Oregon Trail quilt made by Lucinda Cox Brown Allen Spencer, ca. 1850. OHS Museum, 2005-49.
The Oregon Historical Society launched an online database that highlights the objects in the museum’s collection.
The portal has more than 10,000 objects including clothing and textiles, Native American belongings, artworks, vehicles and equipment.
Users can find the historical objects by searching by name, description, maker, or date.
There are also pre-filtered searches on subjects like the Oregon Trail, the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, or quilts. Users can also browse recent acquisitions to the museum collection.
Some of the features collections include merchandising materials related to the Yasui Bros. Grocery, a pre-World War II, Japanese-owned general store in Hood River, Oregon.
There are also more than 80 quilts recently rehoused and photographed for the portal. One of the quilts dates back to 1815.
Nicole Yasuhara, deputy museum director, said the portal is an important tool for researchers, students, and “curious individuals around the world.”
“We hope that users will discover the amazing objects that (Oregon Historical Society) stewards, and in doing so, will learn something new about Oregon history. Every day that the museum collection staff handles or catalogs an object, we learn something new, and we hope to bring that knowledge to our community and beyond,” she said in a prepared statement.
-Saphara Harrell
