From the desk of Evan Robb

The Washington Rural Heritage initiative is pleased to announce several new digital collections–the result of a year’s worth of hard work on the part of four public libraries receiving 2008/2009 LSTA grant funding from WSL. We’ll be featuring material from our new collections all this week.

Horses struck by lightning near St. John, Washington, 1940.
Click image for full record.

Our first new addition came from Whitman County Library, which continued to add to Whitman County Heritage for its 2008 grant project. The Library’s primary focus was on the community of St. John, Washington–its early citizens, schools, and surrounding family farms. Harvest scenes figure predominantly in the new collection, and do a good job of documenting the evolution of wheat farming techniques in Eastern Washington. A few of our favorite images include:

• John McCance’s first horse drawn combine.
• Steam engine used in harvesting operations.
• Front Street in St. John, WA. ca.1890.
• Cowboy Charlie Hitchings on his horse.
• Alix Karen Scheidmiller on her horse.

Harvest operation of Darwin Smith, 1933.
Click image for full record.

Following upon two successful years of digitization work, this grant project involved Whitman County Library’s first foray into “community digitization”–reaching out to library patrons for historic material held in their own private collections. Whitman County Library was recently awarded another digitization grant for 2009-2010, and will be expanding upon that model, uncovering hidden treasures throughout Whitman County.

Take a look at the entire Whitman County Heritage collection here. Or view all of Whitman County Library’s 2008 grant material here.

Eliza Spalding Warren

Perhaps the most poignant accounts of both life and death on those remote mission stations come from the women who were most intimately involved. In Memoirs of the West: the Spaldings,  Eliza Spalding, the daughter of Rev. Spalding, looks back at an idyllic childhood at Lapwai, the Spaldings mission. She helps her mother, travels with her father, and grows up among the Nez Perce Indians. She often stays at the Whitman mission for months at a time in order to attend school with other mission and immigrant children, and is there on Nov. 29, 1847. Her account is harrowing, as the 10-year-old child witnesses death and terror, and then serves as interpreter between the Indians and their captives. The book also includes excerpts from her mother’s diary and some of her father’s letters that speak of the unrelenting labor that he and his wife undertake.

Finally, three fascinating collections of letters by Narcissa Prentiss Whitman were gathered and published in the late nineteenth century by the Oregon Pioneer Association. The first covers their journey across the country to the Oregon Territory in 1836. The others include Narcissa’s letters to her family back east and correspondence with other missionaries in the West. They can be found in Classics in Washington History as Journey across the plains in 1836.

Sketch of Narcissa Whitman

The letters reveal a woman who is determined to live up to her religious ideals. She accepts the loss of home and her extended family. She accepts her husband’s frequent absences and the physical hardships of frontier living. Yet, she continually begs her family to write more often, and is without any letters from home for two years due to long distances. She is never quite at home with the Indians and has difficulty learning the language. There are hints in her narratives about the tensions among the missionaries and the discouragement when few others arrive to join the mission effort.

Narcissa bears a child at Waiilatpu, Alice Clarissa, that is the light of her life until she drowns at the age of “two years, three months, and nine days.” At the same time she takes on the care of children in need, having as many as eleven children in her home at once and writes, “I am sometimes about ready to sink under the weight of responsibility resting on me…” The letters, though relentlessly optimistic, create a portrait of an intensely social and conventional woman laboring in isolation and surrounded by a culture that remains foreign to her.

Rev. H. H. Spalding

For decades after the tragedy at the Whitman Mission, writers, preachers and others sought to place blame for the event itself and for the underlying causes. Resentments against the Hudson’s Bay Company and religious prejudices often colored narratives, and led to charges of cowardice or malice.

Fr. Brouillet

In response, Hudson’s Bay employee, William McBean, takes great exception to the accuracy of Spalding’s characterization of events in letters to the newspaper’s editor. See Moments in History.

Sketch of the mission

The Whitman Massacre of November 29, 1847 provides a painful window into a time of conflicting cultures, priorities and prejudices. Piecing together what happened from contemporary accounts can be both frustrating and fascinating. Were the Cayuse Indians misguided, evil, deceived, or somewhere in between all of those? Were the missionaries heroic martyrs or discouraged idealists? Did sectarian prejudice between Catholic and Protestant exacerbate a volatile situation?

You can explore a variety of theories, personalities and testimony surrounding this horrific event in the Library’s Digital Collections. There will be three posts on this subject to cover the variety of resources available on this event.

For an overview of the mission and its history, try Miles Cannon’s  Waiilatpu, its rise and fall, 1836-1847 . Cannon interviews many of the survivors and puts together a narrative of the whole of the Whitmans’ time in Oregon. The book is online in the Classics in Washington History under the heading of “Pioneer Life,” and is an excellent introduction to the principal individuals, organizations and series of events.

See also: The Whitman Tragedy – Part 2 | Part 3

Scenes in the proposed new National Park among Montana's glaciers (LOC)

The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) recently celebrated adding 1 million pages to the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America site and adding 7 more states to the program. Read more about this major milestone at washingtonpost.com.

The program is a combined effort of the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and institutions from 22 states (including Washington State). Access to the historic newspaper archive is free at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. Selected illustrated newspaper pages have also been uploaded on the Library of Congress Flickr Commons.

Read more about Washington State’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program. The first of the Washington State newspapers selected for NDNP are digitized and will soon be added to Chronicling America – stay tuned…

From the desk of Evan Robb

Congratulations to the latest group of Washington libraries who will be awarded LSTA grants through the Washington Rural Heritage initiative:

• Benton City Branch, Mid-Columbia Libraries
• Blanche Bradley Public Library (Cathlamet, WA)
• Columbia County Rural Library District
• Denny Ashby Library (Pomeroy, WA)
• Ellensburg Public Library
• Metalines Community Library (Pend Oreille County Library District)
• Stevenson and North Bonneville Community Libraries (Fort Vancouver Regional Library District)
• Whitman County Library

These grants are part of the Washington Rural Heritage 2009/2010 fiscal subgrant cycle that will end August 13, 2010.  Funds were made available by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  For more information, contact Evan Robb, Project Manager, 360.704.5228 or Jeff Martin, Grants Program, 360.704.5248.

Every day, thousands of motorists make their way along Interstate-90 as it winds through Snoqualmie Pass before sloping gracefully to the Columbia Plateau. This often-traveled highway affords beautiful views of central Washington: from rugged, snow-capped mountain peaks to rolling, golden fields. Most cars fly past Roslyn, a tiny mountain town a few miles north of Cle Elum, without realizing that it is home to a fascinating, one-of-a-kind cemetery; the state’s oldest continually operated bar; and was the setting of a popular 1990s television show. Most notoriously, however, it boasts some of the state’s richest mining history.

Roslyn was settled in the late nineteenth century by miners and their families, recruited by the Northwest Improvement Company to tunnel underground and exhume the deposits of coal that would be tapped for more than half a century. These founding families hailed from dozens of countries, and together they forged a home and a community. Though mining activities have gradually halted, this rich blend of languages, cultures and traditions is still evident in today’s citizens.

Washington Rural Heritage worked with Erin Krake, Roslyn’s librarian, to digitize and preserve a fading set of Ektachrome slides showing many facets of early Roslyn life. She tapped several townspeople to lend vivid descriptions of these images, telling the story behind the story. Many of these volunteer catalogers, sons and daughters of miners, recall hearing firsthand accounts of the events in the photographs.

Our favorites include a chilling portrait of women widowed by the 1892 mine explosion; a snapshot of a young couple giving a backyard concert; and a 22-ton chunk of coal, destined for greatness at the Chicago World Fair in 1893.

We’ve also included a lecture series by local historian David H.A. Browitt, who gives explicitly detailed accounts of the role that mining played in the town’s development. You’ll hear, for example, about mining methodology; the corporate decisions that brought in African-American strikebreakers; and the events leading up to and surrounding the mine explosions that rocked this sleepy community.

View the collection online at: http://www.washingtonruralheritage.org/roslyn/

From the desk of Evan Robb

This weekend marks the start of Mr. Carnegie’s Grand Tour of Washington, an annual automobile-based passport tour of 20 (out of 33 surviving) Carnegie libraries throughout Washington State.   Many of these original buildings continue to house libraries and related cultural institutions like museums; others, like Carnegie’s Restaurant in Seattle, have been completely re-purposed.  All are characterized by unique design and formal-yet-welcoming architecture, standing as reminders of an important era for American public libraries.

Visitors will be able to pick up “passports” at participating locations beginning Sunday, May 24th, and have them stamped during their visit.  If they get a minimum of three stamps by December 31, 2009, they will be eligible to enter a drawing for a prize giveaway: gift certificates featuring goods and services of Washington-based companies.

Vancouver, WA’s public library, circa 1909.
Now the Clark County Historical Museum.

Conceived by the Clark County Historical Museum (Vancouver, WA) as a way to celebrate the 100-year-birthday of its building (a 1909 Carnegie library), the Grand Tour developed into an initiative of the newly-established Carnegie Library Consortium of Washington, whose mission is to “identify surviving Carnegie Libraries in Washington State and promote public awareness and preservation around the world.”  The Consortium has put together a slideshow about Andrew Carnegie which will be on display at participating locations, as well as a children’s storybook/coloring book featuring “Andy the Library Explorer” as he delves into the history of Carnegie libraries.

The Grand Tour was also developed with local economic stimulus in mind.  According to Susan Tissot, executive director of the CCHM, “Mr. Carnegie’s Grand Tour of Washington is an economic development tool that promotes historic sites and local restaurants, shops and hotels within the state of Washington at a time when many people are cutting back on spending and recreational travel.  The tour is an effective form of sustainable development and an old-fashioned American road trip that is a fun way to learn about your state and its history without breaking the family bank account.”

Carnegie cities participating in the Grand Tour include:

Auburn, Anacortes, Burlington, Edmonds, Goldendale, Pasco, Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Ritzville, Tacoma, Snohomish, Seattle (six sites), Spokane, Vancouver, and Walla Walla.

Call Lisa Christopher, 360-993-5679, or check the CCHM’s website, www.cchmuseum.org, after the May 24 launch, for more information on Mr. Carnegie’s Grand Tour of Washington.

Washington Rural Heritage is pleased to announce our fourth San Juan Island collection: Orcas Island Heritage. The Orcas Island Historical Museum, in partnership with the Orcas Island Public Library, has digitized dozens of photographs, maps and books depicting the lives and livelihood of early settlers as they carved homes into this hilly and verdant island. Successful farming, fishing and logging led to the even more successful industry of tourism as Orcas became a premier summer destination for Washingtonians.

Various docking points around the island grew into villages and towns, complete with post offices, general stores and even schools. Each village has its own story to tell, and for the first time, we’ve enabled users to browse items by community.

Olga, perched on the southern tip of eastern Orcas, is one of these charming communities. One of its residents published a book of local family’s recipes and memories, including landing a 33 1/2 lb. blackmouth, dancing with the C.C.C. boys back in the ’30s, and bloomers hoisted to the top of a flagpole that were mistaken for a distress signal. When Lucille Willis wed in 1937, she lived in a beach-front cabin with few amenities.

She recalls that using an outhouse was the hardest adjustment for her. “One night when Culver had to be away, I went across the yard to the outhouse. I had no sooner got there than I heard the most alarming whooshing sounds. I hurried back to the house and waited for Culver to return home. When I told him my story, he laughed and told me not to worry; it was just a pod of whales making their way across the bay.”

We also invite you to explore items on our customized map. You can see just where that mysterious rock formation of an anchor is situated; envisage the first Ford that topped Mt. Constitution in Moran State Park; and see a steamer pulling into dock at Doe Bay – in 1910.

From the desk of Evan Robb

When construction of the Grand Coulee Dam was completed in 1941, much of the town of Kettle Falls disappeared beneath the rising waters of Lake Roosevelt.  About 300 individuals picked up and relocated to the site of present-day Kettle Falls, WA (a few miles away, in what had previously been Meyers Falls).  Our newest collection, from the Kettle Falls Public Library, tells the story of that original town (or “Old” Kettle Falls as it’s now known), from its incorporation in 1892, to its last high school class, to final relocation efforts.

One of our favorite documents in the collection is a short biography by Harrison Reed, whose family came to Washington in 1902, and homesteaded in Ferry County, on the side of the Columbia opposite Kettle Falls.  A few of Reed’s recollections include: the tiny town of Kettle Falls as he first saw it in October, 1902; crossing the Columbia by row boat to attend school; and accompanying Doc Brigham on his rounds to treat Spanish flu victims during the winter of 1919-1920.  Here’s a quick excerpt describing several rough years during the late 1920s-early 1930s:

My father passed away at 87.  A hale [sic] storm came through where the folks lived, ruined their crops, roofs and killed the chickens.  While raking hay I was thrown under a dump hay rake and dragged one quarter mile by a run away team, many cuts and bruises, but soon was all right.  Then came the depression years of the early thirties, bad years for us.  Margaret, Mable and Leta all had whooping cough and measles.  1930 lost my finger.  Prices were low.  Good two year old steers at twenty three dollars a piece.  Cows from four to ten dollars.  Cream average $1.50 per five gallon can.  Wages for hay hands 50 cents per day and board…I lost two good mares by a strange poisoning.

The Kettle Falls Collection also depicts the Falls themselves–for thousands of years, a critical salmon-harvesting and meeting point for tribes of the Columbia Plateau and beyond.  For an excellent summary of fishing on the Falls, as well as the later impact of the downstream cannery industry and dam development, take a look at this article from HistoryLink (a free online encyclopedia of Washington State History).

A big thanks to our participants at the Kettle Falls Public Library (Libraries of Stevens County) for their hard work digitizing and cataloging these materials.  Thanks to their expertise, individual and family names have been thoroughly indexed in this collection; it should serve as great resource for those researching Northeast Washington.

The Kettle Falls Collection can be accessed through Stevens County Heritage (browse all items in this new collection here).  Or if you’re simply at a loss for where to start, here are a few of our favorite images:

• Lizzie McKellar (from one of Kettle Falls’ original families).
• Fruitland irrigation flume.
• Fuller-Larsen-Kelly store.
• Hudson Bay Co. fort.
• Kelly Hill School, boys only.
• Kelly Hill School, girls only.
• Meyers Falls, WA (1900). The same view in modern-day K.F.
• Two men in ‘kettle’.