The Portland Public Library (PPL) was a short-lived but influential institution in Portland, Oregon, United States. [1]
Established in 1891 by a group including former members of the Library Association of Portland (LAP), which had run a library since 1864, the PPL succeeded in offering free service to the public without government involvement for several years. The two organizations merged in 1902, and the new organization, which became known as the Multnomah County Library, offered free, tax supported library services for the first time in Portland. The merger allowed the PPL's records to persist, permitting comparison of the two organizations and their respective roles in establishing the legacy of free public libraries in the Portland area. Notably, the PPL had a high degree of involvement by women, who at times held a majority of the seats on the board of trustees, and who performed fund-raising duties. The PPL is said to have had a more "democratic nature" than the better-established LAP. [1]
Prior to the merger, the two libraries existed harmoniously, serving different constituencies. The PPL was the "poor man's library" and closely adhered to the ideals of the public library movement, while the LAP served a middle-to-upper income clientele.
Portland is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Multnomah County. It is a major port in the Willamette Valley region of the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in Northwestern Oregon. As of 2019, Portland had an estimated population of 654,741, making it the 26th most populated city in the United States, the sixth-most populous on the West Coast, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest after Seattle. Approximately 2.4 million people live in the Portland metropolitan statistical area (MSA), making it the 25th most populous in the United States. Its combined statistical area (CSA) ranks 19th-largest with a population of around 3.2 million. Approximately 60% of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area.
Lake Oswego is a city in the State of Oregon, primarily in Clackamas County with small portions extending into neighboring Multnomah and Washington counties. Located about 8 miles (13 km) south of Portland and surrounding the 405-acre (164 ha) Oswego Lake, the town was founded in 1847 and incorporated as Oswego in 1910. The city was the hub of Oregon's brief iron industry in the late 19th century, and is today a suburb of Portland. The population in 2010 was 36,619, a 3.8% increase over the 2000 population of 35,278.
The Oregonian is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850, and published daily since 1861. It is the largest newspaper in Oregon and the second largest in the Pacific Northwest by circulation. It is one of the few newspapers with a statewide focus in the United States. The Sunday edition is published under the title The Sunday Oregonian. The regular edition was published under the title The Morning Oregonian from 1861 until 1937.
The Pearl District is an area of Portland, Oregon, formerly occupied by warehouses, light industry and railroad classification yards and now noted for its art galleries, upscale businesses and residences. The area has been undergoing significant urban renewal since the mid-1980s when it was reclassified as mixed use from industrial, including the arrival of artists, the removal of a viaduct and construction of the Portland Streetcar. It now consists of industrial building conversion to offices, high-rise condominiums and warehouse-to-loft conversions.
Stephen Samuel Wise (1874–1949) was an early 20th-century American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader, in the Progressive Era. Born in Budapest, he was an infant when his family immigrated to New York. He followed his father and grandfather in becoming a rabbi, serving in New York and in Portland, Oregon.
Metro is the regional government for the Oregon portion of the Portland metropolitan area. It is the only directly elected regional government and metropolitan planning organization in the United States. Metro is responsible for managing the Portland region's solid waste system, coordinating the growth of the cities in the region, managing a regional parks and natural areas system, and overseeing the Oregon Zoo, Oregon Convention Center, Portland's Centers for the Arts, and the Portland Expo Center. It also administers the Regional Illegal Dumping Patrol or RID Patrol which is tasked with cleaning up illegal dumping and it is the designated point of contact for citizens to report illegal dumping in the Portland metro area.
The Oregon Journal was Portland, Oregon's daily afternoon newspaper from 1902 to 1982. The Journal was founded in Portland by C. S. "Sam" Jackson, publisher of Pendleton, Oregon's East Oregonian newspaper, after a group of Portlanders convinced Jackson to help in the reorganization of the Portland Evening Journal. The firm owned several radio stations in the Portland area, as well. In 1961, the Journal was purchased by S.I. Newhouse and Advance Publications, owners also of The Oregonian, the city's morning newspaper.
Charles Samuel "Sam" Jackson was a prominent newspaper publisher in the U.S. state of Oregon.
St. Johns is a neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States, located in North Portland on the tip of the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Willamette River and the Columbia River. It was a separate, incorporated city from 1902 until 1915, when citizens of both St. Johns and Portland voted to approve its annexation to Portland, which took effect on July 8, 1915.
David Preston Thompson was an American businessman and politician in the Pacific Northwest. He was governor of the Idaho Territory from 1875 to 1876. A native of Ohio, he immigrated to the Oregon Territory in 1853. In Oregon, Thompson would become a wealthy business man, and served in the Oregon Legislative Assembly, as both a Republican and a Democrat, both before and after his time in Idaho, with election to both chambers of the legislature.
The Socialist Party of Oregon (SPO) is the name of three closely related organizations — an Oregon state affiliate of the Social Democratic Party of America established in 1897 and continuing into the 1950s, as well as the Oregon state affiliate of the Socialist Party USA from 1992 to 1999.
Esther Pohl Lovejoy was an American physician and public health pioneer, suffrage activist, congressional candidate, and a central figure in early efforts to organize international medical relief work. In 1907, Lovejoy became the first woman appointed to direct a department of health in a major U.S city: the Board of Health in Portland, Oregon. Lovejoy worked on the women's suffrage campaigns in Oregon in 1906 and 1912, and founded the Everybody's Equal Suffrage League ahead of the 1912 election, when Oregon became the 7th state to grant women the right to vote. Lovejoy was among the founders of the Medical Women's International Association and was elected as its first president in 1919. Lovejoy ran for the U.S. Congress in 1920 as the Democratic candidate for Portland’s Third District but was not successful against the sitting Republican. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal by the American Medical Women's Association in 1951 and 1957 for contributions to the field of medicine. On July 21, 2012, the Century of Action Committee honored her and three other suffragists—Harriet Redmond, Harry Lane, and Martha Cardwell Dalton—by installing new headstones for them at the Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery, where their initial headstones had become overgrown. The installation ceremony included costumed portrayals of the four suffragists and was attended by Barbara Roberts, a former Oregon governor. This event took place as part of the Century of Action Committee's year-long celebration of 100 years of suffrage for women in Oregon and as part of their efforts to call attention to remaining voting barriers for minorities.
Bethany is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is situated north of U.S. Route 26 near Beaverton, approximately four miles northwest of Cedar Mill, and is within the Portland metropolitan area.
The steamship Altona operated from 1890 to 1907 on the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. In 1907, she was transferred to Alaska.
Multnomah County Library is the public library system serving Portland and Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. A continuation of the Library Association of Portland, established in 1864, the system now has 19 branches offering books, magazines, DVDs, and computers. It is the largest library system in Oregon, serving a population of 724,680, with more than 425,000 registered borrowers. According to the Public Library Association, it ranks second among U.S. libraries, based on circulation of books and materials, and ranks first among libraries serving fewer than one million residents. In this respect, it is the busiest in the nation.
The Central Library is a three-story public library branch in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1913, it serves as the main branch of the Multnomah County Library system. The Georgian style building was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Central Building, Public Library in 1979 and underwent major interior renovations in the mid 1990s.
The East Portland Branch, Public Library of Multnomah County housed part of the library system of Multnomah County, Oregon, from 1911 to 1967. Designed by architect A. E. Doyle, the structure was completed in 1911 in Portland at 1110 Southeast Alder Street in the city's central eastside. Funded in part by the Carnegie Foundation, the original building consisted of one floor and a daylight basement and included reading rooms for children and adults. The building had a red brick exterior, terra-cotta trim, and a roof of green Spanish tiles. Remodeled in 1956 and remodeled again prior to its sale in 1967, the one-story building, which had rooms 18 feet (5.5 m) high, became a two-story office building.
Reverend Thomas Lamb Eliot was an Oregon pioneer, minister of one of the first churches on the west coast of the U.S., president of the Portland Children's Home, president of the Oregon Humane Society, a director of the Art Association, director of the Library Association, and founder of Reed College.
The Rockwood Library is a branch of the Multnomah County Library, located in Portland, Oregon. The branch offers the Multnomah County Library catalog of two million books, periodicals and other materials. The library also features a 30-person capacity meeting room for hosting community events at no charge on a first come, first served basis.
Mary Frances Isom was a librarian, and one of the founders of the Oregon Library Association, the Pacific Northwest Library Association and the Oregon State Library Commission. She was instrumental in the formerly private Portland Library Association being opened to the public as what is now the Central Library in Portland.