Jen Bodendorfer

In the late 1800s, cable cars were developing into an effective means of transportation in San Francisco. Portland followed suit, but the cable car system eventually proved to be too expensive of a system to maintain and were replaced by trolley cars.  

Over a 20-year period in the early 20th century, Edward S. Curtis took thousands of photos, including this one of a Klamath tribal member, as part of “the North American Indian project.” 

Entrepreneur and newspaperman Amos Voorhies took an impressive number of photos featuring everyday people in their natural surroundings — subject matter that was very unique for the time.

Thomas Condon was often described as carrying a Bible in one hand and a geologist’s pick in another. He looked at the fossils he found as part of God’s work.

University of Oregon geology professor Thomas Condon often lectured informally near Nye Beach where he and his wife, Cornelia, had a summer cottage.

Markus Rothkowitz was just 10 years old when he and his family arrived in Portland from Latvia in 1913.

Jewish immigrant Nessim Menashe arrived in the US in 1909 and traveled to the Pacific Northwest soon after. By 1914, he had established this small shop in NW Portland.

During World War II, thousands of people streamed into Hanford in south central Washington to work on the biggest and most highly classified project of WWII, yet less than 1/10 of 1 percent knew what the plant was actually making.

Photographed by Albert H. Wulzer on a trip to the Columbia Gorge, this block house was built by the army in 1856 to protect troops and settlers at Cascade Rapids. It was abandoned in 1861, coinciding with the start of the Civil War.

The Portland Art Museum opened in 1893 on the second floor of the Portland Library, housing no art, only a collection of art books. The museum opened the Portland Art Museum School in 1909.