PORTLAND, OR -- A new permanent exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society Museum documents the history of Portland. "Rivers, Roses and Rip City: The Remarkable History of Portland" opened Friday. "The exhibit is divided into three themes, which could be the three themes for all of Oregon: Land, water and community," says Oregon Historical Society Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk. He adds, those features first brought indigenous people to Portland centuries ago. "That’s what attracted Lewis and Clark and then the Oregon Trail. And the newcomers were brought here by the land and by the access to the water."

Portland’s origin story starts with the first indigenous people, and then white settlers, who eventually gave the city its name through an infamous coin toss, "In 1845, between Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove couldn’t decide what the new city they had platted out. Lovejoy from Boston, wanted to name it Boston. Pettygrove from Portland, Maine wanted to name it Portland." Of course, Pettygrove won, "Which was, I think, good," says Tymchuk, "Because we never would’ve been the biggest Boston. But we are the biggest Portland."

The exhibit includes around 500 artifacts and images Tymchuck says were already in the Historical Society's collection. He says it’s too hard to pick a favorite item, but admits, "I love the letter that Harry Glickman, the founder of the Trail Blazers, sent to Bill Schonley, offering him the job of Blazer announcer in 1970."

He notes the exhibit celebrates Portland’s diverse communities, but also documents the city’s discriminatory past. "Our job is not to promote Portland, to some degree. But to tell the history of Portland: the good, the bad and the ugly. And, there’s been ugly along the way, including the treatment of indigenous people, of course, once others started to arrive."

Tymchuk says the story is also one of communities working through challenges, "The indigenous people trying to start a life here and a community here, to the floods that frequently come to Portland, to the fact that the Willamette River was so polluted at one time you could literally almost walk across it. And Portlanders have united throughout the centuries to overcome the challenges. Perhaps that sends a message now, that the challenges of the last few years can be overcome." 

The Oregon Historical Society Museum in downtown Portland is open every day. Portland doesn’t have its own historical society nor a museum, Tymchuk says the Oregon Historical Society takes on that role because the city's history is Oregon’s history. 

Artifacts in the new Portland Exhibit are also available online.