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Tag: Seattle

Front and back covers of A Complete Guide to Non-Tourist Seattle, 1962.
BARRED FROM THE BAR: HOW WOMEN WON THE RIGHT TO SIT AT THE BAR

BARRED FROM THE BAR: HOW WOMEN WON THE RIGHT TO SIT AT THE BAR

While perusing material in response to a research question about Seattle in the 1950s and 1960s, Washington State research librarian Kathryn Devine read A Complete Guide to Non-Tourist Seattle (1962). Intended as a pocket guide for visitors who wanted to see the “real” Seattle, it’s a very entertaining read.   In the chapter titled “What to Know and Where to Go,” author Wayne Carter offers some fine print for visitors who need a stiff drink: “A cocktail lounge may sell…

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A Touch of Braille

A Touch of Braille

The Washington Talking Book & Braille Library is presenting a free introduction to braille workshop Tuesday, February 4 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Library’s conference room, hosted by WTBBL volunteers Keiko Namekata and Dana Marmion. If you’ve ever wondered “What is braille? What can braille do for me? Would I be able to learn braille? ,” this class is a great opportunity to get answers to your questions or just satisfy your curiosity! Braille is critically important…

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Sensory Art Group donates tactile art to WTBBL

Sensory Art Group donates tactile art to WTBBL

On November 4th, a group of blind and low-vision artists from the Sensory Art Group donated a work they had created to the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library. The artists and their instructor were present for the installation of the art in the WTBBL conference room. The work of art, called Northwest Vista, is a sculpted and tactile representation of a typical northwest landscape with three panels, together creating a panoramic view. Depicted on each panel from bottom to…

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Archives Spotlight: How fire shaped Washington’s city growth

Archives Spotlight: How fire shaped Washington’s city growth

Some of Washington state’s most prosperous cities were, at some time in the past, nearly destroyed by fire. In 1887, a fire reduced half of Walla Walla to ash. In 1889, Seattle, Spokane, and Ellensburg all experienced conflagrations that changed each city’s developmental trajectory. Most of that era’s residential and commercial structures were wood-framed, which even with stone or brick cladding made them vulnerable to fires. Also, nineteenth-century firefighters’ training and equipment were far below modern standards, which made it…

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Archives spotlight: The Mary Mahoney Registered Nurses Club

Archives spotlight: The Mary Mahoney Registered Nurses Club

2019 brings the 70th anniversary of the Mary Mahoney Professional Nurses Association, which was founded as the Mary Mahoney Registered Nurses Club of Seattle. Mary Mahoney was one of the first African-American nurses in the United States. In recognition of Black History Month, Washington State Archives researcher Dr. Jewell Lorenz Dunn researched the historical records held at the Archives to show some history behind the trailblazers who founded the club. Mary Mahoney, was born in 1845 in Boston, Massachusetts, to…

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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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The Federal Communications Commission answers Washington questions

The Federal Communications Commission answers Washington questions

Officials from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a U.S. government agency which regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable, visited the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL) on September 18th to answer patrons’ questions about telecommunications and broadcast matters. It was a great opportunity for WTBBL’s patrons to get answers to questions such as: What do I do about unwanted robocalls? How can I keep my favorite television stations after the upcoming broadcast transition? Or whom should I complain…

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Tom Robbins
New exhibit profiles counterculture chronicler Tom Robbins

New exhibit profiles counterculture chronicler Tom Robbins

In what TIME magazine deemed “the year that changed the world,” Tom Robbins embodied the Altered States of America. Now his profile is part of a new exhibition by Legacy Washington about that pivotal year, 1968. Robbins, 36, was an Air Force veteran, grad school dropout and journalist who quit The Seattle Times by calling in “well.” By 1968 he was mustache-deep in counterculture. He hosted a radio show called Notes from The Underground on non-commercial KRAB. He reviewed Jimi…

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Remembering Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney

Remembering Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney

Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney, a giant of Seattle’s civil-rights movement and longtime pastor of the city’s Mount Zion Baptist Church, died Saturday in an assisted-living facility. He was 91. The Legacy Washington program of the Secretary of State’s office interviewed Rev. Dr. McKinney and his family for an extensive biography published in 2016. Its title, a quotation from one of the reverend’s many moving public addresses, is We’re Not In Heaven Yet. You can read it here and leave…

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Washingtonians in World War I

Washingtonians in World War I

2018 marks the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I, the “War to End All Wars.” Centennial events have taken place for the past several years throughout Europe, and last year the Washington State Library was honored to assist students from the American School in Paris as they embarked on a project to gather information about the Americans laid to rest at Suresnes American Cemetery. This Paris cemetery contains the remains of 1,541 Americans who died in World…

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