Oral history interview with Rachael Griffin

Collection

Identifier: SR 1045

Staff Only

Oral history interview with Rachael Griffin

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Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Rachael Griffin was conducted by Oregon photographer Marian W. Kolisch on April 22, 1976, at Griffin’s home in Portland, Oregon. The interview was part of a series conducted by Kolisch to accompany portraits of Oregon artists, businesspeople, and politicians. In addition to the audio recording, this collection includes an index to Griffin's interview.

In this interview, Griffin discusses her career as a teacher at the Museum Art School in Portland, which is now the Pacific Northwest College of Art. She speaks extensively about her work as curator for the Portland Art Museum from 1953 to 1974. She discusses the art museum’s weekly radio program, “At the Museum,” which aired on KOIN. She talks about the importance of volunteers at museum, about the importance of making art available to the public, and about securing funding for the art museum. She discusses the organizational structure of the museum and speaks about working with the museum board.

Dates

Creation: 1976 April 22

Creator

Griffin, Rachael, 1906-1983 (Interviewee, Person)
Kolisch, Marian W. (Interviewer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for this interview is held by the estates of Marian W. Kolisch and Rachael Griffin. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright - https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Biographical note

Rachael Elsa Phine Griffin, nee Smith, was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1906. She studied art history at the University of Oregon and at Reed College. In 1929, she graduated from the Museum Art School (now the Pacific Northwest College of Art). She taught at the Museum Art School from 1933 to 1951, and was curator of the Portland Art Museum from 1955 to 1974. She also hosted the museum’s weekly radio program, “At the Art Museum,” which aired on KOIN. Griffin received several awards for her work, including the Governor’s Art Award in 1982.

She married Richard Edmonds Griffin in 1930; they had two children, and divorced in 1953. Rachael Griffin died in 1983.

Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Griffin in her interview; Griffin’s obituary in the Oregonian, April 7, 1983.

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (1 audiocassette (1 hr., 3 min., 4 sec.) + index (3 pages))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Rachael Griffin conducted by Marian W. Kolisch on April 22, 1976. Griffin discusses her career as an instructor at the Museum Art School in Portland, Oregon, now the Pacific Northwest College of Art, from 1933 to 1951, and as curator for the Portland Art Museum from 1953 to 1974.

Existence and Location of Copies

Audio and index available online in OHS Digital Collections.

Related Materials

The Oregon Historical Society Research library also holds an audio recording of conversations about Rachael Griffin, which forms part of SRC 3, the Robert H. Peirce collection of interviews with people affiliated with the Portland Art Museum.