Image from the book Rubbings From the Rose City
BY BRIAN LIBBY
Perhaps you've never stopped to consider what a manhole cover from the early 20th century looked like. Why would you? But as it happens, some of those manhole covers, and segments of an old facade, or street signs, or old building cornerstones, are gorgeous glimpses of our collective past.
If only someone had thought to preserve these little ephemera of Porltand's past. But wait - someone already did 28 years ago. The only problem is the book was forgotten...until now.
Tonight at the American Institute of Architects' Center For Architecture is an event produced by the Dill Pickle Club celebrating the 1983 book Rubbings From the Rose City with a panel discussion and exhibit. Long out of print and now being republished by the organization PDX Re-Print, Rubbings from the Rose City documents Portland through one-of-a-kind handmade etchings of building façades, gravestones, street signs, manhole covers and more. Self published by Christopher Gossett , the book provides a unique snapshot of the city and its many familiar landmarks.
Image from the book Rubbings From the Rose City
The evening and book reissue are part of PDX Re-Prints, a series of four publications and free public lectures celebrating obscured and out-of-print books on Portland’s visual culture. Held at roving venues on last Thursdays at 7PM, lectures bring together authors, scholars, activists and community members, who will use the books to discuss how we understand our city. Each book will be reissued for sale by Publication Studio on the night of the lecture.
There will be four speakers providing insight to the book individually and collectively.Val Ballestrem is an independent historian and the education manager for the Bosco-Milligan Foundation/Architectural Heritage Center in Portland. Doug Blandy is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of the Arts and Administration Program in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon. Randy Gragg is editor of Portland Monthly magazine, but is best known for the many years he spent as an art and architecture critic for The Oregonian. Khris Soden is an artist who authored the popular comic series “City of Roses,” in the arts journal The Organ, focused on lesser-known Portland histories.
Image from Rubbings From the Rose City
The event is scheduled for 7PM at the Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue at Flanders in the Pearl District. Admission is free and copies of the book are $16, available at the event or online via the Dill Pickle Club website.
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