Three Indian princesses examine a camera. (Photo courtesy of Washington State Library)

Our third and final Library Jewel for June is a collection of photographs and slides of Washington, taken by J. W. Thompson between 1950 and 1968.

The collection includes 115 photos and about 1,500 slides of a wide variety of subjects of the Pacific Northwest, including Native Americans on both sides of the Cascades, Northwest scenery and historic spots, and WA industries, including cranberry growing at Grayland, logging and lumbering, and oysters at Willapa Bay.

According to the State Library’s notes about him, Thompson was a retired Seattle high school botany teacher in the 1950s. He was an avid photographer looking for subjects for an educational series he was developing.

When Thompson went to visit his sister in Toppenish, he learned that tribal elders from nearby reservations had assembled on the Yakama Reservation to observe the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of 1855. This was the Treaty that established Reservations for the Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest. At the historic gathering he had the opportunity to meet tribal leaders and to gain their permission to photograph their lives that still were little known to other residents of the region. Mr. Thompson’s purpose was to find images that were interesting and authentic to document the lives of the Native Americans of Washington state at the middle of the 20th century. With the subject’s permission, he photographed Native people at longhouse celebrations, salmon feasts, summer encampments, in traditional dress and harvesting roots and berries. The photographs portray the rich fellowship of tribal gatherings on the Columbia Plateau in the 1950s.