The Oregon Encyclopedia

An Authoritative and Free Resource on All Things Oregon

Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915)

March: Women's History Month

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 …

Beatrice Morrow Cannady (1889 - 1974)

March: Women's History Month

Beatrice Morrow Cannady (1889 - 1974)

Beatrice Morrow Cannady was the most noted civil rights activist in early twentieth-century Oregon. Using her position as editor of the Advocate, Oregon's largest, and at times the only, African American …

Edith Starrett Green (1910-1987)

March: Women's History Month

Edith Starrett Green (1910-1987)

Democrat Edith Starrett Green represented Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District from 1955 through 1974. During her twenty years in the U.S. House of Representatives, she gained a national reputation for her leadership in …

Eleanor Baldwin (1854-1928)

March: Women's History Month

Eleanor Baldwin (1854-1928)

The career of Eleanor Baldwin, a radical journalist, reveals the cross-fertilization of reform movements in Portland during the Progressive Era. Her anti-capitalism was influenced by greenbackism, which blamed working-class poverty on powerful …

Esperanza Spalding (1984-)

March: Women's History Month

Esperanza Spalding (1984-)

Esperanza Spalding’s fierce talent in double bass and vocal work earned her a Grammy in 2011 for Best New Artist, making her the first jazz musician and one of only four Oregonians …

Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy (1869-1967)

March: Women's History Month

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 …

Eva Castellanoz (1939- )

March: Women's History Month

Eva Castellanoz (1939- )

Eva Castellanoz—traditional artist, curandera (healer), activist, and teacher—is a leading spokesperson for Oregon's Latino community. She received a National Heritage Award in 1989, has been the subject of Oregon and National Public …

Georgiana Burton Pittock (1845–1918)

March: Women's History Month

Georgiana Burton Pittock (1845–1918)

Georgiana Burton Pittock was the founder of the Portland Rose Society and a founder of Portland’s Rose Festival. As a philanthropist, reformer, and society leader with her husband Henry Lewis Pittock …

Harriet "Hattie" Redmond (1862-1952)

March: Women's History Month

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 …

Hazel Ying Lee (1912-1944)

March: Women's History Month

Hazel Ying Lee (1912-1944)

Hazel Ying Lee, who was born and educated in Oregon, was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the U.S. military, one of two Chinese Americans in the Women Airforce Service …

Kalliah Tumulth (Indian Mary) (1854-1906)

March: Women's History Month

Kalliah Tumulth (Indian Mary) (1854-1906)

Kalliah Tumulth, also called Indian Mary, was a Cascade (Watlala) Chinook born in October 1854 to a signer of one of the main Oregon treaties. Kalliah was a strong, independent woman who, …

Kathryn Hall Bogle (1906 - 2003)

March: Women's History Month

Kathryn Hall Bogle (1906 - 2003)

A freelance journalist, social worker, and community activist, Kathryn Hall Bogle is remembered as “one of Portland’s earliest and most passionate advocates of racial diversity.” She wrote articles for many African American …

Kwan Hsu (1913-1995)

March: Women's History Month

Kwan Hsu (1913-1995)

Kwan Hsu arrived in Portland in 1964, a newly minted professor tasked not just with teaching at Portland State College (now Portland State University) but also with creating a new biophysics program …

Lizzie Weeks (1879-1976)

March: Women's History Month

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 …

Margaret Sanger's Arrest in Portland, 1916

March: Women's History Month

Margaret Sanger's Arrest in Portland, 1916

On June 29, 1916, Margaret Sanger was arrested in Portland for distributing pamphlets promoting birth control. Sanger was the author of a series of articles on sex education for the New York …

M & A Shogren

March: Women's History Month

M & A Shogren

The dressmaking business of M & A Shogren was Portland’s haute couture house during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sisters May and Ann Shogren opened their shop in the …

Nathalie McDowell Johnson (1959-)

March: Women's History Month

Nathalie McDowell Johnson (1959-)

Dr. Nathalie McDowell Johnson, a dancer and physician, moved to Oregon to focus on women’s breast health and cancer education. She is known for her empathetic treatment style, based in large part …

Norma Petersen Paulus (1933-2019)

March: Women's History Month

Norma Petersen Paulus (1933-2019)

Norma Paulus was a forward-thinking, practical-minded Republican leader whose efforts to advance women’s rights, environmental protection, public education, and governmental transparency helped cement Oregon’s progressive reputation from the 1970s through the early …

Portland Thorns

March: Women's History Month

Portland Thorns

The Portland Thorns drew 16,479 fans to their first home game on April 21, 2013, setting a new standard for women’s club soccer in the United States. Since then, the Thorns have …

Sarah Winnemucca (1844?-1891)

March: Women's History Month

Sarah Winnemucca (1844?-1891)

Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute, had a clear purpose in life: “I mean to fight for my down-trodden race while life lasts.” Winnemucca lived part of her adult life on reservations in Oregon …

Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary

March: Women's History Month

Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary

The Holy Names of Jesus and Mary is a Roman Catholic women's religious congregation established in accordance with Church law at Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, in 1844, for the Christian education of children …

University of Portland Pilots women's soccer

March: Women's History Month

University of Portland Pilots women's soccer

The women’s soccer team is the most successful athletic club at the University of Portland (UP), with multiple national championships and other awards. The team began competing in 1980 and, until the …

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929 - 2018)

March: Women's History Month

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929 - 2018)

Ursula K. Le Guin, one of Oregon’s preeminent writers, was born Ursula Kroeber in 1929 in Berkeley, California, the youngest and only girl in a family of four children. Her parents were Alfred …

Victoria (Wishikin) Wacheno Howard (c. 1865-1930)

March: Women's History Month

Victoria (Wishikin) Wacheno Howard (c. 1865-1930)

Victoria (Wishikin) Wacheno Howard was the teller of Clackamas Chinook narratives and traditions transcribed by anthropologist Melville Jacobs and published by him as Clackamas Chinook Texts (1958-1959), one of the richest …

Willie Mae Young Hart (1915-2017)

March: Women's History Month

Willie Mae Young Hart (1915-2017)

In addition to the community organizing that characterized so many of her contemporaries, Willie Mae Young Hart made a habit of breaking the color line. She helped operate Portland's first black-owned cab …

Winona LaDuke (1959-)

March: Women's History Month

Winona LaDuke (1959-)

Winona LaDuke (Mississippi Band of Anishinaabe Indians) is an internationally respected Native American environmental leader, author, politician, and economist. She is best known for her work in the contemporary Indigenous environmental movement, …

Woman Suffrage in Oregon (essay)

March: Women's History Month

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 …

Women's Land Army

March: Women's History Month

Women's Land Army

In 1942, after many men in Oregon had left the workforce to fight in World War II, thousands of women joined a different kind of army to work on Oregon farms. Farmers …

Research Categories

The downtown Research Library is closing 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. Scheduled to Begin Spring 2020: Preparations are 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.

Click here to learn more about the renovation

March: Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote. The OE has over 160 entries on significant institutions, events, and women in Oregon history. Read up and celebrate women's history here.

Click here to learn about significant Oregon women.

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

LSTA Libraries as Community Resources Meetings, made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to The Oregon Encyclopedia.

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