Archives

There has always been something magical and iconic about Mount St. Helens, shown here in all her glory in a rare 1925 photo by Asahel Curtis, from our State Archives lantern slide collection.

Located along Puget Sound about 30 miles north of Seattle, the Snohomish County seat was well known for being a lumber mill town. It also was home of Henry “Scoop” Jackson, who served in the U.S. House from 1941 until 1953, and in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until his death in 1983. Nowadays, Everett is renowned for its Boeing plant (featuring the world’s largest building by volume), where the 787 Dreamliner had its maiden flight last December.

This small town of 3,185 on the west (or “wet”) side of the Olympic Peninsula is well known among “Twilight” fans as the setting for the teen vampire-based tomes.

This year marks the 100-year anniversary of women’s suffrage in Washington. Leading up to the centennial, which is in November, we are sharing some tidbits about the fight for women’s right to vote in Washington, and how it was finally won.

In 1877 the Washington Territorial Legislature passed a law allowing tax-paying women to vote in school elections, reflecting a belief that women had a “sphere” that included home and family matters.

Did you know that some of the decor in the Secretary of State's office is the same as it was decades ago? Can you guess which original items in the picture below are still decorating Secretary Reed's office today? There are a total of four items in this old photograph that we can see in Reed's office right now, and the answers will be revealed on Monday. (A bonus point goes to you if you can guess the name of the Secretary of State in the photograph!)

...that you might be able to find a copy of your parent's marriage certificate or discover a grandparent's birth certificate online? That's right, geneologists and just curious citizens use the Digital Archives everyday to research their family history and access millions of free documents online.

It was March 1, 1910 – 100 years ago today – when an avalanche 14 feet high struck two trains that were stranded at Wellington, just west of the summit at Stevens Pass. The disaster claimed 96 lives. It still is the deadliest avalanche disaster in U.S. history.