How do you make history exciting and real to today’s always-connected students? You meet them online.

For the last few years, the Washington State Library, Washington State Archives, and Legacy Washington have been meeting with Washington teachers. We asked for their help in finding a better way to serve our education community, promote education and lifelong learning, and connect Washingtonians to their history.

After extensive cooperation with teachers and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, we are proud to announce the launch of Primarily Washington, an online education portal designed to bring lesson plans together with the primary sources in our collections.

The Primarily Washington portal currently contains 6 lesson plans, on topics including the Everett Massacre, Territory to Statehood, teaching elections, and Legacy Washington’s Korea 65 exhibit. Drawing from our plethora of newspapers and items in our Classics in Washington History digital collection, more lesson plans will be added this summer. The portal also presents the Emma Smith Devoe Scrapbook Collection, a wide-ranging set of early 20th century newspaper clippings and other documents about important contemporary topics such as women’s suffrage.

Additionally, Primarily Washington will feature online exhibits about various aspects of Washington state history.

Any history teacher will tell you that working with primary documents is a great way to actually bring history to life. That task and access to those documents have both just gotten much easier. Tell your history-loving friends!

Questions? Email State Library Digital Collections Coordinator Judy Pitchford.