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Melvin "Pete" Mark sits next to a portrait of George Washington painted by Rembrandt Peale. It's among an impressive collection of presidential memorabilia that Marks has assembled and is publicly displaying for the first time at the Oregon History Museum in Portland.

(Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian)

I finally made it over to the Oregon History Museum this week to see the exhibit of Melvin "Pete" Mark's

-- and for the next hour I felt like I had suddenly been transported to the Smithsonian.

That's where you'd expect to see such things as handwritten notes from George Washington, Robert E. Lee's order to disband the Confederate troops and a copy of the

signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

For now, that and much more is at the museum on the park blocks. It's the first time that the 87-year-old Mark, one of the city's most prominent real estate developers and philanthropists, has put his collection on public display.

The point where I started shaking my head in disbelief was seeing a swatch from the coat Lincoln was wearing the night he was assassinated, followed by a piece of the chair he was sitting in as well as a splattering of his blood. Also displayed are the signatures of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, the killer of John F. Kennedy.

Other head-shaking memorabilia includes pages from the folded-up speech that helped slow a would-be assassin's bullet that pierced Teddy Roosevelt's chest in 1912. "You see, it takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose," said Roosevelt,

. My favorite: The famous Chicago Tribune edition with the "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" headline, personally signed not only by Truman but by Dewey.

"It was a mistake!" Truman wrote. "It sure was," Dewey drily added.

Kerry Tymchuk, the Oregon Historical Society's executive director, quips that the exhibit is proof of how even the most significant memorabilia seems to find its way into the private market. Commentator Bill O'Reilly, who has also authored bestselling books on the Kennedy and Lincoln assassinations, is another avid collector who has stopped by to check out the exhibit.

Tymchuk said the exhibit has proved popular enough so that it's being extended past the planned Oct. 31 ending date. That makes sense. It's hard to imagine anyone in the area who appreciates American history skipping this feast for the eyes.

--Jeff Mapes