Collection is open for research.
Gift of Sally Densmore, April 2019 (RL2019-075).
Joseph Kirtley Carson, Jr. was born in McKinney, Kentucky in 1891, and moved with his family to Hood River, Oregon, in 1903. Carson moved to Portland, Oregon in 1914. He studied at the University of Oregon School of Law, and in World War I served as an artilleryman. He entered politics as a Democrat in the 1920s, and was elected mayor of Portland in 1932, an office he held until 1940. In 1954, he ran as the Democratic candidate for governor of Oregon, but lost to Republican Paul L. Patterson. He died in December 1956.
The collection consists of a poster used for Joseph K. Carson's unsuccessful 1954 run for Oregon governor, and a large portrait photograph of Carson by Gladys Gilbert Studio, taken around the same time.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.
Joseph K. Carson portrait and gubernatorial campaign poster, Coll 820, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.