LibGuides: Primary Sources: Washington State & Pacific NW History

Finding Primary Sources for Research in Washington State and Pacific Northwest History

On this page you can find primary source material on Washington State, the Pacific Northwest area, and our 'neighbor states' of Alaska, Idaho, and Oregon. Tacoma, Washington: April 30, 1927. The Pt. Defiance to Gig Harbor ferry boat. The "Defiance" is the largest ferry operating in Puget Sound. Britannica ImageQuest See:

Primary Source Websites
WSA Databases with Primary Sources

Books in the WSA Library, with primary source material on:

Washington State History
Washington State Indian tribes
Washington Civil Rights Advocates
Washington Japanese-American Internment in World War II

For help with any question about Washington State government:

Ask the Librarian Service at the Washington State Library

Primary Source Websites for Washington State and Pacific Northwest History Research

Take care when using Internet sites for primary sources. Most sources contain both primary and secondary texts. Be sure you have properly identified your document.

Legacy Washington
Legacy Washington documents extraordinary stories in Washington's history: the people, times, places, and events that have shaped our state. This collection relies on original sources at the Washington State Library, the Washington State Archives, and heritage organizations across the state.
Civil Rights - Washington State Oral Histories
Links to oral histories relevant to the civil rights movement in Washington State; part of the Civil Rights History Project, under the auspices of the American Folklife Center and the Library of Congress.
Communism in Washington State
Explores the controversial history of the Communist Party in the Pacific Northwest from 1919 to the present, with oral histories, and image and document archive, research reports and more. One of the Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Rights Projects directed by Professor James Gregory at the University of Washington.
Digital Collections / Special Collections - University of Washington Libraries
A major resource of rare and archival materials related to Washington State and the Pacific Northwest, including photographs, books, manuscripts, architectural drawings,pamphlets, leaflets and correspondence, print advertisements, maps, Interview recordings, and other archives.
Historical Maps (Legacy Washington)
Extensive map collection dealing with the Washington State and the surrounding region from state and territorial government records, historic books, federal documents and the Northwest collection of the Washington State Library.
HistoryLInk.org - The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History
An online encyclopedia of Washington State and local history. The encyclopedia has three libraries: Cyberpedias (overview essays), Timeline essays (events keyed to specific dates), and People’s Histories (reminiscences, documents, older historical accounts, and interpretations). Produced by History Ink, a Seattle-area nonprofit.
Labor Archives of Washington (LAW)
Contains more than 200 separate collections of labor related materials from individuals and organizations documenting the local, national and international dimensions of the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest, including digital collections (photographs and documents); archived union/labor websites; historical records of unions; personal papers of labor leaders, attorneys, and other labor supporters; and organization records. LAW is a unit of the Special Collections Department of the University of Washington Libraries.
Pacific Northwest Primary Sources - Alaska, Idaho, Oregon
A collection of links to sites on general Pacific Northwest history, and sites with primary sources related to Alaska, Idaho, and Oregon. A University of Washington Libraries research guide.
Research Washington Collections Catalog
Research Washington is the gateway to learning about Washington’s past by exploring objects, publications, ephemera and more. The collection includes over 70,000 artifacts and half a million images, and is curated by the Washington State Historical Society.
Washington Digital Newspapers
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
The Washington State Library’s digital newspaper collection, with full-text article search of more than 400,000 pages from the State Library’s collection of historic Washington newspapers, with over 6,500 newspaper titles, including some in German, Vietnamese, Danish, and Greek. Visitors can interact with the site with the help of text correction features to improve search results on dark or damaged pages.
Washington Rural Heritage
Washington Rural Heritage provides access to digitized primary sources documenting the early culture, industry, and community life of Washington State. These digital collections from small, rural libraries are hosted by the Washington State Library.
Washington State's History of Women Leaders in Government
New York Times article: What Gender Gap? Washington State Has a History of Women Who Lead, by Isolde Raftery. March 25, 2012. The article has hyperlinks to resources Washington women who have served in leadership positions in government.
Washington State Constitution - 1889
The Washington State Constitution, written by 75 delegates in the summer of 1889, ratified by popular vote on October 1 of that year, and approved by President Benjamin Harrison on November 11, 1889. resulting in Washington State being admitted into the Union.
more...less...
In order to view the images, a DJVU plugin from Lizard Technologies is required. This free software allows you to display high-resolution (high-quality) images on a web site and provides useful tools, such as the ability to zoom in and out, pan, adjust color, etc. When you select a page to display, the software is automatically installed if you are using Internet Explorer on a PC. Choose "Yes" when prompted to confirm the installation. If are using a Mac or a browser other than Internet Explorer, you will be directed to a page with downloading instructions.
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Historical Collection
Digital publications from WSDOT, related to roads, highways, and bridges in Washington, dating from the territorial period through the present.
Washington State Digital Archives
The Washington State Digital Archives is the nation's first archives dedicated specifically to the preservation of electronic records from both State and Local agencies that have permanent legal, fiscal or historical value, providing broad public access to both digitized and born digital records of state and local government.
Washington State Primary Sources
Collection of links to images, maps, historical newspapers, and other digital collections with material on Washington State History. A University of Washington Libraries research guide.
Washington Territory Timeline
This historical timeline of the Pacific Northwest and Washington Territory starts at 1540 and goes to the granting of statehood in 1889, recounting the major political and social events that evolved Washington Territory into Washington State.
Washington State Historical Society
The collections at the Washington State Historical Society include artifacts, photographs, ephemera, and archival material related to the people of our region’s past and to the land defined as the State of Washington.

Library Books - Washington State History

Official guide book, Seattle World's Fair, 1962
Call Number: 979.77 Cen
Publication Date: 1962
The official guide book used by visitors to the Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle World's Fair) held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962, in Seattle, Washington.
Readings in Pacific Northwest History; Washington, 1790-1895 by Charles Marvin Gates
Call Number: 979.7 Gat
Publication Date: 1941
Includes such materials as diaries, journals, letters, articles, promotion literature, and more, covering the period of early exploration in the late 1700s through the transition from territory to statehood.
Seattle: Then and Now® by Benjamin Lukoff
Call Number: 979.77 Luk
ISBN: 9781910496008
Publication Date: 2015-05-01
Pairs archival, black-and-white photographs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with full-color modern views to demonstrate how the city of Seattle, Washington, has changed throughout history.
The Northwest Coast; or, Three Years' Residence in Washington Territory by James G. Swan; Norman H. Clark (Introduction by)
Call Number: 917.97 Swa
ISBN: 0295951907
Publication Date: 1982-08-01
In 1849 James Swan turned his back on his wife and two children, a prosperous ship-fitting business, and the polite and predictable world of commerce in Boston and fled to the newly opened gold fields in California. Soon sick of the bonanza society, he emigrated to a shallow harbor called Shoalwater Bay (now Willapa Bay) north of the Columbia River in Washington Territory. Swan eagerly became a part of the frontier community, enjoying the company of both the white settlers and friendly Indians in the area. His account of the western frontier was first published in 1857. Swan saw himself as both an observer and participant in a barbaric invasion.
New Land, New Lives: Scandinavian Immigrants to the Pacific Northwest by Janet E. Rasmussen
Call Number: 979.5 Ras
ISBN: 0295977116
Publication Date: 1998-06-01
Presents the first-person accounts of 45 immigrants (28 of them women) to the Pacific Northwest in the early years of the 20th century. The accounts show how the cultures the immigrants had known in the Old World influenced life in the their new home.
Washington, images of a state's heritage by Jean Gardner (Introduction by); David Nicandri (Editor); Susan Strasser (Editor); Carlos A. Schwantas (Editor); Katherine Morrissey (Editor); Ralph Munro (Introduction by)
Call Number: 979.7 Was
ISBN: 0961644117
Publication Date: 1988-09-01
Photographs from across Washington State, in celebration of the 1989 Washington Centennial.
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel
Call Number: 978.02 Wom
ISBN: 0805210040
Publication Date: 1992-09-08
Contents: Preface / Carl N. Degler -- Families in Transit I, 1841-1850 -- Families in Transit II, 1851-1855 -- The Later Journeys, 1856-1867 -- "A Woman's Trip Across the Plains in 1849" / Catherine Haun -- "Notes by the Wayside En Route to Oregon, 1852" / Lydia Allen Rudd -- "Diary, 1853 " / Amelia Stewart Knight -- "Touring from Mitchell, Iowa, to California, 1862" / Jane Gould Tourtillott -- "A Sketch of Her Life" / Rebecca Hildreth Nutting Woodson -- "Diary, 1867" / Barsina Rogers French -- Overland Diaries and Other Primary Sources.
Exploring Washington Archaeology by Ruth Kirk; Richard D. Daugherty
Call Number: 979.7 Kir
ISBN: 0295956100
Publication Date: 1978-08-01
Illustrated text discusses prehistoric man in the Washington area.
Tales of the Northwest by William J. Snelling
Call Number: 970.1 Sne
ISBN: 0870180584
Publication Date: 1971-01-01
Reprint of the 1936 ed. published by the University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. Contents: The captive.--The Hohays.--The devoted.--Payton Skah.--Charles Hess.--The Bois Brule.--Weenokhenchah Wandeeteekah.--La Butte des Morts.--Pinchon.--The lover's leap.--Notes.--Two poems.

Ask a Librarian Service at Washington State Library

Mazama pocket gopher (Rod Gilbert photo)

Do you need information on Washington State government?

Have a question on the state budget process, use of deadly force laws, environmental regulations, or a state agency?

Looking for general election results and voter’s pamphlets? Trying to track initiatives and referenda?

Wondering about the Barefoot Schoolboy law or where to find a Mazama pocket gopher?

Washington State Library’s Ask a Librarian service can help – their staff are experts in Washington State government and other Washington-related topics.

Using the Washington State Government Publications Collection, they can find answers and get your research on track.

The WSL librarians are available to answer questions via email and chat Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Email requests may be submitted at any time.

Phone service is available at 360-704-5221 Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Gilbert, Rod. "Figure 1. Mazama pocket gopher." Washington State Species of Concern Lists. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2016. <http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/endangered/species/ mazama_pocket_gopher.pdf>. Illustration for the 2012 Threatened Species Annual Report for the Mazama Pocket Gopher.

WSA Databases with Primary Sources

You can use this list of WSA databases with primary sources as a starting point for your research. See the box below for suggestions on what keywords to use when searching WSA databases for primary sources.

WSA Databases with Primary Sources
Click this link to open up a list of WSA databases with primary source material. The databases here cover a wide range of subject matter and include different types of primary sources;

What Keywords Should I Use?

Using the General Keyword search box - type in your topic plus one of the following words or phrases:

Archive Source*
Correspondence
Diar* (this retrieves both
         Diary and Diaries)
History Archive*
     History Document*
History Source*
Interview*
     Letter*
Personal Narrative*
     Primary source*
  Speech*

Note: Use of the * at the end of a word will search for both singular and plural forms.

Library Books - Washington Tribes

Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are by Jacilee Wray (Editor); Olympic Peninsula Intertribal Cultural Advisory Committee Staff (Contribution by)
Call Number: 305.89 Nat
ISBN: 0806133945
Publication Date: 2002-05-15
This guidebook introduces readers to the nine Native tribes of the Olympic Peninsula: the Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S?Klallam, Port Gamble S?Klallam, Skokomish, Squaxin Island, Quinault, Hoh, Quileute, and Makah. Each section relates the tribe's history, its current cultural and political issues, its tribal heritage programs, information about places to visit and suggestions for further reading.
The Jamestown S'Klallam Story: Rebuilding a Northwest Coast Indian Tribe by Joseph H. Stauss
Call Number: 970 Sta
ISBN: 0972375309
Publication Date: 2003-03-01
In this comprehensive history of the Jamestown S'kallam tribe, historical and contemporary documents, interviews, storytelling, photographs, and illustrations are used to tell the story of the remarkable success of a small Indian tribe on the Olympic Peninsula.

Library Books - Civil Rights in Washington

Lillian Walker, Washington State Civil Rights Pioneer : A Biography & Oral History by Office of the Secretary of State
Call Number: B Wal
ISBN: 9781889320229
Publication Date: 2010-09-01
Interviews conducted June 8 and 9, 2009 for The Legacy Project of the Washington State Library.

Japanese-American Internment in World War II

Websites

BIJAC - Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community
A collection of photographs, artifacts, and recorded firsthand accounts that illustrate the human stories behind the exclusion and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Bainbridge Island was the first community forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated in the Manzanar Assembly Center in the California desert. The personal stories behind these events teach us important lessons in humanity, civil rights, and citizenship.
Densho
The Densho Digital Repository has thousands of historical photographs, documents, newspapers, letters, and other primary source materials that tell the story of the Japanese American community, from immigration to WWII incarceration and its aftermath.
JARDA - Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives
Thousands of Japanese American internment primary source materials, including: personal diaries, letters, photographs, and drawings; US War Relocation Authority materials, including camp newsletters, final reports, photographs, and other documents relating to the day-to-day administration of the camps; personal histories documenting the lives of the people who lived in the camps as well as the administrators who created and worked in the camps.

WSA Library Books

In Defense of Our Neighbors: The Walt and Milly Woodward Story by Mary Woodward; David Guterson (Foreword by)
Call Number: 940.53 Woo
ISBN: 9780974951072
Publication Date: 2008-09-01
At the start of WWII, the Seattle suburb of Bainbridge Island was 10% Japanese-American, an ethnic community fully integrated into a small town way of life. Walt and Milly Woodward, publishers of the island's community newspaper, fought the forced internment of their neighbors, and helped the island community grapple with their exile. Mary Woodward tells her parents' story, fully illustrated with period photographs and documents. This brave, principled couple remain heroes to the Japanese-American community -- the story of their fight helps us comprehend how precious our civil liberties are, and how easily they can be lost.
Nisei Daughter by Monica Itoi Sone; S. Frank Miyamoto
Call Number: 979.77 Son
ISBN: 0295956887
Publication Date: 1979-01-01
A Japanese-American's personal account of growing up in Seattle in the 1930s and of being subjected to relocation during World War II.

Quick Links

A-Z Database List
Links to all of WSA's subscription databases.
Google login
Login to access your WSA email and Google Docs
Grammarly
Check for grammatical errors and avoid plagiarism
NoodleTools Login
Login to access tools for note-taking, outlining, and citation.
PlagiarismCheck.org Login
Check your writing for unintended plagiarism