Finding Mabel
Childhood portrait of Mabel Skiff, Willamette Heritage Center collections, 2019.013.0081 This story begins with an estrangement between sisters, Carrie and [...]
February 2024
January 2024
Atilana Nayares Phillips
From Chihuahua to Dallas, Oregon in 1907 It sure seems like Atilana Nayares Phillips[1] had an unfair amount of sorrow in her life. Yet [...]
October 2023
Fairfield
Fairfield, Marion County, Oregon Fairfield refers to a community, post office, steamship landing and voting/census precinct located northwest of St. Louis, Marion, Oregon. [...]
September 2023
Dr. S.A. Davis Comes to Salem, 1890
It was likely a warm summer day when the steam locomotive huffed and hissed into the Salem railroad depot in 1890, and the travel [...]
August 2023
Women Working on the Railroad in Salem
The Women of Salem's Wartime Roundhouse Donna Beall at the Salem Roundhouse. Photo by Ben Maxwell. Published in the Capital Journal Friday, May 24, 1946. [...]
March 2023
Lunar New Year Celebrations in Salem
Lunar New Year in Salem, 1897. Dr. Kum on the left and George Sun on the right. WHC Collections. 2015.025.0021 Historical newspapers and [...]
Sgt. Major John W. Jackson and Caroline Woodson Jackson
Tombstone of John W. and Caroline Woodson Jackson in Hayesville Cemetery, Salem, Oregon. Photo taken February 2023. Photo by Kylie Pine Salem’s [...]
September 2022
Origins of Salem’s Electric Avenue
Nob Hill Annex Plat Map, 1891. Source: Marion County Survey Graphic Index. The Willamette Heritage Center’s Research Library and Archive recently received [...]
August 2022
Bob Schwartz and the Blue Note
Bob Schwartz, Blue Note Vocalist. McEwan Photo Studios, Jan 1955. WHC Collections 2006.002.0687. Passion for Jazz Led to Firing of Salem Police Officer [...]
July 2022
1898 Report of the Oregon State Reform School
The Oregon State Reform school, which stands on a commanding eminence about six miles southeast of Salem, was completed and thrown open to the reception [...]