Tagged: portland

New Finding Aid | B.L. Aldrich photographs

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce an updated finding aid published for the B.L. Aldrich photographs (PH197). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

B.L. (Byron) Aldrich was a photographer active in the early twentieth century in Washington and Oregon. Aldrich had a photo studio, Aldrich Photo Company, in Tacoma, Washington from 1901-1916. Later, he had a studio in Portland, Oregon, the B.L. Aldrich Studio. The B.L. Aldrich studio photographed Jantzen Beach Amusement Park in 1934. The Aldrich studio also photographed a number of company and society picnics which were held at the park.

Big Dipper rollercoaster
[Detail from “Main Entrance and Gate” panorama, 1934, B.L. Aldrich photographs, PH197_026, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.]
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Collection Highlight: Vanport City, Oregon Photo Albums

Vanport, Oregon was a wartime public housing project built to shelter Kaiser Shipyard employees working in Portland and Vancouver, Washington. The city was destroyed in May 1948 when a 200-foot section of the dike holding back the Columbia River collapsed during a flood, killing 15 and leaving its population of largely African-American inhabitants homeless.

Two photo albums regarding the history of Vanport have recently been made available in Special Collections and University Archives. The Vanport, Oregon construction photograph album (PH203_064) and the Vanport, Oregon flood photograph album (PH203_025) document the city before and after the disaster.

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