McMenamins History Pubs: Uncover Oregon’s People and Places

Photo by Merve Şahin

McMenamins History Pub invites you to explore Oregon and Pacific Northwest history.

Enjoy an evening with local experts, scholars, first-person experiencers and historians who dive into topics from Lewis and Clark to shipwrecks, hop growing to women pioneers and beyond.

McMenamins History Pub is like attending a college lecture with a stiff drink and full menu of tasty food.

Here are the upcoming events.

Upcoming McMenamins History Pub Events

50 People, Places, and Things that Transformed Portland Since 1974

When Willamette Week turned 50 years old last November, co-editor Audrey van Buskirk distilled five decades of local history into the special edition 50 People, Places, and Things that Transformed Portland Since 1974. In this talk, discover an entertaining and informative combination of local culture and history as well as tips to experience Portland’s innovations and creativity today. 

Audrey van Buskirk has spent the last 20 years uncovering Portland’s hottest restaurants, coolest bars, quirkiest monuments and wildest places.

This event is Monday, January 27, at Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Ave. in Portland. 

Tickets are $5 in advance. All ages are welcome. Doors open at 6 p.m. The event starts at 7 p.m.

Oregon’s Others: Gender, Civil Liberties and the Surveillance State

In the aftermath of WWI, the quest to identify, restrict and punish enemy “others,” combined with eugenic thinking, impacted the civil liberties of people in Oregon. Professor Kimberly Jensen shares research from her new book “Oregon’s Others: Gender, Civil Liberties, and the Surveillance State in the Early Twentieth Century” through the lens of gender, gender identity and presentation, ability, race, ethnicity and class.

Kimberly Jensen is professor of history and gender studies at Western Oregon University and a member of the executive and editorial boards of the Oregon Encyclopedia of History and Culture.

This event is Monday, February 10, at Edgefield’s Blackberry Hall, 2126 SW Halsey St. in Troutdale.

Tickets are $5 in advance. All ages are welcome. Doors open at 6 p.m. The event starts at 7 p.m.

Forest Pub: Indigenous Land Management in the Willamette Valley

David G. Lewis, Ph.D., author of Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley, shares tribal ways of knowing and managing the valleys and forests of the Willamette.

David is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. He is an assistant professor of Anthropology and Indigenous Studies at Oregon State University and has written more than 500 research essays about the histories of the Western Oregon tribes and Northwest Coastal peoples. 

This event is Monday, February 10, at Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St. in Portland.

Tickets are a sliding scale from $5-$11. All ages are welcome. Doors open at 6 p.m. The event starts at 7 p.m.

Oregon’s Donation Land Claim Act of 1850: You Can’t Steal What You Can’t Measure

Have you heard of the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 to 1855? It displaced Indigenous people from their native lands, excluded non-white settlers and disqualified single or widowed women from gaining property. The act resulted in rapid transformation of Oregon territory. Multnomah County Archivist Terry Baxter talks about the process of systematic land measurement, different ideas of land “ownership,” the Cayuse War and the lasting effects of the Donation Land Claim Act on Oregon today.

Terry Baxter has 40 years of experience as an archivist and works with Multnomah County Archives and the Oregon Country Fair Archive.

This event is Wednesday, February 12, at Grand Lodge, 3505 Pacific Ave. in Forest Grove.

Tickets are $5 in advance. All ages are welcome. Doors open at 6 p.m. The event starts at 7 p.m.

Oregon’s Black History: 450 Years in 45 Minutes

People of African descent have lived in Oregon since before the founding of the earliest English-speaking settlements in the Americas. Despite this, our state history’s narrative excludes the experiences of African Americans before the mid-20th century. This erasure is the result of historic legal and social marginalization. In this presentation, Mariah Rocker of Oregon Black Pioneers sets the record straight by highlighting key individuals and events that characterize Oregon’s unique and centuries-old Black history.

Mariah Rocker is Oregon Black Pioneers public programs and exhibits manager. Her passion for uncovering and sharing the stories of marginalized communities is evident in her professional and personal pursuits.

This event is Monday, February 24, at Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Ave. in Portland

Tickets are $5 in advance. All ages are welcome. Doors open at 6 p.m. The event starts at 7 p.m.

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