Floyd McKay at Crosscut covered the March 13 rally in support of the OHS Research Library and Staff:

Last week closed with nearly all of the research librarians and archivists at the 110-year-old Oregon Historical Society picking up their personal effects and exiting into the crisp March air. The newly unemployed staff were greeted by almost 100 Oregon historians and friends of the archives in a hastily organized protest across from the library in the Portland Park Blocks.

…

Lacking a secure public funding source, the library over the years has lost out on private funding as Portland’s pioneer families dispersed and many of the businesses they owned were picked up by out-of-state corporations with little interest in Oregon’s history. Glitzier, more-popular cultural attractions, particularly a rejuvenated Oregon Art Museum and an expanded theater scene became the places for new Oregonians to invest and be seen. Traditional state support of OHS was halted several years ago, and, gradually, services of the Historical Society were cast aside to save the core of the institution.

…

The shaky backing for the research function has already prompted its backers to begin thinking of other options, primarily partnership or even transfer to a major state university. OHS is two blocks from Portland State University, and there is also a large library and history program at the University of Oregon. The century-old Oregon Historical Quarterly is also an OHS function, but has its own endowment, which might keep it at the Society.

Read the full story here.