Notable Women of Portland

First up, some exciting news – our long-running History Pub series is adding two additional venues! Beginning in June, Hotel Oregon and the Olympic Club will host speakers, scholars and experiencers presenting on topics of Pacific Northwest interest – for example, this coming month at our various venues, we offer programs on river running, heritage trees, shipwrecks, the KKK and more. (See the full list of June programs below.) And in July, we will begin a new history series at the Anderson School, co-sponsored by the University of Washington. And all of it is now Passport stamp-worthy! Tell your friends.

Moving on . . .

On Monday, June 5, we are pleased to host the book launch of a new work by Portland author/historian Dr. Tracy Prince and researcher Zadie Schaffer, Notable Women of Portland (Arcadia Publishing, 2017), at the Mission Theater. The mother-daughter team spent two and a half years on the project – a pretty cool accomplishment for a kid still in middle school.

Admission to the event is free and guests of all ages are welcome; proceeds from sales of the book will benefit women served by Transition Projects, a nonprofit that assists people in need of housing.

The story of Portland, like much of history, has been told with a focus on male leaders. Prince and Schaffer’s book offers a reframing of the city’s history by exploring women’s stories from pioneer times through the present, including special chapters on Women in the Arts and Women in Politics.

Many women made their mark and radically changed the Oregon landscape – to name just a few:

* Native Americans Polly Johnson and Josette Nouette
* Pioneers Minerva Carter and Charlotte Terwilliger
* Doctors Marie Equi, Mary Priscilla Avery Sawtelle, and Bethina Owens-Adair
* Artists Eliza Barchus and Lily E. White
* Suffragists Abigail Scott Duniway, Hattie Redmond and Eva Emery Dye
* Lawyer Mary Gysin Leonard
* Air Force pilot Hazel Ying Lee
* Politicians Barbara Roberts and Margaret Carter
* Authors Beverly Cleary, Ursula Le Guin, Jean Auel, Beatrice Morrow Cannady and Frances Fuller Victor

About the Authors
Prince, Scholar-in-Residence at Portland State University, is the author of Portland’s Goose Hollow and Culture Wars in British Literature and the co-author of Portland’s Slabtown. She and researcher/daughter Zadie Schaffer (now 13 years old) were inspired by fascinating nuggets of Portland history to shine more light on the women who helped shape Oregon.

Images used in the book are from: Norm Gholston, City of Portland Archives, Oregon Health Sciences University, Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Jewish Museum, Oregon State Archives, Portland Art Museum, Portland State University, Reed College, University of Oregon, Willamette University, and many other archives.