Book
Notable Women of Portland
(2017)
Abstract
The story of Portland, Oregon, like much of history, has usually been told with a focus on male leaders. This book offers a reframing of Portland’s history--starting from 10,000 years of Native American women, to pioneer women, to women of the Progressive Era, WWI, WWII, post-war women, and chapters on Women in the Arts and Women in Politics. Many women made their mark and radically changed the Oregon frontier, including 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; and authors Frances Fuller Victor, Beverly Cleary, Beatrice Morrow Cannady, Ursula Le Guin, and Jean Auel. These women, along with groups of women such as “Wendy the Welders,” made Portland what it is today.
Reviews:
"[This] book shines the spotlight on women from all walks of life [showing] the scope of just how long and hard women have had to work to reach equality to men in many areas."
Portland Tribune
"Prince and Schaffer have made a conscious effort to select a diverse range of women from different cultural heritages, ethnicities, and social classes... cover[ing] the suffrage movement, Oregon's 1849 black exclusion law, the Chinese Exclusion Act, civil rights, and women's roles before, during, and after the two World Wars...It's clear by the visually appealing layout and the breadth that Prince and Schaffer have done substantial research, and the result is a wonderful compendium for anyone interested in the history of women's contributions to Portland."
Portland Book Review
Contents:
1. Native American and Pioneer Women: Pre-1851 to 1870s
2. Progressive Era Women: 1870s to 1920s
3. Women of World War I and World War II: 1914 to 1945
4. Postwar to Contemporary Women: 1945 to Present
5. Women in the Arts: 1890s to Present
6. Women in Politics: 1920s to Present
Keywords
- history,
- women,
- Native American,
- Chinese American,
- Japanese American,
- African American,
- Portland,
- Oregon,
- suffrage,
- Progressive Era,
- WWII,
- post-war,
- arts,
- politics,
- WWI,
- Vietnam protests,
- Portlandia
Disciplines
- Arts and Humanities,
- Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies,
- Women's Studies,
- History,
- Cultural History,
- Labor History,
- Political History,
- Public History,
- Social History,
- United States History,
- Women's History,
- African American Studies,
- Asian American Studies,
- Indigenous Studies,
- Public Health,
- Women's Health and
- Race and Ethnicity
Publication Date
June 5, 2017
Publisher
Arcadia Publishing
Series
Images of America
ISBN
9781467125055
Publisher Statement
Tracy J. Prince, PhD, scholar-in-residence at Portland State University, is the author of Portland’s Goose Hollow and Culture Wars in British Literature and coauthor of Portland’s Slabtown. She and researcher Zadie Schaffer were inspired by fascinating nuggets of Portland history to shine more light on the women who helped shape Oregon. Images 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.
Research in this book that is not covered in other Portland history books:
*a more complex history of Native American women in early Portland than any other historian has covered (including the pervasive use of Chinook Jargon) which Dr. Prince's decades of research revealed.
*Black pioneer Sydna Francis is almost always referred to in Oregon histories with the incorrect name Lynda. This book includes 3 census records, so that Oregon has the correct name for this pioneer woman who wrote for Frederick Douglass’s newspaper and was prominent in NY abolitionist activism before moving to Portland in 1851. Oregon histories also refer to her brother-in-law by the incorrect name of O.B. Francis. This book includes an 1852 Oregonian ad from his store to prove that his name was I.B. Francis.
*Dr. Prince found the photos of Native American women that were sent by the Sacajawea Statue Association to sculptor Alice Cooper as models for the statue. They meant well, but these photos were of Paiute women in the desert near the Grand Canyon, while Sacajawea was Shoshone from what is now Idaho.
*first time in print for the beautiful murals of WPA artist Martina Gangle Curl that are hung too high in the Madison High School auditorium to be clearly seen.
*first photo discovered of Dr. Katherine Manion who, during WWI, signed up with other Oregon women physicians to serve as an Army doctor. The Army rejected them because they were women.
*1905 photo of a Chinese American woman and her children who lived in Portland that was used in a book to teach women’s history of the region.
*photo of the Women’s Service League’s WWI war efforts including the Portland chapter’s “Uncle Sam’s Kanning Kitchen”
*many never-before-seen WWII photos of women working in Portland’s shipbuilding industry
*a previously unknown illustration of the Oregon Camera Club and rarely seen Lily E. White photos
*photos of famous Jewish opera singer Mona Paulee who was discovered while singing during silent movies at her father’s theater in old South Portland
*photos of African American WPA artist Thelma Johnson Streat whose mural drew KKK threats
*photos of burlesque entrepreneur Gracie Hansen (who inspired Darcelle) in her 1970 campaign for governor where she declared she’d be “The best governor money can buy.”
Citation Information
Tracy J. Prince and Zadie Schaffer. Notable Women of Portland. (2017) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tracy-prince/2/