Today Portland celebrates its annual floral extravaganza – the Rose Festival Parade – with inner east side and downtown streets overflowing with flower-bedecked floats, marching bands, horses, and carriages. The City of Roses has been touting itself with the festival since 1907 when the first official Rose Carnival and Fiesta, as it was called then, drew 100,000 people to the parade route. Among the 2 ½ miles of “decorated equipage” – floats, automobiles, and carriages – rode Dr. Marie Equi and her lesbian lover Harriet Speckart.
A year earlier Portlanders had showered Equi with accolades for her courageous and compassionate medical care delivered to sufferers of the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 as part of an Oregon relief mission. The U.S. Army had awarded her a medal for exceptional service at a time of crisis.
Dressed in their finery on a perfect June day, Equi and Speckart joined hundreds of other Portlanders who competed for awards in the floral parade. The two women were one of three entries in their class “Carriage and Pair” -- a four-wheeled carriage pulled by two horses. They took their position for a grand loop through the downtown, waving to the cheering onlookers, before gathering with other contestants around the sunken garden of the Exposition grounds. They posed for a giant photograph and awaited inspection by the judges. Later that day winners were announced, and Equi and Speckart won second place and a fifty-dollar prize.
“Successful Rose Fiesta Week Ends,” The Sunday Oregonian, June 23, 1907.
“Portland’s Rose Parade a Triumph,” Morning Oregonian, June 22, 1907. 1.
A year earlier Portlanders had showered Equi with accolades for her courageous and compassionate medical care delivered to sufferers of the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 as part of an Oregon relief mission. The U.S. Army had awarded her a medal for exceptional service at a time of crisis.
Dressed in their finery on a perfect June day, Equi and Speckart joined hundreds of other Portlanders who competed for awards in the floral parade. The two women were one of three entries in their class “Carriage and Pair” -- a four-wheeled carriage pulled by two horses. They took their position for a grand loop through the downtown, waving to the cheering onlookers, before gathering with other contestants around the sunken garden of the Exposition grounds. They posed for a giant photograph and awaited inspection by the judges. Later that day winners were announced, and Equi and Speckart won second place and a fifty-dollar prize.
“Successful Rose Fiesta Week Ends,” The Sunday Oregonian, June 23, 1907.
“Portland’s Rose Parade a Triumph,” Morning Oregonian, June 22, 1907. 1.
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