Seattle Historical Photograph Collection

  • New Digital Collection Highlights Lives of Seattle Pioneers

    This month we’ve launched a new digital collection which reveals a glimpse into the personal lives of some of Seattle’s early pioneers. The Lu Jacobson Collection of Latimer and Denny Family Material includes materials focusing on Alexander Latimer, his wife Sarah Chesney Latimer and their five daughters: Narcissa Latimer Denny, Eliza Alice Latimer Fowler, Harriet… Continue reading

  • New to our Digital Collections: Early Seattle Glass Plate Negatives

    Curious to explore rarely seen photographs from the life of a Seattle family from over 100 years ago? Now you can with 184 photographs from our Early Seattle Glass Plate Negative Collection, recently digitized and added to our online offerings. The collection features images of Seattle homes and buildings, the town of Index, the Cedar… Continue reading

  • The Story Behind a Modern Marvel: The Seattle Space Needle

      Fifty-five years ago this month, construction began on one of Seattle’ s most prominent icons – the Space Needle.  Our newest digital collection, the George Gulacsik Photograph Collection, documents the construction of the Needle from its start on April 17, 1961 to its completion in 1962 with the opening of the World’s Fair. Continue reading

  • If Walls Could Talk: The Bussell Family – Part 2

    By Jade D If you missed my first post about the history of the Bussell family and their home, take a look at Part 1 to catch up! So here’s what really happened, as best as I can tell. Charles Bussell and his first wife, Elizabeth, bought their Madrona home in 1900. Despite the stately… Continue reading

  • If Walls Could Talk: The Bussell Family – Part 1

    ~posted by Jade It all began with a picture of a house. I was researching a recent addition to our Seattle Historical Photograph Collection and all I had to go on was the name “Bussell” on the back of the photograph. Quick searches in HistoryLink and the Seattle Times historical newspaper database revealed it to… Continue reading

  • Mark Twain’s Seattle Doppelgänger

    ~posted by Jade D. While looking through the portraits in our Seattle Historical Photograph Collection online, I came upon a photograph of an older man with wild white hair and a moustache and momentarily wondered what we were doing with a photograph of Mark Twain in our collection. After performing this double take, I looked… Continue reading