Articles

A Woman’s eye on Washington Territory

"... and before us was a dark sea-wall of mountains..." With those words, Caroline Leighton ended a journey from the civilized eastern states and began recording her responses to fifteen years on the Pacific coast. Born and educated in New England, she worked in a school for former slaves in Washington DC during the Civil War. There she met her future husband, Rufus Leighton. After the war they married and sailed for the Pacific Northwest where Rufus had an appointment as a customs official.

we’re so Cool

Winter is whizzing along, winds whipping the waves and the snow comes in flurries. It is cold, first the ice storms on Sunday then clean that up and the snow comes in fits and starts on Wednesday. If it is safe to get to work then one gets on the road and gets to work, but if it is not safe - then the work will wait, it will always wait.

New Year, New Challenges

Hey everybody, it's resolution time! I've decided to brush up on my scanning procedures, photoshop skills, and general digitization knowledge. I often find myself in the middle of doing a job wondering if there are more efficient ways to go about it. I flip through manuals looking for answers, but they usually gloss over the advanced features, or they fail to discuss some of the most rudimentary functions.

Cherubs

The first time that I walked into the Washington Correction Center for Women it was for a job interview. I remember thinking that it felt more like a college campus than a prison. I got the job and ten years later I am still working here in the library. The first week that I worked here an inmate told me to my face that they did not want a man in this job. I smiled at her and told her that I was here to stay. One of the inmate library clerks admitted that she was guilty of her crime but allowed that the other 800 cherubs here were all innocent.