Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/256

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228
News and Comment

society contains many active members, a number of whom are members of the Oregon Historical Society. Mr. William S. Lewis is the corresponding secretary of the society, and the Spokane Public Library is its depositary.

Professor Trimble's New Researches.

Professor Will J. Trimble, of the North Dakota Agricultural College, Fargo, visited the cities of the Pacific Northwest in September, gathering data for an article he is preparing concerning the influence of the topography of this region upon its history. Mr. Trimble is an enthusiastic student of our early history, and in earlier years was engaged in teaching at Pullman and at Spokane. He is the author of a valuable thesis which was published by the University of Wisconsin, entitled "The Mining Advance Into the Inland Empire," which is authoritative upon that subject.

David Thompson, Reviewed by T. C. Elliott.

A series of articles is running in the Washington Historical Quarterly treating of the travels of David Thompson, the North-West Company geographer, in the Spokane country during 1811–12–13. David Thompson was the pathfinder in that part of the Oregon country, and left a journal which is the basis for these articles. Mr. T. C. Elliott is the contributor of the series.

Acquisitions of the Oregon Historical Society:
Relics of Captain Robert Gray.

Five pieces of china ware belonging to the table service of Captain Robert Gray, discoverer of the Columbia River, and the door plate from his residence in Boston, are on exhibition at the rooms of the Society. These personal relics of the navigator were presented to the Society by his great granddaughter, Mrs. Gertrude Peabody, of Boston, Massachusetts. The dishes were in use on board the ship Columbia when Captain Gray entered the "Oregon, or the River of the West," on May 11, 1792, which he named "Columbia River" on May 19th of that year.