Perched Between the Stumps and Tides: Early Newspapers in Washington Territories, Part 3

November 13, 2020 Secretary of State's Office

Thanks to past and ongoing digitization efforts at the Washington State Library, Washington Digital Newspapers hosts digital copies of some of the earliest newspapers published in Washington. Through their columns, early territorial editors provided a glimpse of some of the hardships faced by settlers in general, and by publishers in particular in the 1850s. This blog, one of a three part series, covers mail services in Washington territory and how they affected the news disseminated to early settlers. Newspapers in…

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Historic newspaper spotlight: Northwest Enterprise

March 23, 2018 Secretary of State's Office

In 1879, Anacortes, Washington was founded and named by railroad surveyor Amos Bowman, who hoped it would become the major terminus for North America’s northwest railroads. Bowman brought in Alfred D. Bowen and Frank M. Walsh from Seattle to establish the Northwest Enterprise [Library of Congress Control Number SN88085204], using its platform to promote the fledgling community and to solidify his city’s metropolitan status. First appearing on March 25, 1882, the politically Independent paper was published as a weekly and…

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Greek History in Seattle again reaches for a global audience

June 20, 2017 Secretary of State's Office

In the early days of the Seattle-based Washington Hellenic Civic Society, little did community citizens know their comings and goings would reach an international audience through the publication of the monthly newspaper, the Washington Hellenic Review. It had just over a 10-year run (1924-1936) under the vision of WHCS president Pericles H. Scarlatos. It reached an audience mostly in Seattle, but also across to subscribers in 33 cities, and even a few in Greece. The many activities of members of…

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Special Edition! Washington Digital Newspapers website is ready for the oldest & newest news!

July 25, 2016 Secretary of State's Office

From the desk of Shawn Schollmeyer The latest “news” on the newspaper collections is the merging of two existing collections into a new one called “Washington Digital Newspapers,” (WDN) which will give the public easier, full-text search access to these historic newspapers (move over, Google!). You can now browse titles, view by calendar date or pick a location from a map to search the issues here. The collection currently includes more than 45 titles and over 306,000 newspaper pages. Now it’s…

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The Arbuckle Scandal in the Seattle Star

January 20, 2016 Secretary of State's Office

From the desk of Marlys Rudeen – Former Deputy State Librarian The scandal surrounding Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and the death of Virginia Rappe played into many of the anxieties of the general public in the early 1920’s. Changing morals, the role of alcohol in American life, the growth of the movie industry and its effect on modern youth were all hot buttons that were pushed in the various inquiries and trials engendered by Miss Rappe’s death. A movie actor beloved…

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New ProQuest Newspaper Content

December 22, 2015 Secretary of State's Office

WSL UPDATES SPECIAL EDITION FOR DECEMBER 22, 2015 Note: the next regular edition of WSL Updates will be published December 31, 2015. —————————————————————————————————————– NEW PROQUEST NEWSPAPER CONTENT

Horrible Murder!! – The Case of the Aged Bride

July 24, 2015 Secretary of State's Office

From the desk of Marlys Rudeen I will admit to a weakness for a murder mystery – but one from the early 1920’s with shady characters, a missing trunk, divers in Lake Union, forgery, fraud and general unsavoriness? Well, that’s irresistible. And all done up in purple prose by the Seattle Star? Even better! Feel free to follow the story yourself by looking at the Seattle Star in Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093407/issues/1921/). I’ve listed the dates and pages below. May 25,…

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Great news for Washington Digital Newspapers!

April 22, 2015 Secretary of State's Office

The Washington State Library has been awarded a Veridian Newspaper Conversion Grant to process and present up to 10,000 newspaper images from our Historic Newspapers Collection. In March we competed against other national and international academic, public and special libraries with digital collections for the opportunity to have the Veridian software company convert our metadata and cloud-host a full-text searchable collection for two years. We will have new features to explore, such as advanced search techniques, improved search results, comment…

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In search of the Eatonville Dispatch

March 18, 2015 Secretary of State's Office

From the desk of Shawn Schollmeyer & Washington Digital Newspapers. Though the Eatonville Dispatch began as a weekly newspaper in 1893, known available issues begin in 1916, stored on microfilm and carefully protected print copies in archival boxes located at the Eatonville Public Library. It’s still a weekly publication, now known as the Dispatch, printed and available online by the Pacific Publishing Company . We first became aware of the interest in digitizing older issues of this paper when one…

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Wyman at “Pressing On” launch: “We need accurate, informative news”

February 3, 2015 Secretary of State's Office

Secretary Wyman applauds as Rowland Thompson (in bow tie) shakes hands with Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen (second from left). Also standing (from left) are Yakima Herald-Republic general manager Rob Blethen, Seattle Times assistant managing editor Ryan Blethen and Wenatchee World publisher Rufus Woods. (Photo courtesy of Patrick McDonald) Few family-owned newspapers remain in Washington, or in the U.S. Two of them are continuing to make their mark with their brand of community-based journalism. The Seattle Times and The Wenatchee…

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