In 1892, there was a hotly contested election in Washington State…for a flower.

Tacoma Daily News July 16 1892

The 1893 World’s Fair was fast approaching, and the state flower would be part of the exhibit for Washington State.

It came down to Clover vs. Rhododendron, and it was decided that the women of the state would vote…and only the women.

They didn’t have the right to vote in any other election until 1910, but this time it was the men who were not allowed to cast a ballot…even if they were gardeners.

Tacoma Daily News June 17 1892

The campaign was hard fought.

Some people didn’t like the name of the rhododendron.  It was too long and too hard to spell.

Others claimed they had never seen one before, and the state flower should be grown all over the state.

Tacoma Daily News July 14 1892

Polls opened across the state and thousands of women voted.

After the polls closed on August 1, the Rhododendron had won.

These are some of the books about Rhododendrons that you can find at the Washington State Library.

The Pacific Coast Rhododendron Story, and Rhododenrons in the Landscape are both written by Sonja Nelson, who was an editor of the Journal American Rhododendron Society.

The first title is more of a history, with descriptions of the different varieties.

In the second book, she provides extensive advice on how to use rhododendrons in different styles of landscaping.

Rhododendrons in America by Ted Van Veen, provides a nice introduction to gardening with rhododendrons.

He has a list of the different hybrids created as of 1969, and color photographs on every page.

Come and visit us at the Washington State Library, or browse our catalog, if you’re looking for books about Rhododendrons, or newspaper articles that tell the story of how it became our state flower.

In 1947, if you had never seen one before, who could help you learn how to choose and use a washing machine?

In 1950, before HGTV and Martha Stewart, where could you go to learn how to tackle DIY projects like reupholstering a chair?

Luckily, Washington state citizens did not have to look far for help, because for over 100 years the Extension Service at the State College of Washington (now Washington State University) has offered demonstrations, and printed bulletins on these topics and thousands more.

Those thousands of bulletins can be found at the Washington State Library.

They are part of our State Publications collection, which has hundreds of thousands of reports, magazines, newsletters and yes, those bulletins, that have been published by Washington state and territorial agencies for over 150 years.

The range of the topics the Extension Service bulletins cover is awe inspiring.

You can find Sewing is Easy and Fun (1947) and Bitterness in Cucumbers (1972) and even Sheep Measles (1958).

They offered advice for people who were getting electricity and indoor plumbing for the first time.

What is Adequate Wiring? was written in 1940, and helped these new users of electricity to plan for their electrical needs for both their homes and farms for the next 5 years.

Planning the Efficient Kitchen (1946) and Planning the Bathroom (1949) both go into great detail to help people design these rooms.

They include illustrations of fixtures, floorplans and recommended measurements for cabinets, shelves and counters.  They offer assistance with selecting wall finishes and floor coverings.

You could learn how to make a cotton mattress (1940), iron a shirt (1954),
co-ordinate your accessories with a basic wardrobe (1950) and
how to sew an outfit for graduation (1954).

You could get recipes from Our Cooky Book (1954), learn how to Feed a crowd safely (1976), and find out all about Outdoor Cookery for the Family (1958) – otherwise known as barbecuing.

Despite the broad range of topics, their main target audience was living in rural areas and on farms. So there are hundreds of pamphlets on crops and farm animals.

You could get detailed instructions on growing just about anything.

In 1959, they first published Growing Strawberries in Washington, which described soil types, the varieties of strawberries, fertilizer and irrigation, how and when to plant, and how to harvest.

You can also find bulletins about any threat to those crops, including Fire Blight (1966), the Codling Moth (1969), and the Carrot Rust Fly (1979), and Curly Top (1969), which sounds cute, but is actually a disease that affects tomatoes and beets.

If you were thinking of starting a dairy farm, you could learn everything from What to feed the Dairy Herd (1943), to Raising Dairy Calves (1938) and how to breed Genetically Superior Dairy Cows (1982).

If you were thinking of adding a herd of pigs to your farm, Making Pigs Pay (1949) tells you how to pick good stock, how to breed them, feed them, build housing for them and treat their diseases.

The Cooperative Extension System is alive and well today in America.

The Washington State office is still run out of Washington State University in Pullman.

Today you can go to their web site to access just as wide a range of information as they offered 50 or 100 years ago.

You can browse the Extension Service titles in the State Library’s collection.

Contact us if you have any questions about using any of these items from our State Publications Collection.

[email protected] / 360.704.5221

From the desk of Kathryn Devine

Every year, the Thursday of National Library Week, April 17th  this year, is set aside as Teen Literature Day.

Check out these teen books at the Washington State Library.

Meet Hannah West—smart, resilient, slightly sarcastic, and sometimes too
nosy for her own good.

She’s a young Seattleite whose favorite pastimes include watching the Crime Network, Law & Order, Monk, Columbo, or any mystery show really.
All of which provide a solid education when she tries to untangle her first real mystery in her own (temporary) home in Hannah West in the Belltown Towers.

Not to give too much away—but there are missing paintings, a ubiquitous bike messenger, and a shady artist who may be involved.

This is a fun read peppered with references to Seattle locations and culture.
Linda Johns, author and librarian at the Seattle Public Library, has created a wonderful character to spend some time with.

You can follow Hannah’s other adventures, all set in the Seattle area:

Hannah West in Deep Water (2006)

Hannah West in the Center of the Universe (2007)

Hannah West on Millionaire’s Row (2007)

Here are a few other series for teens, also at the Washington State Library.

Dear America

1. West to a Land of Plenty 

2. Across the wide and lonesome prairie: the Oregon Trail Diary

3. The Fences Between Us (Kirby Larson) 

Carl Deuker Sports fiction for Teens

1. On the Devil’s Court (1988)

2. Painting the black (1997)

3. Night hoops (2000)

4. High Heat (2003)

5. Runner (2005)

6. Gym Candy (2007)

7. Payback Times (2010)

Come and visit us, or browse the catalog, if you’re  looking for teen fiction written in or about the Pacific Northwest.

If you haven’t read poetry in a while, now is the perfect time to start again – April is National Poetry Month.

In his National Poetry Month proclamation, Governor Inslee called on

“…all the people of Washington to observe National Poetry Month in a more meaningful, personal way…as a means to offer comfort and solace to those who are suffering as a result of the Oso mudslide.”

One way to do so is to submit a poem yourself to the Art with a Heart – Response to Oso tumblr forum.

The Washington State Arts Commission runs the forum.  Among the poems you can find there is one written by Elizabeth Austen, the Washington State Poet Laureate.

If you would like to read poetry written by other Washington state poets, browse the Washington State Library’s collection for the poetry books listed in our catalog.

Here are just a few excerpts from that collection that might, as the governor said, “offer comfort and solace.”

Grace Abounding
I’m saved in this big world by unforeseen
friends, or times when only a glance
from a passenger beside me, or just the tired
branch of a willow inclining toward earth,
may teach me how to join earth and sky.
Even in Quiet Places by William Stafford (1996)

Nooksack Valley
At the far end of a trip north
In a berry-pickers cabin
At the edge of a wide muddy field
Stretching to the woods and cloudy mountains,
Feeding the stove all afternoon with cedar,
Watching the dark sky darken, a heron flap by,
Riprap, & Cold Mountain Poems by Gary Snyder (1965)

 Riverbed
We walk on round stones, all flawlessly bedded,
Where water drags the cracked dome of the sky
Riverbed by David Wagoner (1972)

His Father’s Whistle
For hours the boy fought sleep,
strained against the whir of cicadas, moths
at the screens bumbling, night’s
blue breezes, to hear out on the country road
his father’s car rumbling in gravel.
Earthly Meditations by Robert Wrigley (2006)

Northern Lights
Once more it’s the rainbow leaps
and foldings of the old process,
a whole border of pink roses
growing wild on the horizon.
The Dark Path of Our Names by Joan Swift (1985)

Mount Alaska Stream
In the pines
where the sun never shines
a small, damp fire filled mountains
green lungs of each century
Orcas Island by Don Wilsun (1980)

Untitled by Nasira Alma
in cascades
down the blooming rocks
yesterday’s rain
Sunlight through Rain: A Northwest Haiku Year (1996)

Come and visit us, or browse the catalog, if you’re  looking for a poetry book written in or about the Pacific Northwest.

Do you know what you can find in a city directory?

If you want to research your home, your family history,
or local history you’ll want to use city directories.

They are similar to telephone books in that they were published every year, and they list the people living in a city….but city directories have so much more information.

You can find out the name of a spouse, both living and deceased.

Everett City Directory 1939

You can find out someone’s profession.

Wenatchee City Directory 1936

You can look up a company, and find out who was in charge.

Spokane City Directory 1893

If you are researching the history of your house you can search most city directories by street
address, instead of by a name, and find out who lived at a particular address.

Bellingham City Directory 1939

This is a partial list of people and businesses located on Meridian Street in Bellingham in 1939.

In 1939, the Fountain Plumbing Co. could be found at 2309 Meridian.  Today, over 70 years later,  there is still a home improvement business at that address.

Not a plumbing company,  but a store selling recycled and salvaged building supplies.

You can track your ancestors year by year.

You not only find out if their address changed, but also if their employment or marital status changed.  These 1936 and 1938 Wenatchee city directories tell us that Don Miller got promoted during those years, becoming the President/Manager of North Central Chevrolet.

1936

1938

City directories also provide a historical snapshot of the city.  There is usually a profile of the city
at the beginning of each one, along with some statistical data.

Ellensburg City Directory 1968

The information provided varies from year to year and city to city.

This example from the 1968 Ellensburg City Directory tells us what their population was, and what their media, entertainment and transportation options were.

It gets even more detailed, and tells us how many beds the hospital had, how many volumes the library held, how many telephones were in use.
*click on the image to read those numbers*

There might not be surviving data from the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce, but since they provided these statistics, along with the historical and economic data for the directory, we still have this historical snapshot of Ellensburg in 1968.

The directories after about 1920 usually have a yellow pages section where the businesses, churches, and government offices are listed by subject.

You can find out who all the local officials were….the mayor, police chief, and so on.
If the town happens to have Federal Government offices, you can find out who was in charge of them, as we can see in this  1955 Moses Lake city directory.

Moses Lake City Directory 1955

You can even find a future president….living with his mother in Seattle in 1961-1962.

Seattle City Directory 1961-1962

The Washington State Library has a collection of city directories for cities all over the state.

This page on our web site lists all of the city directories in our collection.
www.sos.wa.gov/library/cityList.aspx#washington

Contact us if you have any questions about using our city directory collection.
[email protected]   /   360.704.5221

Double Trouble in Walla Walla.

The Adventure on Klickitat Island

What do these titles have in common?

Well, they contain two of Washington State’s very unique place names.  Walla Walla and Klickitat are just fun to say.

They are also part of our collection of children’s books here at the Washington State Library.

We don’t just have history books and microfilm here at the State Library.  We collect any book written about, or set in, Washington State.  That includes picture books.

Double Trouble in Walla Walla by Andrew Clements is a wonderful tongue twister of a tale that is great fun to read aloud.

In Lulu’s English class one morning, there is an outbreak of “lippity-loppity jibber-jabber.”

Everyone is double talking – the students, the teachers, the nurse and even the principal.

He tries to deny it by saying “Tut-tut, sounds like silly-willy hocus pocus to me”.

It seems he has caught the double talk bug too.

Adventure on Klickitat Island by Hilary Horder Hippely is a beautifully illustrated nighttime adventure.  A little boy and his bear head out to help animals on the island who are wet and cold in a thunderstorm.

“On Klickitat Island
just think of the rains,
now soaking the otters
and poor baby cranes”

Once they get to the island, all of the animals work with him to build a shelter.  They triumph over the cold rainy night.

“With deer hauling driftwood
and cranes helping sort,
soon standing up tall
was a Klickitat fort!”

Come and visit us, or browse our catalog, if you’re  looking for a children’s book set in, or written about, Washington State.

From the desk of Kim Smeenk

Frost Burned

There is a bestselling fantasy series about werewolves and vampires
in Washington State, and it isn’t the one you’re thinking of.

Instead of the rain, mountains and misty forests that most people think of when they picture Washington State, Patricia Briggs has set her Mercy Thompson series where she herself lives.  The dry and sunny Tri Cities region in Eastern Washington.  More desert than forest, more farmland than mountains.

Tri Cities Region

Mercy Thompson is a young Volkswagen mechanic, who also has the ability to shift into a coyote.   This is why she can count amongst her family, friends, acquaintances and enemies, werewolves, witches, vampires, trolls, various other shape-shifters and members of the Fey.

Mercy isn’t a superhero.  Most of the time, she is the weakest supernatural creature in the room.   When we first meet her in Moon Called, she is driving an old VW Rabbit, and lives in an old single wide trailer outside of town with her cat Medea.

You just enjoy spending time with her in these books.  She faces life with humor, loyalty and grit.  There is the actual grit that comes from working on cars all day, but Mercy is also full up on the grit required to face all of those creatures who are stronger than her.  Facing them in her daily life – her neighbors happen to be werewolves – and facing them in battles she often doesn’t expect to win.   She fights those battles because friends are in trouble, or sometimes, it’s her enemies who are in trouble.

Life is complicated, but really, really interesting, in Mercy Thompson’s Tri Cities.

Iron Kissed

#1 Moon Called
#2 Blood Bound
#3 Iron Kissed
#4 Bone Crossed
#5 Silver Borne
#6 River Marked
#7 Frost Burned
#8 Night Broken

If your local library doesn’t have these titles, you can borrow them from the Washington State Library through interlibrary loan.
www.sos.wa.gov/library/