From the desk of Kathryn Devine, from materials compiled in part by Judy Pitchford.

Have you seen the library’s Classics in Washington History page? It’s an online collection of full-text books on Washington History.

Topics include county and regional history, military history, women’s stories, and other special collections that “bring together rare, out of print titles for easy access by students, teachers, genealogists, and historians.”

In remembrance of the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, we’d like to highlight several documents from the Washington State Library’s federal collection on the Japanese internment camps.

Some are contemporary studies of life in the camps, and others contain testimony from survivors about the experience.

Contemporary Reports and Analysis

Community analysis notes

War Relocation Authority, Documents Section, Office of Reports

[Washington, D.C.] : War Relocation Authority, c1944-1945

These reports were compiled by staff of the War Relocation Authority, a civilian agency responsible for the relocation of evacuees. It includes many interviews with internees and their attitudes toward the U. S. because of the internment.

www.sos.wa.gov/library/publications_detail.aspx?p=134

Community analysis report

War Relocation Authority, Documents Section, Office of Reports

[Washington, D.C.] : War Relocation Authority, c1942-1946

These reports deal with issues of unrest in the camps, religion and labor unrest. It also explore attitudes in the surrounding communities on the possible return of the Japanese.

www.sos.wa.gov/library/publications_detail.aspx?p=133

 Project analysis series

War Relocation Authority, Documents Section, Office of Reports

[Washington, D.C.] : War Relocation Authority, c-1946

These reports cover the Tule Lake incident, questions of repatriation and community government.

www.sos.wa.gov/library/publications_detail.aspx?p=135

Trends in the relocation centers. III

War Relocation Authority, Community Analysis Section

[Washington, D.C.] : The Section, [1945]

This document addresses the concerns of evacuees about the closing of the relocation centers and how their needs were to be met re-entering society.

www.sos.wa.gov/library/publications_detail.aspx?p=282

Later Reports from Congressional Hearings

Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians act : hearing before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, Ninety-sixth Congress, second session, on S. 1647, March 18, 1980

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs

Washington : U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1980

Testimony before a commission investigating the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.

www.sos.wa.gov/library/publications_detail.aspx?p=264

Personal justice denied : report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians : report for the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs 

United States. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians

Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs., 1992

A congressional committee report based on personal testimony and written documentation from witnesses who lived through the Japanese internment.

www.sos.wa.gov/library/publications_detail.aspx?p=263

Oral History from the Legacy Project

Robert Graham: Not-So-Simple Twists of Fate

An oral history from the Legacy Project, Office of the Secretary of State.

www.sos.wa.gov/legacyproject/oralhistories/RobertGraham/default.aspx

Mr. Graham relates his own experiences in World War II, including the fate of one of his Japanese-American friends, Perry Saito.

Looking for more information on the history of Executive Order 9066, Japanese internment, or any other aspect of Pacific Northwest history? Contact us through our Ask A Librarian service or make a research appointment to visit the Library.

John Glenn and Washington State Librarian Maryan Reynolds at Century 21.

From the desk of Mary Paynton Schaff

American hero John Glenn died yesterday after an action-packed 95 years. Glenn was a decorated fighter pilot who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross five times, the first American to orbit the Earth in the Friendship 7 capsule, a 24 year public servant as a Senator from Ohio, and the oldest person to ever fly in space when he flew aboard the shuttle Columbia in 1998. It would be hard to underestimate Glenn’s impact on American culture. His legacy was cemented for many during his first historic space flight in February 1962 – the same year as Seattle’s World Fair, Century 21.

Century 21 opened on February 21, 1962, a mere two months after Glenn’s achievement. As a celebration of science and technology, Century 21 was a natural outlet for celebration of this triumph.  John Glenn  visited the Fair on May 21, 1962 and that’s when a fascinating intersection with Washington State Library occurred.

At the urging of the Washington Library Association, the American Library Association had sponsored a Century 21 exhibit on the library of the future, which was called “Library 21.” Employees from the State Library staffed the exhibit through a deal with the U.S. Office of Education that was brokered by Senator Warren Magnuson. Former State Librarian Maryan Reynolds takes up the story in her book about the history of the State Library, “Dynamics of Change”:

In May 1962, the State Library hosted the Western State Library Conference in Olympia. Naturally, a visit to Library 21 was on the agenda. In the middle of the conference I was summoned to take a call from Senator Magnuson’s office; lo and behold, Magnuson had arranged for the celebrated astronaut John Glenn to visit the Library 21 exhibit and wanted me to be present. Library conference or not, there was no refusing this request. I was present as the famous man toured the exhibit. I recall remarking, near the end of Glenn’s visit, ‘I’m never going to participate in another mob scene like this!’ A newsman, overhearing me, gleefully commented, ‘Oh, yes you will!’

Most of the details about Library 21, as well as Glenn’s reaction to it, are currently lost to history. But several photos of Glenn touring the exhibit with Maryan Reynolds remain. The prints are stored in Manuscript 321, which contains the draft and source materials for “Dynamics of Change.” The one below appears in the book, but we’re partial to the top image that shows Glenn examining something (or perhaps signing an autograph) while a beaming Maryan looks on, decked out in a fine paisley suit (possibly space inspired), hat, and beaded necklace. If only the photo was in color – that outfit must have been amazing.

John Glenn and Maryan Reynolds shake hands at Century 21.

The Washington State Archives has posted additional photos of Glenn’s visit to Century 21 on its Facebook page. Godspeed, John Glenn.

From the desk of Mary Paynton Schaff

Read Volume 1 here

From 1943 until 1951, the matter of designating an official Washington state bird languished.  Legislators seemed reluctant to bring the matter to a vote and interested outside groups appear to have lost hope in forcing their lawmakers to act.  Finally in 1951, another wave of interest in making the willow goldfinch official broke ashore, courtesy of a group of determined women from the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs.

Enter Emma Otis, whose obituary caught the attention of our staff last October.  After Emma’s death, her granddaughter, Nancy Pugh, kindly shared with us some of Emma’s handwritten notes about her efforts to make the willow goldfinch Washington’s official state bird. Following some general observations about the goldfinch, its behavior and birdy character (“Responsibility seems to rest lightly upon the shoulders of the goldfinch”), Emma provided some context for these remarks:

This is the original script I used at a meeting of Capital District of Garden Clubs, when I was Bird Chairman for the District (Pierce & Thurston Counties). Concluded by saying that I hoped someday that this bird would be officially adopted as the State bird. The President asked if I would like to make a motion to that effect, which I did. Went something like this, “I move that the Capital District of Garden Clubs of WA go on record as favoring the adoption of the Willow Goldfinch as the official bird of the State of Washington and that it be presented to the State Federation of Garden Clubs for approval and an attempt be made to present it at the forthcoming meeting of the Legislature.”

The historical record is rather quiet on just when and how this was accomplished.  It is probable that Emma’s speech took place prior to the beginning of the 1951 Legislative Session, which convened January 8, 1951.  We consulted our collection of Olympia Garden Club manuscript materials, and unfortunately evidence to support Emma’s story was missing from the Olympia club’s 1950/1951 meeting minutes – probably because she spoke at a district meeting and not an Olympia club meeting.  The minutes do indicate there was some sort of state bird billboard campaign (no specifics provided) and it’s quite likely that the Federation of Garden Clubs encouraged its members to write letters petitioning their legislators.  Schoolchildren may again have been involved; a March 1963 Seattle Times article indicates that their vote in 1951 determined the fate of the state bird.  Again, evidence is not forthcoming regarding this claim.

The only other clear documentation of the leadership provided by the Federation of Garden Clubs on the matter of the state bird was a blurb that appeared in the March 1951 Olympia Garden Club newsletter, The Garden Gate.  Blanche Andreus and Gwen Hofer are specifically mentioned for their hard work in getting the “Bird Bill” passed.  As one might now expect, additional research into the background of these ladies and the work they did on behalf of the willow goldfinch was also unfruitful.

However they accomplished it, the women of the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs put enough pressure on the Legislature that lawmakers were finally ready to act once they convened in 1951.  Senate Bill 318 was introduced by Senator Carlton Sears of Thurston County on February 15, 1951.  The stage was now set to get the willow goldfinch on the books as the official state bird.

Stay tuned for Volume 3 to see just how the Legislature responded to their call to action.

From the desk of Mary Paynton Schaff

Every school child knows that the willow goldfinch is the official State Bird of Washington.  But less well known is the fact that the willow goldfinch had a long and controversial road to approval – 23 years of bickering and grandstanding, all of which culminated in a dramatic and highly amusing floor debate in the state’s House of Representatives.

But first, let’s go back to 1928 when Washington’s school children were given the task of selecting a state bird.  According to this website, the children selected the western meadowlark, a lovely bird with a problem.  The meadowlark was already state bird of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Oregon (selected in 1927 also by a poll of Oregon school children and made official with their governor’s proclamation).  It would go on to become the state bird of Montana, Kansas, and North Dakota as well, making it the second most popular state bird in the United States.  Clearly, school children across the country were partial to the meadowlark, but Washington needed a bird that was more unique.

In 1931, the Washington Federation of Women’s Clubs took up the issue, polling their membership over which bird should have the honor.  The ladies returned a different result: the willow goldfinch.  But rather than deciding the question, popular opinion had it that Washington now had two unofficial state birds.

And no one seemed in a hurry to decide the matter.  A full 12 years passed before the Senate passed Senate Bill 134 making the willow goldfinch the official state bird and the rhododendron the official state flower. The February 9, 1943 Seattle Times then described a prophetic exchange between Senator Barney Jackson of Pierce County and Senator Paul G. Thomas of King County during the floor debate regarding the state bird:

Jackson: What is the difference between a goldfinch and a mugwump?

Thomas: A goldfinch is a bird, but a mugwump is something that just sits on a fence with his mug on one side and his wump on the other.

But despite the senators’ self-aware debate of the goldfinch, the House of Representatives never took action on SB 134, and the official authorization languished in committee no man’s land.  Washington was now going on 15 years with no official state bird.  Just how long could the Legislature ignore the unofficial dual bird situation?  Tune in for our next installment to find out.

From the desk of Mary Paynton Schaff

Fall might seem an odd time to think about weeding, but in the world of libraries weeding happens all the time. Weeding is the term libraries use to describe removing books from a collection. And contrary to what one might assume about the State Library’s collections, books don’t just come here to gather dust in perpetuity. We weed like other research libraries weed, and a book might find its way out the door or moved into another collection for a variety of reasons.

1)      The book no longer fits within our collection development guidelines or library mission

2)      The book contains outdated or inaccurate information

3)      We have more copies than we need

4)      The information contained in the book can be more easily be found online

5)      The collection is out of shelving space

6)      The book has not been used in many years

7)      The book is too damaged to be useful any longer and new copies can be found to purchase

Currently our librarians are weeding our Reference Collection and Northwest Collection and finding new homes for books that no longer meet our needs. What happens to books that are weeded out of these central library collections? The State Library’s branches, including prison and hospital libraries, have first dibs on the central library’s discards, followed by other Olympia-area state government branches. If a book can’t find a home in any of those places, we dispose of the items through the Washington State Surplus program. Materials that are officially surplussed can be donated to other locations, including officially designated rehabilitation workshops such as Goodwill. A significant portion of weeded materials are destroyed when none of the surplus qualifications are met.

Other Washington State Library collections like the State and Federal Depository programs have different rules for weeding materials based on the rules that govern their operation. Weeded copies from these State Library collections may find their way to local state or federal depository libraries near you.

For an amusing look at the world of library weeding, including the importance of keeping library collections relevant and up-to-date, check out Awful Library Books.

Washington Reads – A Sudden Light by Garth Stein (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014. 416 pp.)

Recommendation by Mary Paynton Schaff, Reference Librarian, Washington State Library

Fall means ghosts, creepy old houses, and stories about families scarred by tragedy. So now’s the perfect opportunity to gather up your afghan, sit by the fire with a cup of hot cider, and dive into Garth Stein’s newest book, “A Sudden Light.”

Fourteen-year-old narrator Trevor is brought to crumbling Riddell House in north Seattle by his father in the summer of 1990. Trevor’s father Jones has a lot on his plate: settle the Riddell family estate, get his father into a nursing home, make amends to his sister Serena who has spent the better part of her life nursing their father, and make his peace with the untimely death of their mother. Last but not least, Trevor is hoping his father can find a way to repair his marriage to Trevor’s mother, despite the fact they are currently separated by thousands of miles. As Jones begins to wrestle with these issues, Trevor is drawn into the history of the storied Riddell family and the monumentally fascinating but literally decomposing Riddell House. Trevor is aided in his exploration of the house, and his family history, by an unlikely guide who reveals to him further betrayals, tragedies, and opportunities.

The Washington setting of “A Sudden Light” plays a crucial role in Trevor’s coming of age story. The Riddells make their fortune in logging, as many Northwest pioneers did. Each of Trevor’s ancestors has a relationship to the trees; cutting them, climbing them, or building something out of the wood. As the profits from the trees roll in, the Riddells became the fashionable aristocracy of Seattle society. Lumber barons make deals with railroad magnates. And when Trevor’s guide steers him to John Muir’s “The Mountains of California,” Trevor begins to wonder what costs might have incurred as the family chopped and bargained its way to the top.

There’s an enjoyable gothic overtone to “A Sudden Light.” Exploring an old haunted house has been a favorite literary device from Jane Eyre to Rebecca to Scooby Doo. The library, ballroom, locked trunks, and secret stairways you hope Trevor will find are all there. Adding to this reading satisfaction, Stein further layers in a generational family saga, lost journals in leather bindings, the relationship between fathers and sons, pairs of doomed lovers, conflicting promises, and the sublime joy that can be found in nature. (This librarian experienced such joy simply reading Stein’s description of historical research undertaken in a pre-internet public library, using microfilm no less!)

So rest your bones and dig into this satisfying Northwest work of fiction.

ISBN-10: 1439187037

Available at the Washington State Library
Audio book available through the publisher.

From the desk of Mary Paynton Schaff

The expertise of the reference librarians at the Washington State Library has enabled even more people to find the government information they’re looking for. During the first quarter of 2014, librarians answered 449 questions regarding Washington State government, including referring individuals to the correct state agency, locating information on agency websites, and providing access to thousands of Washington state publications. Additional referrals were made to the appropriate federal or local government agency. The majority of the questions received came from users of Access Washington, the state’s centralized website for government information.

Through a partnership with the Department of Enterprise Services, the Washington State Library provides assistance to website visitors struggling to find the information they need. The Pew Research Center’s Search Engine 2012 report indicates that 41% of online searchers retrieved conflicting information during a search and weren’t able to tell what was correct, and 38% of searchers have gotten so many results that they felt overwhelmed. Add these facts to the layered nature of government information, and informed help becomes a vital link in creating an engaged, well-informed populace.

During January-April of 2014, staff at the State Library answered 353 questions through its online chat service, which enables an information searcher to chat in real time with a librarian who can walk them through the process of locating the government information they need. Live chat is accessible through a customizable widget that can be placed on any website to allow a seamless transition, or by linking the Washington State Library’s Ask page .

The Washington State Library’s customer surveys for the first quarter of 2014 indicate that 89% received an answer better than they could find on their own, 96% would use the State Library’s Ask service again, and 96% would recommend the service to a friend.

The Washington State Library is eager to expand this vital service to additional governmental and quasi-governmental agencies. If you are interested in placing an Ask a Librarian chat widget on your website, or want to find out how to leverage the knowledge of the librarians at the State Library to assist your customers, contact Crystal Lentz at [email protected].

From the desk of Kim Smeenk

Fires, volcanoes, and floods, oh my!

The Pacific Northwest has seen its share of natural disasters over the years. Forest fires, windstorms like the Columbus Day Storm in 1962, and the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.    The Washington State Library has books, magazine articles, government reports and documentaries about these events.

If you want to read what the newspapers were reporting as the disasters were unfolding, you can find those articles in the State Library’s microfilm newspaper collection.  If you can’t make it to our library, don’t worry, we lend out many of our books, and all of our microfilmed newspapers, to people all over the world through interlibrary loan.
Contact us if you have questions.

In 1963 Ellis Lucia published The big blow; the story of the Pacific Northwest’s Columbus Day storm, about the Pacific Northwest windstorm that killed over  40 people, and caused millions of dollars in damages.

The following year, Dorothy Franklin published West Coast Disaster, Columbus Day, 1962

The great Forks fire, by Mavis Amundson, describes the fast moving forest fire
on the Olympic Peninsula in September 1951 that threatened to destroy the town of  Forks, WA.

Olympia Daily Recorder August 13 1910

1910 was another year of massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest.  There were more than 1,700 fires that burned three million acres, and killed over 80 people.

Year of Fires by Stephen J. Pyne, and The Big Burn by Don Miller are just a few of the books we have about these fires.

For official state reports from that time, you can come to the State Library to read the 100+ year old annual Report(s) of the State Forester and Fire Warden

The most famous natural disaster in Washington State was the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980.  These are just a few of the titles the State Library has about this event.

Citizen response to volcanic eruptions: the case of Mt. St. Helens by Ronald W. Perry and Marjorie R. Greene.

Echoes of fury : the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and the lives it changed forever / Frank Parchman

Mt. St. Helens : surviving the stone wind by Catherine Hickson

Portrait of Mount St. Helens : a changing landscape / essays by Chuck Williams and Stuart Warren

The eruption of Mount St. Helens [videorecording] DVD

Mt. St. Helens [videorecording] : back from the dead DVD

You can find all of these items and more in our online catalog.

If you have questions about how to borrow any of our books or newspaper microfilm, contact us at [email protected].

The Boys in the Boat.  By Daniel James Brown. (New York : Viking Adult, 2013. 416pp.)

Recommendation by Mary Paynton Schaff, Reference Librarian at the Washington State Library.

Once again the world’s best athletes have gathered to compete in the Olympic games, and television viewers can’t get enough.  Standout personalities shine in the individual competitions like speed skating, skiing, and snowboarding.  American broadcasts indulge in extended biographical features about our favorite competitors and their hometowns.  It’s clear our society loves to celebrate individual accomplishment, and no wonder.  To stand on the gold medal podium in triumph is no small feat.

But despite the celebrity of our individual winners, it’s the Olympic team sports that have the capacity to draw us in and capture the nationalistic pride like nothing else.  For every Michelle Kwan, there’s a “Miracle on Ice.”  For every Jesse Owens, there a University of Washington’s Eight Man Rowing Team.

You might be forgiven if in contemplating the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, your thoughts immediately go to Hitler’s Germany and the accomplishments of Owens.  But after reading Daniel Brown’s “The Boys in the Boat,” your view will be considerably widened.  1936 was more than the dawn of the Third Reich and slide toward world war.  It was the slogging end of the Great Depression, where thousands of young American men struggled to find work, put themselves through school, and hold their desperate families together.  The Olympics were more than the city of Berlin, with its systematic white washing of Germany’s anti-Semitic laws.  The Olympic story included rough and tumble logging towns like Sequim and Montesano, Depression-era boom towns like Grand Coulee, and gritty Northwest cities coming of age like Seattle.  And Olympic athletes were more than solitary figures standing on a podium.  They were teams of boys in boats.

Part of what makes Brown’s book so compelling is the exploration of what it means to be part of a rowing team.  Who creates the team?  Husky coaching icon Al Ulbrickson.  Who makes the team? Joe Rantz, for one.  Who inspires the team? Legendary boat builder George Pocock.  What does it take to make a successful team?  A comingling of found talent, hours of practice on Lake Washington in the pouring rain, healthy competition from your rival school the Cal Bears, and inspired leadership from your coach and brilliant coxswain Bobby Moch.  And what does it feel like to be part of a winning team?  The perfectly described notion of “swing,” which, when once accomplished with your fellow oarsman, allows you to fly across the water in perfect synchronicity.

“The Boys in the Boat” captures more than a moment in time.  It paints the picture of the Northwest on the brink, balancing between the old-fashioned notion of the Wild West and the boom times of the 1940s.  It depicts the ambition of the US Olympic committee members, who were determined to participate in the Olympics whether Jews were being persecuted in Germany or not (an attitude that may seem familiar even today).  But more than anything, Brown’s book emphasizes the importance of teams and teamwork.  For while all the boys felt like only a set of random circumstances landed them in that boat on the Langer See, their efforts not only defined them as adults, but also defined the Northwest as a center for athleticism, culture, and all-American can-do attitude.

Watch the 1936 Gold Medal Rowing race here.

ISBN: 978-0670025817

Available at the Washington State Library NW 979.123 Brown 2013
Audio book available through the publisher.

From the desk of Mary Paynton Schaff

It is not an uncommon occurrence for the reference librarians at the Washington State Library to be called upon for assistance by journalists.  Questions come in regularly from newspaper reporters, bloggers, and radio contributors.  So when Wall Street Journal reporter Michael M. Phillips contacted the Library about tracking down relatives of some Washington World War II veterans, librarian Kathryn Devine stepped up to provide information on the fates of these servicemen.  The results of Kathryn’s collaboration with him can be seen in Phillips’s monumental report for the WSJ, “Lobotomy Files.” Kathryn assisted Phillips with records, obituaries, and surviving family members for five Washington veterans profiled in “Lobotomy Files,” including Leonard Kingcade whose story is profiled in detail as a case study called, “A Descent into Madness.”

Phillips’s work with primary sources, newspaper accounts, and oral history packs an emotional wallop, especially when one draws parallels between the current psychiatric treatment of our many returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with PTSD.  The impact of “Lobotomy Files” can be seen in this blog post where Phillips discusses what went in to creating the report with his readers.  As for Kathryn, she says, “I’m happy the library could help Michael tell this important story.”

For all the staff at the Washington State Library, “Lobotomy Files” is a clear reminder of the importance of our historical collections.  The dry, long dead facts of one person’s life, recorded and preserved only in musty boxes and reels of microfilm, can, with diligent and compassionate research, be translated into a document that shines a powerful light on the 21^st Century condition.  To find your own powerful moment in Washington history, check out the Washington State Library’s many print and digital resources.