Surfacing Pacific Northwest History at the Washington State Library

Abstract

The Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State, is the first territorial library in the Pacific Northwest, established in 1853, with funding from the U.S. Congress. Located in Olympia, the library’s newspaper collection holds over 6,500 newspaper titles, including over 125 titles in print, 52,000 reels of microfilm, and over 85 titles in digital formats. The library’s Washington Digital Newspapers (WDN) program provides free public access to the territory’s earliest newspaper publications documenting the growth of Pacific Northwest communities and expeditions into territorial Alaska.

The WDN program has grown to include over 500,000 pages, developed with experience gained from the National Digital Newspaper Program and strong partnerships with Washington universities, regional libraries, museums, and publishers. Increased access to online collections has encouraged the development of new educational programs, online exhibits, and greater opportunities for research. This paper will describe the library’s role in newspaper preservation and innovative ways researchers have navigated a sea of information found in its extensive newspaper collections. A description of the Primarily Washington website will show how newspapers are used as a primary educational resource and an interview with a local museum director will show how local newspapers and publishers inspired an entire exhibit.