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Category: State Library Collections

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein

Washington Reads – A Sudden Light by Garth Stein (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014. 416 pp.) Recommendation by Mary Paynton Schaff, Reference Librarian, Washington State Library Fall means ghosts, creepy old houses, and stories about families scarred by tragedy. So now’s the perfect opportunity to gather up your afghan, sit by the fire with a cup of hot cider, and dive into Garth Stein’s newest book, “A Sudden Light.” Fourteen-year-old narrator Trevor is brought to crumbling Riddell House in…

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Little known facts about WA State Library Employees

Little known facts about WA State Library Employees

Paul Longwell a Washington State Library IT specialist by day is a Beekeeper by night. Paul recently told us about his participation in the Washington State Beekeeping Association apprentice beekeeper program.   In order to reach the highest level of Master Beekeeper it takes six years of study. To prepare for the exams you need several hard to find references from both State and Federal documents. But have no fear, Paul works in a library! On searching our catalog he discovered…

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Our Pacific Northwest card file is now online!

Our Pacific Northwest card file is now online!

From the desk of Steve Willis, Program Manager for Central Library Services The Pacific Northwest Card File appears to have been started in the early 1950s as a finding aid for biographical and historical information in the Washington State Library. Information was indexed from newspapers across the state as well as many published local histories, creating a very unique point of access. Comprised of hundreds of thousands of cards, the drawers are divided into a Name File and a Subject File….

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Puget Sound Mail – News from La Conner, 1879-1880

Puget Sound Mail – News from La Conner, 1879-1880

From the desk of Marly Rudeen Each newspaper has its own personality supplied in part by the editor, in part by its subscribers and correspondents, and in part by the events of the time period. The Puget Sound Mail from La Conner strikes me as an outward looking paper. Much of front page news comes from San Francisco and other west coast cities, including regular news from southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley. But the rest of that valuable space…

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Spokane – Wide Open Town?

Spokane – Wide Open Town?

From the desk of Marlys Rudeen. While looking through issues of the Newport Miner for 1907, I came across the following quote – “Poor old Spokane has had to bow to the inevitable, and beginning next Sunday the lid will be jammed down so hard that visitors will hardly recognize the town. Mayor Moore has issued an order calling for the closing of all saloons on Sunday and abolishing the notorious cribs and concert halls.” Jan. 9, 1908, p. 5…

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William Gohl – Not a Nice Man

William Gohl – Not a Nice Man

From the desk of Marlys Rudeen One of the most notorious citizens of Aberdeen in the early 20th century was William Gohl. While he might have listed his occupation as agent for the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, his real job included such duties as graft, theft, extortion, arson, and murder. The local paper, the Aberdeen Herald, documents some of Gohl’s history through his trial and conviction for two murders in 1910. You can follow the story through the newspaper…

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Yakima Herald – During the year of Statehood

Yakima Herald – During the year of Statehood

From the desk of Marlys Rudeen The year is 1889 and Washington Territory is on its way to becoming Washington State. There’s a great deal of enthusiasm for the process, and a great deal of regional competition as a constitutional convention is held along with fierce debate about which city should be the capital of the new state. While all this is going on the residents of Yakima are also devouring news from back East, local comings and goings and,…

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The West Shore – Enticing settlers to the late 19th century Pacific Northwest

The West Shore – Enticing settlers to the late 19th century Pacific Northwest

From the desk of Marlys Rudeen, Deputy State Librarian A recent addition to the State Library’s digital collections is the lavishly illustrated West Shore. This literary and general interest magazine was published from Aug. 1875-Mar. 1891. The Washington State Library owns some of the issues from 1880-1890, and has digitized the issues and made them available online. (Warning – some of the PDFs are large and do take some time to load.) According to its tagline from the 1885 issues,…

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Life in Colville 1907-08

Life in Colville 1907-08

From the desk of Marlys Rudeen: A sampling of the local news from the Colville Examiner from Oct. 31, 1907-Jan. 1908 provides a vivid view of life in the north half of Stevens County. One thing that stands out is that the Colvillians were a traveling bunch. They visited and were visited on a regular basis, travelling to family and friends in other small towns, the big city of Spokane, and relatives in the Midwest or eastern states. Departures and…

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“Veritable Hermit Discovered Living in the Heart of the Olympics”

“Veritable Hermit Discovered Living in the Heart of the Olympics”

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library. The following article was found at random in the Sept. 1, 1903 issue of the Seattle Daily Times and contains a description of one of the more unusual libraries in Washington State history: The Times Special Service. EVERETT, Tuesdays, Sept. 1.–A hermit, such as fiction deals in, has been discovered in the heart of the Olympic mountains, by Attorney Robert A. Hulbert, of this city,…

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