Bruce Springsteen, Museum Director

If The Boss ran a museum, what would it look like?

Bruce Loves Oregon History, He's Got Some Of His Own

We know his themes; he’s reminded us for thirty-five years.

Bruce likes cars. He likes to race them:

I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
She’s waiting tonight down in the parking lot
Outside the Seven-Eleven store

Bruce likes Rock and Roll:

Well I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk

Sometimes he combines them:

Driving in to Darlington City
Got a union connection with an uncle of Wayne’s
We drove eight-hundred miles without seeing a cop
We got rock and roll music blasting off the t-top singing

Is it safe to say any museum Bruce ran would have to include cars and rock?

Shares of Oregon History

Published on oregonlive.com

THEY SPENT THE MONEY, YOU SPEND THE TIME 

If someone invested $2.5 million in what you do, would you take it?

Probably not if it came from a drug cartel or North Korea.

Just to be clear, neither Kim Jong-Il or El Chapo gave the Oregon Historical Society two and a half million; the Oregon state lottery did.

Will the leaders of OHS do something different with $2.5 million than the leaders of the Sinaloa Federation or Pyongyang would do?

Let’s say it together, “Yes, they will.”

Since it is an investment, I have a few ideas, but first let’s clear up a few perceptions about history.

Most of the time, history means reading books with pages so dry they crack and dissolve when you turn them. That’s old history. New history, or slanted history, comes at you from an angle of disbelief and creates more doubt than satisfaction.

Either way, you deal with books, and not everyone wants a history lesson on paper.

OHS is 3D history. You can walk around it, look under it, but you can’t touch it. Is that alone worth $2.5 million? Probably not, since the museum already has exhibits on their floor.

What makes history worth the money, along with the tax levy from Multnomah County?

History For 2.5 Million, Alex

INSPIRED BY THE STATE OF OREGON

Inside the Jeopardy studios, Alex Trebec welcomes one contestant.

Alex: Welcome to Jeopardy. Let’s get started.

Golden Pioneer: Hello Alex. I’ll take Portland for a thousand.

Alex: Easy now, we’re limited at first to $500.

Goldie: Let’s cut to the chase, Alex. Portland for $1000.

Alex: Fine. The answer is, “The Oregon Historical Society.”

Goldie: What is the most important museum in the city?

Alex: Yes. Based on the recent funding, OHS is the leader. Let’s go again.

Goldie: Oregon Social Impact for a thousand, please Alex.

Alex: Going big, eh? And the answer is, “The Oregon Historical Society.” 

Goldie: Which museum has the potential for greatest change in Oregon?

Alex: Yes, OHS. With all the neighborhood problems in Portland, they can all meet at OHS since it is free admission to Multnomah County Residents.

Goldie: I’d like…

The Oregon Bridge

View From The Oregon Bridge (Ross Island)

Portland, like many cities, changes street names to honor the times we live in.

But there’s more to do.

Union Avenue became MLK, and the city celebrated.

SE 39th became Cesar Chavez Blvd., and the city celebrated.

Front Avenue became Naito Parkway, and the city celebrated.

Instead of limiting the celebrations to Portland, why not invite the rest of the state to the party by renaming Ross Island Bridge.

My suggestion: The Oregon Bridge.

FIND A WALL, TEAR IT DOWN

IT’S AN OREGON TRADITION

The names might be unfamiliar, but you live with their causes every day.

Susan B. Anthony means confusing coinage to some. Her dollar came out the same size as a quarter.

You may get quarter change for her dollar, but you can’t add value to the changes she pushed forward.

Does your Mom vote in elections? 

Does your sister vote, or wife, or any women you know?

Thank Ms Anthony for them.

Women in every state stood up when it was easier to stay down.  None stood taller in Oregon than Abigail Scott Duniway.

When someone achieves important status, they usually do it with help.

You’ve heard of Ida B. Wells-Barnett?

Portland Becomes THE Portland

Janet Guthrie and Rolla Vollstedt talk it over

On opening day, June 1, 1905, the Lewis and Clark Expo shifted Portland, Oregon into gear.

The race to modern times began with the old surveyors on their first visit; they were still on the job a hundred years later.

To some, Lewis and Clark belong on top of the American secret agent list for their crafty mission to claim the west coast.

To others they are the greatest field scientists of their time.

On June 1, 1905 Lewis and Clark meant only one thing: PARTY.

Anything kicking off with a parade is a good time, this year and yesteryear, with the roar of the crowd and thunder of the wagons rolling by.

In perfect Lewis and Clark step, the Oregon Historical Society opened their own parade on June 1, 2011, complete with the roar and the thunder of race cars and race car people steering between Rolla Vollstedt’s Indy 500 cars and the Benson.   

Not what you expect from history?

FARMER IN THE DELL

AND EVERYWHERE ELSE

You’ve noticed the explosion of local produce and perishables showing up in parking lots near you?

They’re called farmers markets.

Portland has one. 

So do other cities, but after the PSU campus/Portland Farmers Market, what else is there? 

Beaverton, but that’s later.

Where else but Portland do you see guys dragging their sleeping bags draped like capes and asking for coffee money.  All PSU alums know the drill.

Homeless?

Portland?

PSU grad?

It happens around all college campuses.  They’re usually history majors lost in an era. 

Portland Farmers Market is more than an organic, free roaming, flower child, or a soup kitchen in the Haight.  It’s not some clan offering their love in the form of fresh salsa and smoked salmon.

The goods are there, but what stands out most?

MAIN STREET, OREGON

St. Johns

In a gathering of people you can ask one question they all know:

“Where is main street where you come from?”

Every town, from ranch and farm hubs like of Sprague River to bustling cities like Pendleton, has a main street.  

In places like Tigard it’s even called Main Street.

That’s where you find what a city is all about.

Take this test: drive to a town near you, park your car in the city center, and walk a few blocks.  Note the environment. 

Does it make you want to run back to your car and speed away?

OREGON DIRT TRAIL

A FARMER’S DREAM

Why would mid-western farm families pack up and walk 2000 miles beside their painted wagons?

Of all the reasons for them hitting the Oregon Trail, one stands above the rest. 

They didn’t come for the fur industry.  It wasn’t the fishing or logging opportunities, either.

Farmer Bob and his family joined the western migration to farm new land; they came for the dirt.  Now Oregon has its own official state brand.

Before you ask why designate dirt, keep in mind Oregon isn’t the first, or only, state doing it.  Twenty others have official state soil. 

Which states?

THE GRANDDADDY OF ‘EM ALL

Inspired by:  http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2011/05/21/news/01top_05-21-11.txt

Ian St. Clair writes about a film discovery in Oregon. 

It’s news in Wyoming because the film shows Cheyenne Frontier Days from 1911.

Consider the timing. 

“The first feature-length film to be released in its entirety in the US was the 69-minute epic Dante’s Inferno (1911, It.) (aka L’Inferno), inspired by Dante’s 14th century poem The Divine Comedy.  (from filmsite.org)

It opened in New York on December 10, 1911 at Gane’s Manhattan Theatre.”

New York gets Dante’s Inferno and Wyoming gets The Daddy of ’em All? 

Go with The Daddy.

How the film of the 1911 Frontier Days came to Oregon is a mystery.   Even Michael Kassel, the curator of collections at the Old West Museum, has no idea.

Discovery is like that. 

Watch a clip of Antiques Roadshow for a sample of that excitement.  When an appraiser says you ought to insure the old painting you brought in from your garage for $200,000, something happens.