From the desk of Sean Lanksbury. PNW & Special Collections Librarian

49 years ago, Seattle’s Lower Queen Anne district was abuzz with excitement.  Many locals were curious to what the futurist wonder of the Century 21 World Exposition – still in construction – would hold for them when it opened.  Others were skeptical of the prospects for success and debated the costs involved.  Seattle now prepares for the 5oth Anniversary of the Fair, and it feels like a good time to give a brief overview of its history and impact on the city, and to highlight a few things that might assist researchers preparing histories of the event.

The World’s Fair began as the desire and vision of one man in particular, city council member Al Rochester (1895-1989).  As a young boy he attended Seattle’s Alaska-Yukon–Pacific Exposition (AYPE) held in 1909 on the nascent University of Washington campus.  Recalling the civic pride and recognizing vast commercial potential in such a grand event, Al wanted to commemorate its 50^th anniversary with another Seattle exposition.

Though Al’s idea was slow to excite the imagination of potential boosters, it eventually caught hold.  The Washington State Legislature was approached with the concept.  On November 20, 1955 the legislature resolved that a World’s Fair Commission would be created and given $5000.  Then the City Council submitted a bond proposal of $7,500,000 was issued to the people of Seattle. The voting majority approved it 187,053 yea to 63,752 nay.  The State of Washington matched that bond with an additional $7,500,000 bond, funded by an increase in Corporations fees.  The fees were adjusted by the legislature after realizing that they were significantly below all other western states and had been left unadjusted since statehood in 1889!

Construction began on a 74-acre plot at the base of Queen Anne Hill that prior to white settlement was known to natives as Baba’kwob, a prairie used for tribal gatherings.  In the 1860’s the land was homesteaded by early pioneers David Denny and Louisa Boren Denny, but retained the nickname common amongst white settlers: “Potlatch Meadows.”  This swale between Queen Anne and Denny Hill was the site of many pioneer social events such as circuses and tent revivalist meetings.  Denny Hill is no longer a part of the landscape, having been obliterated in the regrade of 1910.  The site was also significant as the location where a shaman named Chaoosh came to warn Denny, and the other whites of Seattle, of a coming attack by Natives outraged at the increasing arrogance of the government and settlers towards the tribes of the region.  This attack is remembered as the original “Battle of Seattle”.

At the time of construction, the land contained homes, schools and churches that were razed to the ground; all except the school playfield, the enormous National Guard Armory and a Civic Auditorium that was notorious for its terrible acoustics.  Soon the playfield became the site of the Exposition Stadium and International Fountain, the armory became the Food Circus – now known as the Center House – and the auditorium transformed into an acoustically improved Opera House – renovated again in 2003 and reopened as McCaw Hall.

The Commission hired Paul Thiry, a renowned Pacific Northwest architect who also designed the Pritchard Library Building, as the chief architect of the site.  He designed the new Washington State Coliseum, known currently as Key Center.  Seattle born architect Minoru Yamasaki designed the United States Science Pavilion (currently the Pacific Science Center).  UW Professor, Architect and chronicler of Pike Place Market life Victor Steinbrueck, UW engineering professor Al Miller, artist Earle Duff, designer John Ridley, and design partner Nate Wilkinson made hotelier and commission member Edward E. Carlson’s dream of a floating restaurant that highlighted the beautiful vistas of the state a reality.  The tallest building west of the Mississippi River when it was built, the Space Needle is a testament to high concept and daring made reality and since April 21, 1999, a national landmark.

The fair opened at 11 a.m. on April 21, 1962.  The planners knew that they would not be able to open on the 50^th anniversary of the A-Y-P, but to be fair, that 1909 event was supposed to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush to the Yukon, so it was oddly appropriate.  Another interesting connection is that this new center in a way realized a portion of civil engineer Virgil Bogue’s 1909 vision of a bustling civic center (albeit one more political than cultural) on almost the exact same spot.*

The forward-looking campus greeted nearly 10 million visitors who were treated to a broad array of diversions:

• Northwest quarter was the International Mall, representing select countries from across the globe, the Washington State Coliseum and its famous Bubbleator, a hydraulic elevator whose orb shaped transport refracted light prismatically and featured “space-age” music and narration.  Parts of the Bubbleator are now serving as exhibit pieces at MOHAI and another part at one point was the greenhouse of a Burien man who helped to build it.  A bit south of the coliseum was a dedicated NASA exhibition showing progress in the still furious race to space with the Soviet Union, the beautiful International Fountain that is still enjoyed today and the Fine Arts Pavillion that exhibited eight fantastic exhibitions – regional and international in scope – of upcoming and renowned artists.
• To the South of the Pavilion and Fountain were the Space Needle and the Friendship Mall that contained exhibits on the co-existence of faith and science and showcases for American industrial giants such as Ford Motor Company, Bell Systems, International Business Machines (IBM), General Electric and Standard Oil.
• In the Northeast quarter, was the Opera House and Stadium, Food Circus, plus amusements and rides in the carnival-like section known as The Gayway.  In the furthest northeast corner, there was Show Street.  Show Street was an adult themed entertainment district with Vegas showgirls, an adult puppet show put on by Sid and Marty Kroft and a famously shut down show of galactic-themed nude female models.  Despite the raised eyebrows and concerns that these risqué attractions would corrupt all adult attendees, the Fine Art Pavilion drew far more people and interest.

The World’s Fair was a badly needed boost to a city struggling since the growth experienced during World War Two, but it changed the city in so many ways.  The Space Needle redefined Seattle’s skyline, and the monorail transit system that the fair added still shuttles people between Downtown and Queen Anne to this day.

It Happened at the World’s Fair also paired Seattle with the Elvis the “Pelvis from Memphis” Presley.  Financially, the fair ended in the black, unlike many other World’s Fairs.  It is also interesting to note that other World’s Fair sites have failed to stick as landmarks within their host city.   Its power as a gathering place undiminished for centuries and the site, known as the Seattle Center since 1962,  is well-loved amongst the city’s people and continues to be developed in new ways to a meet the social needs of Seattleites and visitors worldwide.  The native peoples of this region have also found contemporary use for the space.  Local tribes returned to the Seattle Center in 1966 and 1986 to hold two major 20th Century Powwows.

The State Library has quite a few items of interest to Century 21 historians and enthusiasts.  Among those:

• 13 boxes of  World Fair Commission’s records and correspondence (MS 178), and collected by Mr. Ray Olsen, State Representative and Chairman of the Historical Committee for the State World’s Fair Commission.  This manuscript collection spans the years 1957-1963 and includes correspondence, minutes, the Commission’s organization, photographs, reports and committee assignments.  There’s lots of other fun stuff in this collection like the official souvenir program, magazines and newspaper clippings that cover the fair from construction to closing, stickers, and flyers.  Lastly it has a recording of a musical panorama for symphony orchestra titled, “The World of Century Twenty First” music by Alexander Laszlo; words by Wesley La Violette; narrated by Vincent Price and pressed as a vinyl record.  Hey, how hip is that?  Let’s hear it for vinyl records!
• A map of Seattle showing off the newly designated exposition grounds that, naturally, highlights some local spending opportunities (RARE MAP-1 912.7977 KING 1962?)
• A flyer for the gala opening concert, April 21, 1962, honoring famed Russian composer Igor Stravinsky on his 80th year and featuring the guest of honor as one of the evening’s conductors  (State Documents; WA 606 C33ga)
• Washington State Federation of Music Clubs’ brochure on Washington State composers, with a salute to the Seattle World’s Fair–Century 21 Exposition (RARE 780.9797 WASHING 1963)

Not mention Seattle Center and Century 21 Exposition clippings and pamphlet files and the ever-fabulous Washington Newspapers and Journals collections that cover this critical era of Puget Sound history.  Feel free to contact our staff via “Ask-a-Librarian” and ask about what else at the Washington State Library might be helpful or interesting to you.

Did you attend the Seattle World’s Fair?  Care to reminisce about your experience?  Please share your comments, we love a good story!

*Come to think of it, Bogue and his audacious plan could use a separate blog post.  Perhaps a bit more on that later.

To Build A Ship. By Don Berry.
Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press, 2004
(Copyright 1963, by Don Berry and first published by Viking Press)

Recommendation submitted by:
Will Stuivenga, Cooperative Projects Manager, Washington State Library, Tumwater, WA.

There are only a few settlers living in the Tillamook area as this story unfolds, but already they have a real problem. There’s no way in or out. No way to get their supplies in, or their produce out. They are isolated by mountains and forest. There are no roads, just trails, suitable for a man and a horse, but not for hauling supplies or goods. The only practical way in and out is by sea. And now the one and only sea captain who has been willing to cross their perilous bar and visit them once a year, has died.

So, they decide to build their own ship. That endeavor soon captures all of them – heart, mind and soul. Except for their shipwright, a strange and tortured creature who causes trouble when he falls in love with one of the Indian women.

Through this seemingly small crack, evil manages to pry its way into the story, leading to a chilling denouement midway through, providing an unwelcome stress point near the center of the tale which functions in the novel much like the pass over the coastal mountain range, which must be surmounted whenever anyone travels from the Tillamook country into the central Oregon valley, or vice-versa. This unwelcome bit of byplay, in which the Indians naturally come out suffering the worst, only serves to emphasize even more strongly the overwhelming nature of the hold the idea of the ship has over all of them.

This is the third segment in Don Berry’s masterful trilogy exploring the early era of Oregon history, centered around Tillamook. I’ve already written about the first two, Trask and Moontrap, respectively. This is the final chapter, and what a masterpiece! This is the best yet: a more powerful or effective novel has rarely been written. Highly recommended!

ISBN: 0-87071-040-0

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 813.6 BERRY 2004
Available as a talking book on cassette.
Not available as an eBook or Braille edition.

West of Here. By Jonathan Evison. Chapel Hill, NC : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2011. 486 p.

Recommendation submitted by:
Sean Lanksbury, NW and Special Collections Librarian, Washington State Library.

Jonathan Evison was awarded the 2009 Washington State Book Award (formerly the Governor’s Writers Awards) for his debut novel, All About Lulu. His second novel, West of Here, is an ambitious historical fiction that threads two eras of Pacific Northwest development together.

Set in the fictitious, but utterly recognizable Port Bonita, the filmic narrative cuts back and forth between the struggles  of newly arrived settlers and the native Klallam in late 1880’s Olympic peninsula and how their descendants face the present-day outcomes of their ancestors’ fears and ambitions.  Against a backdrop of a vast and indifferent wilderness, characters’ desires meet and crash against harsh truths as the many characters struggle to find themselves and their place within Port Bonita as the town first forms from a frontier settlement and more than a century later as it struggles to remain a community.

Fans of historical fiction will appreciatively debate the nod given to early journals of Olympic Peninsula exploration, particularly those of James Christie and the Press Expedition. Evison’s descriptive and modestly crafted prose will edge interested readers towards the novel’s conclusion.

ISBN-13: 978-1565129528

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 813.6 EVISON 2011
Available in eBook, Braille and digital talking book editions.

Lillian Walker, Washington State Civil Rights Pioneer: A Biography and Oral History. By Lillian Walker & John C. Hughes. Olympia, WA : Washington State Legacy Project, Office of the Secretary of State, c2010. 198 p.

Recommendation by:
Rand Simmons, Acting Washington State Librarian, Tumwater, WA.

“It was 1944, the apex of World War II, and on the home front the Navy was keeping an eye on its Negroes. Twelve hundred worked at the Bremerton shipyard, including 300 newcomers in the first eight weeks of the year. They were angry because many businesses, including cafes, taverns, drug stores and barber shops, displayed signs saying, “We Cater to White Trade Only.” One of the dissidents was 31-year-old Lillian Walker, whose husband worked at the shipyard. She was the recording secretary of the Puget Sound Civic Society, a civil rights coalition formed by the newly chartered Bremerton branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.” (Excerpt from Lillian Walker: Civil rights pioneer, John C. Hughes, http://www.sos.wa.gov/legacyproject/oralhistories/lillianwalker/default.aspx.)

This is the definitive biography of Ms. Walker, a civil rights pioneer in Washington State. It is both a biography and an oral history and eminently readable. Readers interested in race relations, civil rights history and the civil rights of African American women in particular will enjoy this book. This book is about the history of Bremerton, Washington and will appeal to those with an itch to read well written local history as well as to those who love to read biographies.

ISBN-13: 978-1889320229

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 323.092 WALKER 2010 / WA 353.1 St2lil w 2010.
Available in a Braille edition.
Oral history is available as a PDF edition. View online from Washington State Library.
Not available in talking book edition.

Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle.  By Murray Morgan. New York : Viking Press, c1951.  280 p. Reprinted in 1960, 1971, and 1982.

Recommendation by:
Lori Thornton, Head of Public Services, Washington State Library, Tumwater, WA.

“Skid road” is a phrase that conjures up many images and every Washingtonian should know the story behind that phrase because it had its genesis right here in western Washington.  Skid Road, the book by Murray Morgan is a true page turner that takes you through the history of Seattle via the lives of some of the more colorful residents of the city.  It is an exceptional book and very good read.  So go find a copy in a library or online and the next time you hear the phrase “skid road” you’ll not only have all the modern imagery in mind but the historical picture as well.

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 979.7771 MORGAN 1951.
See all available state library copies.
Available in cassette talking book and Braille editions.
Not available in an eReader edition.

This book also has the distinction of inclusion in The Washington 89, a list of essential Washington and Pacific Northwest history compiled by noted historian and bibliographer George H. Tweney.

The Search.  By Nora Roberts. New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, ©2010. 488 p.

Recommendation by:
Carolyn Petersen, CLRS Project Manager, Tumwater, WA.

Best selling author Nora Roberts moves to the San Juan Islands for another reliable romantic suspense novel.  Her protagonist trains police and search & rescue dogs on Orcas Island.  Fiona moved to the island after she had barely survived an attack from a serial killer. When a copycat killer arrives on the  island with her in his sights, Fiona needs the help of all the friends she has made on the Island to survive.

If you are a Roberts fan, you will appreciate her trademark banter and the sensuous romance she weaves so well into her stories.  The dogs bring the heroine and her hero together.  This is a good entry book for those who haven’t picked up previously read any of Roberts contemporary romance titles.  Pleasant reading.

ISBN-13: 978-0399156571

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 813.6 ROBERTS 2010.
Available in eReader and Talking Book editions.
Not available in a Braille edition.

Moontrap. By Don Berry.
Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press, 2004
(Copyright 1962, by Don Berry and first published by Viking Press)

Recommendation submitted by:
Will Stuivenga, Cooperative Projects Manager, Washington State Library, Tumwater, WA.

In Moontrap, the second book in author Don Berry’s trilogy depicting the early history of Oregon, we encounter two mountain men, Johnson “Jaybird” Monday and Webster W. Webster, “Webb” to his friends or compatriots. Monday is trying to settle down, staking a farming claim on land along the Willamette, just across from Oregon City, the first important Oregon settlement. Just as he’s beginning to think that maybe he can learn how to fit into “normal” society, along comes old Webb, riding his equally old and bony horse, still living his mountain man lifestyle, camping along the edges of society, with no use for towns, or any of the other trappings of civilization.

That Monday lives with his common-law wife, Mary, a Shoshone Indian woman, who is about to bear his first child only adds to his difficulties integrating into “civilized” society. Her presence does not sit well with powerful and bigoted men who apparently control the destiny of the region. When Monday discovers that the judge won’t record the name of his son as Webster Monday, but insists on writing out the birth certificate as:

Father: Johnson Monday, White.
Mother: Mary Deer Walking, Shoshone Indian.
Child: Webster, son of Mary Deer Walking. Shoshone Indian. Bastard.

He knows that nothing can ever change: once a mountain man, always a mountain man.

In these first two books of the trilogy, Trask and Moontrap, Berry wrestles with the question of what happens to the mountain men when they reach the final frontier. Once the Oregon territory is settled, and the United States reaches to the Pacific, what is left of the old way? The old way that saw the mountain men living with the same freedom as the red man is finished, done for, obsolete.  Just as you cannot trap the reflection of the moon in a moving pool of water, so you cannot preserve the freedom of the old ways.

ISBN: 0-87071-039-7

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 813.6 BERRY 2004
Not available as an eBook,talking book, or as a Braille edition.

Essential wines and wineries of the Pacific Northwest : a guide to the wine countries of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Idaho. By Cole Danehower ; photography by Andrea Johnson. Portland, Or. : Timber Press, 2010. 308 p.

Review submitted by:
Rand Simmons, Acting Washington State Librarian, Tumwater, WA

Whether you’re simply curious, an aspiring wine connoisseur, or an aficionado, you will be charmed by this book. It is a solid book, 308 pages, and worth a first reading for the photographs and captions alone. It is a travelogue through the wine countries of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Idaho. It is a curriculum on the geography, geology climatology and edaphology of the Pacific Northwest and yet it is not academic.

The text is readable and interesting. Articles such as “Surviving Disaster Together” (p. 52), “Sustainable Viticulture,” (p. 143) and “Biodynamic Wine” (p. 134-135) tell the story of growing grapes and making wine in our corner of the world. Each state or province section begins with a wine country at a glance section for ready reference and each wine country (DVA or designated viticultural area) has the same. “Wineries and Wines to Sample” provides the stories of 160 wineries of the more that 1,000 wineries of the Pacific Northwest.

As a reference source, the book includes a glossary, list of wine grape varieties grown in the Pacific Northwest, a bibliography and an index. Missing from the index are references to towns and cities to which the wineries are attached. The book is not a hardback but is pleasingly flexible and easy to handle. At $24.95 this is a good choice both for libraries and the individual reader.
ISBN-13: 978-0881929669

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 641.2209 DANEHOW 2010
Not available in Braille, Talking Book or eReader editions.

The Big Burn : Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America. By Timothy Egan.
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 324 p.

Recommendation by:
Carleen Jackson, Director, Heritage Center, Olympia, WA.

I recommend this wonderful history of a huge fire that destroyed much of the newly designated National Forest land in 1910.  Equally fascinating is the story of how the US Forest Service got its beginnings through the work of Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot.  Although most of the fire destroyed lands in Idaho and Montana, Washington State also figures prominently in the story.

The best thing about the book is that it reads almost like a novel, although it is historically correct.  Egan tells the story through the true-life characters: Familiar names such as Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft.  He also includes the lesser-known people:  railroad tycoons, brothel and tavern keepers, newly minted forest rangers, and men and women who fought the fire.  This fire set the precedent for the long-standing policy of the Forest Service to aggressively fight fires, rather than manage them as the Native Americans did.

Timothy Egan is also the author of The Worst Hard Times about the dustbowl in the Midwest, and The Good Rain about his travels around Washington State.

ISBN-13: 978-0618968411

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 973.911 EGAN 2009.
Also available in talking book and eBook editions.
Not available as a Braille edition.

Washington State Library releases never-before-microfilmed newspapers from the Snoqualmie Valley!

Washington State Library microfilms Washington newspapers to preserve and provide access to Washington’s history.  Lent by Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum, the newspapers include issues from 1913 through 1925. These newspapers provide a fascinating look at life in Snoqualmie Valley communities almost 100 years ago.

To see what papers and what time periods are covered, visit http://www.sos.wa.gov/library/SnoqualmieValleyMicrofilm.aspx

More information about newspapers on microfilm at Washington State Library including how to purchase copies.

Information about Newspapers at Washington State Library.