Books published by publisher Oregon Historical Society

Winner of the 2005 Stevens Literary PrizeDouglas's student, Sandy, who has run away from home to join the Hudson’s Bay Company, learns about the plants that Douglas methodically collected and identified for science. He befriends T’Catisa, the daughter of Chinook Chief Cockqua, and they spend time with Douglas as he explores a new landscape. Olla-piska is a good introduction for young people and adults alike to one of the most important scientists and explorers to visit the Columbia country.

The landscape encountered by the Corps of Discovery during their multi-year, cross- country trek to the Pacific was dramatically different from the one that greeted visitors attending Portland’s Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905 or the one that exists in the Pacific Northwest today. On the occasion of the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition and the centennial of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, the time is ripe for reconciling those earlier events with present-day activities.In Two Centuries of Lewis and Clark, William L. Lang and Carl Abbott have collaborated to address those issues. Lang scrutinizes the motivations for the Lewis and Clark expedition and the environmental ramifications of its discoveries on the people and the landscape of the Columbia River Basin. Abbott examines the ways in which the Lewis and Clark Exposition advanced President Jefferson’s goal of developing the economic potential of the Pacific Northwest, particularly through the exploitation of the region’s abundant natural resources.

Crew relies on trail journals and her own family history to imagine the emotional lives of her characters as they traverse the Oregon Trail. Most of the pioneers central to her story are based on real people and Crew weaves the few known facts of their lives into this harrowing tale of their journey west. Distributed by the University of Washington Press. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

From fighting for the cause of freedom during the Civil War to writing of one of the best-selling books of all time, Lew Wallace of Indiana enjoyed a remarkable career that touched the lives of such famous figures in American history as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, James Garfield, James Whitcomb Riley, and Billy the Kid.The ups and downs of Wallace’s amazing days are told in this new biography for young readers. Written by award-winning Hoosier historian and author Ray E. Boomhower, The Sword and the Pen: A Life of Lew Wallace, includes numerous photographs and illustrations of Wallace and the people he met and events he participated in during his lifetime. The book also features information on historic places related to Wallace’s life and times.Growing up when much of Indiana was still a wilderness, Wallace frequently fled from his classroom studies to wander the woods and fields he loved. The son of an Indiana governor, Wallace became passionate about books and combat. He tried to win lasting fame through service for the Union cause on the battlefield during the Civil War, but instead won honor and glory through a quieter pastime: writing. His novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, became one of the country’s best-loved books and was made into two successful Hollywood films.At various times in his life, Wallace also was a lawyer, an Indiana state senator, vice president of the court-martial that tried the conspirators behind the assassination of President Lincoln, governor of the New Mexico Territory during the days of outlaw Billy the Kid, and a diplomat who represented the United States in Turkey.Wallace dreamed always of glory and lived a life full of adventures, triumphs, and tragedies. Through it all, he believed in himself and was never afraid to accept new challenges. He remains one of the most colorful and important figures in the Hoosier State’s history.

What would you do if you uncovered a real locket from 1880 on the beach?Join Virginia and Rodney as they discover a world that spans two centuries. Traveling through time, they unravel the mystery of e Lost Locket of Lewes. is book combines facts with ction to keep you turning the pages while learning about Lewes, Delaware and life in the 19th century.National Winner: First Place for Children's Fiction given by the National Federation of Press Women, 2019

This book was inspired by town of Rye resident Lisa Moll’s University of New Hampshire research paper entitled “Rye’s Ode to Olympic Oil,” which demonstrated the crucial role Rye played in stopping Olympic Oil’s 1974 effort to build the largest oil refinery in the world on Great Bay in Durham, New Hampshire. Rye blocked the Olympic effort to secure a marine terminal on the New Hampshire Isles of Shoals to receive crude oil and the pipelines needed to transport oil for refining inland. Lisa’s paper, part of which was researched at the Rye, New Hampshire, Town Museum, also provides a full overview of the role of Durham, New Hampshire and other seacoast NH towns in the defeat of the refinery. The Rye Historical Society (RHS) is grateful to all the people who fought tirelessly to save the coastline of New Hampshire from exploitation. Particular thanks is given to the late Guy Chichester of Rye who fought the proposal tirelessly and donated his collection of material to the Town museum, and to Jessie Herlihy, founder of the Rye Historical Society in 1976, who held anti-refinery meetings in her home in 1973-74. Also key in the battle to save the NH Seacoast was Phyllis Bennett, publisher of the start-up community newspaper, Publick Occurrences, which broke the story that Olympic Oil was planning an oil refinery complex for the Seacoast of New Hampshire. Phyllis led a relentless effort to inform and connect the Seacoast community with facts, and bring the truth of the proposed oil refinery complex out of the shadows of the governor’s office and into the light for all to see. This was at a time when NH's largest newspaper, The Manchester Union Leader, and the then governor of New Hampshire, Meldrim Thomson, siding with Aristotle Onassis, were all championing and supporting the building of the oil refinery. On the fortieth anniversary of the oil refinery defeat in 2014, Dudley Dudley, who helped spearhead the defeat of the proposal in Durham and in the New Hampshire legislature, gave a talk in Rye. Peter Horne, one of the key Rye activists against the refinery, spoke about his role in the defeat. Peter’s reflections are included in this book, along with other Rye activists. We are forever grateful to the two elderly sisters, Bernice Remick and Frances Tucker, who refused repeated exhorbitant offers to sell their 42-acre farm to Olympic Oil. Their farm on Brackett Rd. in Rye was directly in the path of the proposed pipeline, and in their refusal to sell, the entire Oil Refinery deal came to a halt. Later, the sisters sold their land to Rye Conservation Commission for a mere $12,000. This essay is dedicated to all the people who had the passion and courage to protect and preserve the Seacoast community for future generations. They took on the mighty and the powerful in the “battle of the century.”