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WASHINGTON’S DIGITAL HERITAGE: AN AUDIO & VISUAL HISTORY

WASHINGTON’S DIGITAL HERITAGE: AN AUDIO & VISUAL HISTORY

The Washington State Library’s annual Washington Digital Heritage grant cycle has helped preserve a wealth of historical documents from organizations and private collections statewide. These grants support libraries and partner organizations in digitizing historically significant primary sources, special collections, and archives. In addition, the projects support the creation of digital exhibits, oral histories, open educational resources, and other community memory initiatives. Here are some highlights from the 2019-2020 grant cycle. Asotin County Library The Asotin County Library digitized a privately…

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Collage of photos of Dr. Mabel Seagrave. One portrait, circa 1905. One photo of Dr. Seagrave tending to a patient.
A Pandemic Hero

A Pandemic Hero

The “Spanish flu” pandemic that exploded in 1918, near the end of World War I, killed at least 50 million people worldwide—some say twice that. President Trump’s grandfather was among the 675,000 Americans who succumbed to the lethal influenza. Legacy Washington’s new book, Ahead of the Curve: Washington Women Lead the Way 1919-2020, features a heroic Seattle physician on the front lines of the pandemic. Dr. Mabel Seagrave lived by the motto of Wellesley College, her alma mater: “Not to…

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Legacy Washington and WTBBL partner to make books available to a Broader Audience

Legacy Washington and WTBBL partner to make books available to a Broader Audience

Hundreds of audio books are produced in the studios of the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL) Audio Book Production Department. These books, narrated by volunteers, are normally only available to WTBBL patrons and patrons of other National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped network libraries. But a collection of Legacy Washington titles produced in audio format by WTBBL is now available on the Washington Anytime Library platform for public libraries. These titles are published by, and…

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Archives spotlight: Dan Evans’ keynote speech at the 1968 Republican National Convention

Archives spotlight: Dan Evans’ keynote speech at the 1968 Republican National Convention

Borrowing from the title of Legacy Washington’s current exhibit, 1968 was “the year that rocked Washington.” From the civil rights movement to Vietnam and to growing concerns about the environment, it was a turbulent era in our history. With a passion for these issues and many more, Dan Evans went to Miami in August 1968 to deliver the keynote address of the Republican National Convention, at which Richard Nixon accepted the party’s nomination for president. Evans, who was in his…

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Grays Harbor 1970s poll workers
How the 1970 election set Washington’s midterm turnout record

How the 1970 election set Washington’s midterm turnout record

The county-certified election returns for the 2018 General Election came very near setting a new state record for voter participation in a non-Presidential election cycle. Of the 4,362,454 people on Washington’s voter rolls, 71.83 percent cast ballots, which was just under the 71.85 percent turnout for the 1970 midterm General Election. Had just 1,101 more Washingtonians voted, that 48-year-old record would have been eclipsed. That the 1970 turnout stands as the state’s high-water mark is noteworthy in several regards. First, the record…

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Profile of civic activist Jim Ellis completes new 1968 history exhibit

Profile of civic activist Jim Ellis completes new 1968 history exhibit

A profile of Jim Ellis, regarded as the most visionary civic activist in King County history, is the final chapter in Legacy Washington’s new project: “1968: The Year that Rocked Washington.” His profile — part of a new exhibit at the State Capitol — is now online at the project’s homepage. In 1958, Ellis mobilized a volunteer task force to rescue Lake Washington from the run-off of suburban sprawl. “No Swimming” signs posted along lakefront beaches were famously featured in the…

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New Capitol exhibit features profile of pollster Stuart Elway

New Capitol exhibit features profile of pollster Stuart Elway

A profile of H. Stuart Elway, one of America’s most respected public-opinion pollsters, is the latest chapter of Legacy Washington’s new project, “1968: The Year that Rocked Washington.” The chapter is now online at the project homepage. Elway is also one of 18 notable Washingtonians featured in a 1968 exhibit in the office of the Secretary of State at the Capitol in Olympia. Elway grew up steeped in Washington state politics. His dad, Harry S. Elway Jr., was an influential…

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History-making Seattle activist Phyllis Lamphere featured in new Capitol exhibit

History-making Seattle activist Phyllis Lamphere featured in new Capitol exhibit

A profile of civic activist Phyllis Lamphere, who left a big imprint on her hometown of Seattle, is the latest chapter in Legacy Washington’s new project, “1968: The Year that Rocked Washington.” Her profile — part of a new exhibit at the State Capitol — is now online at the project’s homepage. As a leader in the League of Women Voters, Lamphere spearheaded a change in state law that gave Seattle a “strong mayor” form of government. That shift of…

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New Capitol exhibit profiles three-term Governor Dan Evans

New Capitol exhibit profiles three-term Governor Dan Evans

An excerpt from the upcoming autobiography of former governor Dan Evans is the latest chapter in Legacy Washington’s new project, “1968: The Year that Rocked Washington.” The chapter—part of an exhibit that will open Sept. 13 at the State Capitol — is now online at the project’s homepage. The August 9, 1968, edition of Time magazine featured the keynote speaker for the Republican National Convention at Miami Beach: 42-year-old Daniel J. Evans, described as the prototype of the party’s dynamic “New…

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Longtime civil rights sentinels Lem Howell and Larry Gossett attended the 50th anniversary of a March 29, 1968 sit-in at Seattle’s Franklin High School. John Hughes photo
New Capitol exhibit features profiles of civil rights activists Gossett and Howell

New Capitol exhibit features profiles of civil rights activists Gossett and Howell

Profiles of longtime civil rights activists Larry Gossett and Lem Howell are the latest chapters in Legacy Washington’s new project, “1968: The Year that Rocked Washington.” The profiles — part of an exhibit that will open Sept. 13 at the State Capitol — are now online at the project’s homepage. Gossett and Howell took different paths in fighting for civil rights over the last five decades. One thought elections were a bourgeois trap. The other was president of Young Democrats….

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