The Archives & Records Management Division of the Portland City Auditor’s Office is the official home of the City’s historic records. The mission of the Portland City Archives is to ensure transparent and accountable government by preserving the City’s historic records and making them available to the public.
We provide historical information about City government from Portland’s founding in 1851 to the present. Topics covered in the City’s historical collections include urban planning, parks, land use, public works, economic development, public safety and a wide range of social issues.
Types of resources available to the public include
- Paper documents and electronic records: City Council materials, correspondence, reports, studies, and other planning and programming documentation
- Microfilm: City Council minutes, ordinances, resolutions, financial records
- Maps & plans: architectural drawings, engineering studies, City-owned buildings, parks planning, water/sewage management
- Photographs and negatives: promotional photographs, Public Works documentation, City-held events and functions, protests and demonstrations, City workers, and elected officials
- Publications, moving images, sound, artwork, and objects.
You can explore our collections through our online catalog, Efiles.
The Portland Archives & Records Center is located on the Portland State University campus in Southwest Portland and serves as a preservation-quality storage facility for public records as well as a research space for the public and City employees. We work with people both virtually through email and in-person in our Research Room. Photographs, maps, and other hardcopy materials may be scanned on demand and accessed through Efiles. A public records request form does not need to be submitted when accessing records at the Archives.
In addition to research services, we also program events, workshops, archival tours, exhibits, and oral history projects.
Subscribe to receive updates from us and feel free to email us anytime with questions and requests at parc@portlandoregon.gov.