7. Broadside:Lecture by Mr. George P. Riley

Local printer George H. Himes produced this poster in April 1870 to publicize an upcoming lecture by Portland resident George P. Riley at Philharmonic Hall on the third floor of a building at 75 First Ave (now 235 First Ave). Riley’s Portland lecture on April 26, 1870 followed an earlier talk in Salem on January 1st. Both of Riley’s lectures were intended to draw attention to important milestones in African American history. Riley delivered his initial lecture at the Salem celebration commemorating the seventh anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the Confederate States. He gave the second lecture a few weeks after Portland’s “Ratification Jubilee,” which celebrated the passage of the 15th Amendment, the amendment that extended voting rights to black men in the United States.