Category Archives: Special Events

Out of the Archives

by Charles Hansen
Asian Pacific American heritage photo challenge This is a photo of a Japanese drill team during a performance at Expo ’70, the Osaka World’s Fair.
Tell us the connection between the fair and Washington state. The more information you can give, the better.		Health care workers challenge results Our little tribute to health care workers is a 1930s picture of Valley View Hospital in Colville.
The building was repurposed a number of times to facilitate a variety of health care services between the 1960s and ’80s until it was eventually demolished.
Send us your guess!See last month’s challenge
Hudson’s Bay Company sent Hawaiians to work in Washington Territory
by Dr. Jewell Lorenz-Dunn, Olympia Branch Researcher
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) posts in Oregon Territory, Washington Territory, Alaska, and Canada provided animal furs, salmon, and lumber to go east for trade.
Fort Steilacoom was established in the Puget Sound area as a military post on the company’s property in August of 1849. Fort Vancouver was originally a Hudson’s Bay post, established early, in 1824 or 1825, and operated under several other titles. Fort Vancouver was transitioned to military barracks around 1849, and the company transferred out of the fort around 1860.
The Hudson’s Bay Company was predominately made up of French employees with Native American wives until 1829, when the Hudson’s Bay Company added a port stop in Hawaii (called the Sandwich Islands by Americans at the time). This created HBC jobs for many Hawaiians that enabled them to find their way to the Pacific Northwest.
It’s estimated there were anywhere from 50 to 400 Hawaiians employed by Hudson’s Bay Company between 1829 and 1861, but no exact numbers can be verified. Many of the Hawaiian employees… keep reading 
Archives provided research materials for Mount St. Helens book
May 18 marked 40 years since the infamous Mount St. Helens eruption that shocked the world. The disaster was the most devastating volcanic eruption in U.S. history.


New York author Cheryl J. Fish visited the Washington State Archives to do research about the events that surrounded and followed the catastrophe. Fish used her research findings to write “Crater & Tower,” a book of poetry about Mount St. Helens and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The book is now available for sale at most major online book retailers.
State Archives gives out special awards to History Day students
National History Day is a program that encourages students in grades 6-12 to learn how to be an historian. In Washington, the program is headed up by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, in partnership with the Washington State Historical Society and the State Archives, as well as other supporting organizations.
Virtual judging took place from April 16 to May 1.
Every year the Archives gives out the Washington State Archives History Awards. The special awards are for History Day projects that demonstrated exceptional use of archival research.
The 2020 recipients of the Washington State Archives History Awards are:
JUNIOR DIVISION
Kaitlin Medina and Andrew Hegewald
“Seattle’s Hooverville: Where Nothing Created Something”
Teacher: John Zingale, Vancouver iTech Preparatory


SENIOR DIVISION
Haley Van Meurs, Liana Moldavanu, and Isabelle Garrard
“The Fight Against Segregated Seattle: How the Seattle Open Housing Campaign
Broke Barriers of Inequality”
Teachers: Alan Plummer and Corey Martin, Inglemoor High School
JUNIOR DIVISION Kaitlin Medina and Andrew Hegewald “Seattle’s Hooverville: Where Nothing Created Something” Teacher: John Zingale, Vancouver iTech Preparatory
SENIOR DIVISION Haley Van Meurs, Liana Moldavanu, and Isabelle Garrard “The Fight Against Segregated Seattle: How the Seattle Open Housing Campaign Broke Barriers of Inequality” Teachers: Alan Plummer and Corey Martin, Inglemoor High School
Ruralite MagazineOSOS remains closed to publicWho said that?
State Archives Central Regional Branch Intern Jordan Hughes gives a glimpse into the past with a look at the Kittitas edition of Ruralite Magazine. The publication was regionally distributed to rural areas all over the Western United States. It started in 1954 with “a spirit of public service and forward-looking sensibility.”
Read Hughes’ full article here.		 With consideration for the safety of the public and our staff, all branches and facilities of the Office of the Secretary of State remain closed to the public until at least May 31, in an effort to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
During the closure, the State Archives still allows state and local government agency staff to research records on an emergency basis only.
Go here for more information.		 “Success is empty if you arrive at the finish line alone. The best reward is to get there surrounded by winners.”
Who said that?
Hint: The man in the photo above has nothing to do with this quote.
Last month’s quote is from Governor Arthur Langlie.
Out of the Archives, May 2020 banner photo: Model of the Washington State Pavilion. General Subjects Photograph Collection, 1845-2010, c. 1968.
Visit the Digital ArchivesVolunteer with Scribe

Staying at Home

by Charles Hansen

I am glad so many people are staying at home so we can get this covid virus under control. So How do I know you are staying home? Because of the statistics generated here by the people reading this blog. For about a year the top city reading this blog has been Chicago, but with a 100% bounce rate I think it is a bot collecting information. Number two has always been Seattle which makes sense as the largest city in Washington. Spokane was usually near number five, and the cities between Spokane and Seattle was almost always different each week depending on what was written each week. Spokane Valley the city east of Spokane seldom showed in the top 15 cities.

For the last month Kent has been the number one city, and Seattle and Spokane are down in the #4 Group (they are alphabetical when they have the same number of sessions). So instead of reading the blog at work, people seem to be reading from their homes. Keep it up and we will be able to meet in person again soon.

Stories Behind the Stars

by Charles Hansen

I would like to make you aware of a project that may be of great interest to your organization and many of your members.

I am the director of a non-profit initiative known as Stories Behind the Stars, under the auspices of The Greatest Generations Foundation.

The ambitious goal of this project is to collect short profiles of all of the 400,000+ US World War II fallen in one online database. There will be a smartphone app that will allow anyone visiting a war memorial or cemetery to scan the name of the fallen and get a link to automatically take them to his/her story. This will work at Arlington National Cemetery, Honolulu’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, even memorials in Washington state. It will make visits to the final resting places of our World War II fallen a much richer experience. Whereas now, a visitor just sees names and dates, when this project is finished, a visit to any WWII memorial or gravesite will come with that person’s story.

As a genealogy organization, you are aware that resources online now make genealogical research easier than ever. I learned this first hand over the past three years. I have had a lifelong interest in history, and particularly enjoyed reading memoirs. After the 2016 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a lot of news coverage was given to the remaining World War II veterans. It bothered me that little attention was given to any of the 400,000+ fallen who did not come home. WWII memoirs all mentioned how much these fallen meant to a victory they did not enjoy. I decided to do something about this.

I began a daily personal passion project to start writing about these mostly forgotten heroes. Each day I wrote a profile of one of the fallen on the 100th anniversary of his/her birthday. I recorded these stories in a  blog at www.ww2fallen100.blogspot.com. I shared it with various World War II groups on Facebook. Others started joining me to write these stories and there are now more than 1,200 of these short profiles, including more than a dozen from Washington (see http://ww2fallen100.blogspot.com/search?q=washington) that have been read more than one million times. The newspaper in the town where I grew up, the Pueblo Chieftain, did a story about my efforts that was picked up by many papers around the country (see https://www.chieftain.com/7070e3a4-c500-11e8-9745-33c162a7202a.html). The project was slated to end this September with the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. However, at the encouragement of others, I decided to expand this project so that the stories of all of the 400,000+ US World War II fallen can be told.

The 400,000+ number is very daunting, but it is much more manageable for western states. In the case of Washington, WWII losses were probably around 6,000. I already have access to a database that has 5,000+ Washington related names. I just need help finding people who want to write profiles of the Washington fallen.

Ancestry.com has generously agreed to provide free access to their research tools (Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com, and Fold3.com) to anyone helping me with this project.

I created the website www.storiesbehindthestars.org to promote and manage this project. Though it just barely started, I already have volunteers helping from a dozen states.

The reason I am contacting WSGS is that I am sure you know of many, many Washington residents who would be interested in helping with this project. I need volunteers to research and write the stories of these ~6,000 Washington World War II fallen. It takes less than 45 minutes to research and write the average story. I have created a YouTube page (see https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6iv4ZzBam5y_yXk546P7Fu6bEIrz9jb5) with short training videos showing how to do the research.

Can you share information about my project with your members? At this time of social distancing, I think this project would be a wonderful use of time for those with their skills.

Feel free to call or email me to move this discussion further.

—

Thanks,

Don Milne

Stories Behind the Stars Founder and Director

don@storiesbehindthestars.org

Colorize your Black & White Photos

by Charles Hansen

I’m happy to share that My Heritage is giving everyone FREE and unlimited access to MyHeritage In Color™ from March 23 to April 23, so that people everywhere can join in the fun of colorizing their black and white photos. Ordinarily only 10 photos can be colorized by users who do not have a Complete plan, but now, you can colorize as many photos as you’d like for free.

Colorizing photos is the perfect activity for anyone who is isolated at home. We invite everyone to pull out their family photo albums, colorize their photos, and start reminiscing. Over the coming month, anyone who shares their colorized photos on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #ColorBeatsCoronavirusBlues and tags @MyHeritage will enter a weekly draw. Each week we’ll select one lucky winner who will receive a free MyHeritage Complete subscription!

Please share the news on your social channels and with your audience so they can make the most of this opportunity and colorize their photos.

Closing of Seattle National Archives

by Charles Hansen

Officials from Washington DC were in Seattle meeting with Puget Sound Native American Tribes: Click Here to read the whole story. https://mynorthwest.com/1715022/national-archives-tries-re-set-seattle-closure/

Meanwhile, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson continues to weigh legal action, and last week sent document requests to multiple federal agencies involved in the Seattle facility. Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman is leading an effort to identify alternatives to the priceless materials being shipped to California.