WA Secretary of State Blogs

WSL Updates for April 7, 2011

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 Posted in For Libraries, Grants and Funding, News, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for April 7, 2011


Volume 7, April 7, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) MATH AND SCIENCE LITERACY TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANS

2) TARGET STORE GRANTS SUPPORT READING PROGRAMS

3) IFFLA SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEY

4) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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WSL Updates for December 9, 2010

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 Posted in For Libraries, Grants and Funding, News, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for December 9, 2010


Volume 6, December 9, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) FREE BOOKS FOR DISCUSSION KITS OR COMMUNITY READS

2) WALNET RFQ RELEASED

3) WCOG EVENT HONORS BALLARD AND THOMPSON

4) IMLS NATIONAL LEADERSHIP GRANTS

5) NANCY PEARL PRESENTS – BOOKS THAT MAKE GREAT GIFTS

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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The Whitman Tragedy – Part 2

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 Posted in Articles, Digital Collections, For Libraries, For the Public | Comments Off on The Whitman Tragedy – Part 2


Rev. H. H. Spalding

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.

Square in the middle of these disputes was Rev. H. H. Spalding, a colleague of the Whitmans. While there was often tension between the two families, the Whitmans and Spaldings were also colleagues and a support system in a stressful situation. Years after the event Spalding demonstrates a very personal and theological agenda in his series of lectures which were printed in the Walla Walla newspaper in 1866. Links to all the lectures can be found on the Moments in History page of the digital newspaper collection.
Fr. Brouillet

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.

Another, more studied, viewpoint comes from Fr. Brouillet, the Catholic priest who first discovered the massacre and helped to bury the dead. His brief book, published in 1869, also attempts to refute Spalding’s accusations against the Catholics by gathering statements and letters from people present in the territory at the time and involved in the events, and  by trying to analyze the underlying causes. See an Authentic account of the murder of Dr. Whitman and other missionaries in Classics in Washington History.

See also: The Whitman Tragedy – Part 1 | Part 3