is closed for renovation in 2020, but Oregon history is ALWAYS OPEN on The OE

Researchers WILL HAVE ACCESS to reference services during the renovation; please contact libreference@ohs.org with your reference inquiries. Construction is underway to transform the OHS Research Library into a welcoming and fully accessible twenty-first-century space for research, learning, and collaboration. Our library is the heart of everything we do at the Oregon Historical Society. Our exhibits, the scholarship in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, our online Digital History Projects, and the free public programs we offer would not be possible without the invaluable librarians and archivists who safeguard and make accessible the largest collection of Oregon history available anywhere in the world.

To learn more about library services during the renovation, click here

Protest against Emanuel Hospital expansion, 1973

Oregon Protests

With the Portland and state-wide protests in the national news, it is well worth the time to learn about other protest movements in Oregon's history. This page features information on activists and movements for the environment, civil rights, religious freedom, anti-war, and labor reform.

Click here to learn about Oregon protest movements.

Looking for history in All The Places?

The Oregon History Wayfinder is an interactive map that identifies significant places, people, and events in Oregon history. Each point on the map connects to the historical records and scholarship on the Oregon History Project and The Oregon Encyclopedia, two of the digital history sites created by the Oregon Historical Society. The Oregon History Wayfinder is supported in part by the Oregon Heritage Commission.

Click here to get out the map

Welcome to the award-winning Oregon Encyclopedia

Western History Association, Gene Autry Public History Award, 2012.

AASLH American Association of State and Local History, Leadership in History Award, 2011.

NCTE logo National Council of Teachers of English, Multicultural Program Award, 2009.

OHS Digital History Projects

In addition to The Oregon Encyclopedia, the OHS Digital History Projects include the Oregon History Project and Oregon History Wayfinder.

Oregon History Project

Oregon History Wayfinder

The OE is Green!

The Encyclopedia's editorial process is completely paperless. Our authors and editors use a one-of-a-kind online workshop developed by Portland State University. We've published hundreds of authoritative entries on Oregon history and culture without hurting a single Douglas Fir. Donate your green to The OE and keep us—and the trees—growing.

Additional Funding

This project has been funded in part by the Oregon Heritage Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust.

Project Partners

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