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Tag: Washington State Digital Archives

Happy 10th birthday to our Digital Archives!

Happy 10th birthday to our Digital Archives!

View outside of Washington State Digital Archives. (Photos courtesy of Washington State Archives) We’re proud to wish a happy 10th birthday to the world’s first built-from-the-ground digital archives facility. The Washington State Digital Archives had its grand opening on Oct. 4, 2004. The Digital Archives is co-located in the same building with the Washington State Archives’ Eastern Regional Branch on the Eastern Washington University campus in Cheney. The Digital Archives includes a state-of-the-art research room, complete with computer research stations,…

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Check out 1927 WA highway map, spot the differences!

Check out 1927 WA highway map, spot the differences!

Traveling by car this holiday season? Are you taking a Washington highway map with you? You might find this highway map from 1927 pretty interesting. Many of the major highways in our state didn’t even exist when this map was published by Highway Map Co. Back then, Interstate 90 was nonexistent and U.S. Route 99 was a precursor to Interstate 5, which is the longest north-south freeway on the West Coast. It’s hard to imagine Washington today without I-5 and…

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From Digital Archives: mountain fishing photos

From Digital Archives: mountain fishing photos

Fishing is a favorite outdoor activity for many Washingtonians, whether casting from a riverbank or dock, or from a boat bobbling on a river or off the coast. If you’re looking for some nostalgic photos of people  fishing on a river in the mountains, look no further than your Digital Archives. The top photo was taken by famed outdoor photogs Bob and Ira Spring.  We don’t know the river, but we do know it was taken sometime around 1950. Esteemed…

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Wyman honors Digital Archives staff

Wyman honors Digital Archives staff

(Photo courtesy of Renee Wyman.) Secretary of State Wyman and some of her top officials came over from Olympia to Cheney to visit the Eastern Region Branch Archives and the Digital Archives Tuesday and congratulate the team there on going above and beyond the call of duty in keeping the Digital Archives and Eastern Archives websites up and operating during recent challenging conditions. So what happened? A chiller compressor for the data center failed, causing the power main for the…

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100 million documents!

100 million documents!

Remember when McDonald’s had signs many years ago saying “billions served”? Well, our Washington State Digital Archives has reached its own milestone that’s worth some bragging. It now has preserved 100 million electronic records since opening its doors in Cheney in 2004. It’s worth noting that about 40 million of these records originated from other states, but 100 million is a pretty impressive figure regardless. Secretary Reed, State Archivist Jerry Handfield and others were on hand to celebrate the big…

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Hard Times in Washington: Hunger March

Hard Times in Washington: Hunger March

Photograph courtesy of the Washington State Archives, Susan Parish Collection and Vibert Jeffers. On January 16, 1933 hundreds of people gathered on the State Capitol steps in Olympia for a “Hunger March” to demand food, shelter, relief and programs to create jobs for the unemployed throughout Washington State. October is Washington Archives Month, and this year’s theme is Washington’s struggles and setbacks over the years and how the people of this state have overcome them.

Hard Times in Washington: Old State Capitol Fire

Hard Times in Washington: Old State Capitol Fire

Photograph courtesy of the Washington State Archives In September 1928, fire broke out on the 3rd floor of the old State Capitol Building,  destroying the decorative, 150-foot-tall octagonal clock tower.  Olympia and Tacoma firefighters quickly doused the fire out.  The building itself was soon-after repaired, but the clock tower, deemed unsafe, was never replaced.  October is Washington Archives Month, and this year’s theme is Washington’s struggles and setbacks over the years and how the people of this state have overcome them.

Ahh….Summer’s Finally Here!

Ahh….Summer’s Finally Here!

Photograph courtesy of the Washington State Digital Archives With temperatures soaring to the mid 90s today and Thursday, there’s no better way to cool off than to dip into a lake, swim down a river or jump across the waves of the Pacific Ocean.  Washington offers us so many places to play and enjoy the summertime heat.  Pictured above are teenagers surf bathing off Crescent Beach in Washington sometime between 1955 and 1965.