What Oswego organization led drives for blood donations, rubber, paper, metal, and more during World War II?
Stay tuned to the end of the newsletter to find out!
LO REVIEW: Historical exhibit displays political activism in Lake Oswego over time
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Looking to learn more about your community's history and get more involved? Join an Oswego Heritage Council team today! You don't have to be a Board Member to volunteer with one of our committees. We have four main focuses:
 Education & Outreach: help plan and implement initiatives to connect people to local history through engaging programs
Museum & Archives: help create valuable tools to make our archives more accessible to the general public
Recruitment & Retention: help get others involved with projects as needed
Development: help ensure our long-term sustainability by connecting to other organizations, building a community of members, and supporting special events
With a flexible time commitment and support provided, we're looking for people like YOU.
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Discover our new, downloadable lesson plan for high school classrooms, aligned with Oregon standards on Civics and Government and Historical Thinking!
Students will answer the question: What can voter registration cards tell us about our community in 1913, one year after Oregon women gained the right to vote? By analyzing real historical documents from their community, students will:
Practice evaluating primary sources to better understand Lake Oswego's past and how it might influence its present
Identify trends within their communities and possible causes, including what might influence a person's political view
Discover how Oswego residents were involved in local government in the 20th century
Find local history curriculum on our website, along with complementary resources for each lesson plan:
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Join us on Wednesday, December 4th, from 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM for a market of holiday cheer! Vendors will be throughout the house with local-made goods available for purchase. Santa Claus will also be visiting from 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM for photos, with food donations accepted for the Lake Oswego Food Pantry!
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This week, we took in several new quilts into our collection from the Oswego Quilters! While we plan to share more information soon, here's a little teaser: the quilt in the photograph here is called the "silk cigarette ribbon quilt." The images are pulled from old cigarette cases.
We are incredibly grateful to be trusted with the care of these historically significant quilts from such a long-running, local institution!
You might remember how one of our big pushes this past year has been creating an index for the public library's history collection, along with our own. Our volunteers are taking it one step farther: they are creating finding aids to make researching easier than ever.
These finding aids will be a good summary of each of our collections. They will include dates, names, biographical information, and other key words so you can discover Lake Oswego history at a glance.
Once completed, these finding aids will be available on our website and will be an important guide to digitizing historical work. This is just a sneak peak, building off our now-complete index!
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WE NEED YOUR FEEDBACK!
With new tools for the Oswego Heritage Council (OHC) on the horizon, including a full collection index and finding aids, we want to make sure our next priorities fit the needs of our community.
Whether you are a historical researcher, a student or teacher, or just a person curious about their city's history, we're looking for feedback on other tools, tips, workshops, or research you'd like next.
This survey closes December 15th and should take about 5-10 minutes to complete.
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Did you guess which Oswego organization led drives for blood donations, rubber, paper, metal, and more during World War II?
THE OSWEGO CIVIL DEFENSE
On State Street
Led by Hortense Gore-Slocum (bottom photo, far right with the dog), women, children, and the elderly all participated in drives for blood donations, rubber, paper, metal, and more. The group staffed an observation tower to watch for any strange planes flying overhead and worked with state police and the FBI. After the war, they took half the money they earned and gave it to Lake Grove for a safe swimming area.
She created a scrapbook, now preserved in our archives, titled "Memories of the Oswego-Lake Grove Civilian Defense Offense." The book traces the history and work of the office during World War II, from 1942-1945.
Some of the photographs from the scrapbook are on display in our current exhibit, but check out a few that didn't make it in, highlighting the hard work of Oswegans during this difficult time.
When we posted this on Facebook, we received this comment...
"I was about nine years old and was a volunteer at the Oswego Civil Defense Office scrap drive. [...] I and several other kids toured the town with wagons collecting scrap metal, newspapers and such. The lady boss had a WWI German spike helmet that she let us wear sometimes. As a reward she let us read the comic books before they were turned in to be scrapped. I sure do wish I'd kept them."
