From the University Archives: the Vanport Extension Center, 1946-48

The University Archives at the Portland State University Library is home to the historical records documenting Portland State’s beginning as the Vanport Extension Center (VEC).  In the spring of 2010, Dr. Bill Lang’s public history seminar drew upon these records to curate and design a digital exhibit highlighting life on the Vanport campus from its inception in 1946 to its devastation in the flood of 1948.  The following exhibit is based upon their work. 

For an inventory of the full Vanport Extension Center records, see the University Archives finding aid

For more information on the Vanport years, see:

Portland State:  A History in Pictures by Richard Sanders and Brent Schauer

The College That Would Not Die:  The First Fifty Years of Portland State University, 1946-1996 by Gordon Dodds

Vanport by Manly Maben