In the spring of 2022, PSU history students in Professor Catherine McNeur’s Public History Lab supported the Friends of the Peninsula Park Rose Garden in their ongoing efforts to celebrate Peninsula Park’s rich history. Following the 2020 Black Lives Matter vigils and marches that began in Peninsula Park honoring George Floyd, the Friends realized their current site interpretation was insufficient to capture the diversity of communities that have shaped the park’s meanings and uses over the past century. To address these gaps, the students mined the archives to tell the stories of park-goers and community members who have been excluded from conventional narratives. Locating broader community histories within archives that typically privilege the stories of upper-class white experiences was a unique challenge for students that tested and strengthened their research skills. Drawing from a variety of sources, each student produced a research report on a different topic related to the park’s history that was then condensed into a zine spread.
When deciding how to synthesize their findings into one cohesive project, the students chose to create a zine because it would be accessible, flexible, and engaging—factors that are crucial to reaching as wide an audience as possible. The zine includes images and text from archives such as Portland City Archives, the Oregon Historical Society, the University of Oregon’s Collection of Historic Oregon Newspapers, and the Rutherford Family Collection of Historic Black Newspapers of Portland.
The zine is available digitally, on social media, and as physical copies in the Peninsula Park community center. Additionally, students designed a lawn sign with a QR code to the zine that will be placed in and around the park. The students also designed a “for print” version that can be easily printed and assembled at home.
This class project offered a unique opportunity to experience the collaborative nature of public history. We hope that by broadening the historical narrative about Peninsula Park, we will inspire further investigations into urban green spaces as deeply important community assets.
Print your own zine at home!
Want to learn more about the topics discussed in the zine? Check out the links below.
Page 2: “Circus For All” by Brayton Price
- Biography of Dorothea Lensch (Portland City Archives & Records Management)
- Oregonian article about the “Barr Bros.” Circus
Page 3: “The Rise of Crime-Prevention Events, 1970s-80s” by Vicky White
- Neighborhood Watch manual, 1978 (Portland City Archives & Records Management)
- Neighborhoods Against Crimes Final Report, 1981
- Neighbors Against Crime parade, 1984 (Portland City Archives & Records Management)
Page 4-5: “Gangs in Peninsula Park: Protection for NE Portland” by Felix Bracy
- “A Tribute to Coach Roy Pittman,” 2017
- “Violent Youth Gangs in Portland: a Study of the City’s Response” by Debra Lynn Lindberg, 1996
Page 6-7: “The Black United Front and Community Unity Day” by Ana Bane
- Portland BUF Oral History Project
- “The Harriet Tubman Middle School Protests: Black United Front vs. The Portland School Board” by Evan Smiley, 2017
- “African American Community Protests School Board” by Trudy Flores and Sarah Griffith, 2022
Page 8: “Remembering the Vanport Survivors and African Cultural Heritage Festivals” by Tanaka Axberg