Northwest Digital Heritage

Sharing Our Common Heritage

Northwest Digital Heritage brings together unique historical collections from over 250 libraries, archives, and museums throughout Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Explore photographs, maps, oral histories and more from the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Content for this portal is provided by Northwest institutions in coordination with the Oregon Heritage Commission, State Library of Oregon, Washington State Library, Orbis Cascade Alliance, University of Washington Libraries, and Oregon Digital.

Highlights include:

• Vanport Flood

  On Memorial Day, 1948 a rising Columbia River destroyed the community of Vanport, Oregon–then the largest public housing development in the United States.

  SEE ALSO: Floods

• Camp Jordan

  A WWII-era segregated soldier camp in Seattle. The Marjorie Sotero Photograph Collection documents service club activities at Camp Jordan.

  SEE: ALSO: Black History & Culture

• Mount Saint Helens Eruption

  The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State caused local devastation and rained ash on communities hundreds of miles away.

  SEE ALSO: Volcanoes

• Women’s Suffrage

  From Emily Olney to Emma Smith Devoe and Abigail Scott Duniway, the equal suffrage movement took early root in the Northwest.

  SEE ALSO: Equity

• Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition

  A world’s fair in the summer of 1909 drew visitors from far and wide to Seattle to learn about the Northwest and Alaska’s Klondike Gold Rush.

  SEE ALSO: Washington Fairs & Festivals

• Lewis & Clark Exposition

  A 1905 centennial celebration of the Lewis & Clark expedition showcased the Northwest’s industrial and cultural progress in Portland, Oregon.

  SEE ALSO: Oregon Fairs & Festivals

• Japanese American Oral Histories

  Video interviews with Japanese Americans reveal their experiences during WWII incarceration and more.

  SEE ALSO: Japanese American internment, WWII

• Agricultural Labor Movements

  The modern farm worker movement came to the Northwest in the 1960s, from Washington’s Yakima Valley to Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

  SEE ALSO: Labor, Unions & Strikes

• Everett Massacre

  A 1916 demonstration by the I.W.W. in Everett, Washington became the bloodiest day in Northwest labor history.

  SEE ALSO: Industrial Workers of the World

• Crater Lake National Park

  An explosive eruption of Mount Mazama 7,700 years ago would create the deepest lake in the United States.

  SEE ALSO: Oregon State Parks

• Olympic National Park

  A rugged expanse of glaciated peaks and temperate rainforests, dominated by Mount Olympus.

  SEE ALSO: Mount Rainier & North Cascades

• Dryland Wheat Farming

  The “top crop” of the Pacific Northwest, wheat farming has evolved radically since the 1800s.

  SEE ALSO: Agriculture

• Northwest Beer Labels

  A bevy of beverage labels from Multnomah County Library.

  SEE ALSO: Hops & Barley

• Great Seattle Fire

  The summer of 1889 saw fires consume parts of Spokane, Ellensburg, and Seattle, Washington–where the city’s entire central business district was destroyed.

  SEE ALSO: Fires

• Tribal Fishing Rights

  Rights to traditional fisheries and fishing practices have been a crucial component of asserting Northwest tribal sovereignty.

  SEE ALSO: Fishing & Fisheries

• Oregon Federal Art Project

  Depression-era Oregon artists found employment through the Federal Art Project, a program of the Works Progress Administration.

  SEE ALSO: WPA & CCC

• Spruce Production Division

  During WWI, the U.S. government created the Spruce Production Division in the Northwest to quickly obtain spruce trees necessary for airplane production.

  SEE ALSO: Logging & Lumber Industry

• Ruth Mountaingrove Collection

  Photographs documenting Rootworks, a lesbian commune in Southern Oregon founded during the 1960s-70s feminist and countercultural movements.

  SEE ALSO: LGBTQ+ Pride Events

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Funding for this project is provided in part by the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.