Category Archives: Events

Moving history strikes back – an archival screening night at Northwest Film Forum

14 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Events, Videos and film

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MIPoPSPresents

Join us!

On Thursday, June 22, the King County Archives will be participating in “Moving History Strikes Back!”—an archival screening night at Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum, presented by Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound (MIPoPS).

Earthworks revisited

At MIPoPS’ first screening in 2013, the King County Archives contributed clips from interviews with artists participating the King County Art Commission’s 1979 Earthworks: Land Reclamation as Sculpture demonstration project and symposium.  

In this screening, we will be sharing a newly digitized video from the same Earthworks collection. In this interview, New York artist Mary Miss discusses her plans for an “airport free zone” adjacent to SeaTac International Airport.

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Still from interview with artist Mary Miss, 1979. King County Archives Series 1747.

Airport Free Zone

Miss’s project proposal was distinct from those of the other Earthworks artists, who were assigned damaged sites such as landfills and gravel pits. This site, once a residential area, had been cleared of homes due its proximity to the airport. Thus it did not require environmental remediation, but instead needed “social reclamation.” Miss envisioned a public artwork/park in the buffer between the airport and nearby homes and businesses. A walkway through interwoven structures would relate to remnants of the former neighborhood, such as an abandoned road and old building foundations.

 

 

Model and site plans for Aiport Free Zone earthwork by Mary Miss. King County Archives Series 1747.

A variety of videos

“Moving History Strikes Back!” will include an engaging variety of material from MIPoPS partner organizations who are working to preserve historical video recordings.

We will get to enjoy clips from videos that are unique or rare, freshly digitized for access and preservation.

Participating organizations include the Southwest Seattle Historical Society – Loghouse Museum, the Sally Sykes Group, Scarecrow Video, the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Public Schools, the Wing Luke Museum, the Seattle Municipal Archives, and the University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections.

We hope to see you there!

Commemorating the Ship Canal Centennial: the Mills of Salmon Bay

05 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in Events, Exhibits, Photographs

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Detail of photograph of Sobey Manufacturing Shingle Mill, 1915. Item 51879, Series 2613-07, Engineering Department Photographic Negatives, Seattle Municipal Archives.
Detail from cross-section drawing of the Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company mill, 1915. Series 276, Salmon Bay Waterway Condemnation Survey No. 1255, King County Archives.
Plat of Salmon Bay Road, 1880. Road Book Volume 4, Series 30, King County Commissioners’ Road Books, King County Archives.

Announcing the opening of a joint exhibit from the King County Archives and the Seattle Municipal Archives:

The Mills of Salmon Bay and the Lake Washington Ship Canal

Created in commemoration of the Lake Washington Ship Canal Centennial, our new exhibit presents a history of the sawmills and shingle mills in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood that were affected by the canal.

The exhibit is part of Making the Cut, a series of exhibits, projects, and events from local organizations and individuals commemorating the centennial of the canal’s opening.

The Mills of Salmon Bay and the Lake Washington Ship Canal

Exhibit Dates: June through July, 2017

Location: underground pedestrian tunnel between the King County Courthouse and the King County Administration Building

Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Access the tunnel from the lower level of the King County Courthouse (516 3rd Avenue) or the King County Administration Building (500 4th Avenue) in downtown Seattle.

Exhibit background

On July 4, 1917, fifty-thousand people celebrated the opening of Seattle’s Lake Washington Ship Canal with fireworks, a carnival, and a boat parade.

Some forty years had passed between when the Ship Canal was first envisioned by non-native settlers and its completion. One of the last decisions to be made about the canal’s design was the placement of the locks, which would impact the sawmills and shingle mills along Ballard’s Salmon Bay.

The Mills of Salmon Bay and the Lake Washington Ship Canal features maps, technical drawings (steampunk fans take notice!), and photographs that were created by the City of Seattle and King County for the canal project. These records provide a view into the operation of these early 20th Century mills.

The exhibit presents a brief history of the Salmon Bay mills, regional labor issues in the timber industry, and the impact of the canal’s design and construction on Ballard’s Shingletown.

Making the Cut

Visit makingthecut100.org for information about the many exhibits, events, projects, and online resources commemorating the centennial of the Lake Washington Ship Canal’s opening.

King County Archives receives the AKCHO 2017 Technology Award for its online exhibit, “Responding to AIDS”

26 Wednesday Apr 2017

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The King County Archives was chosen as winner of the Association of King County Heritage Organizations 2017 Technology Award for its online exhibit, Responding to AIDS: The Seattle-King County Department of Public Health, 1982-1996.

The AKCHO Technology Award is “presented annually to an organization for an outstanding project that pairs technology with local history and provides an inspiration or a model for the heritage community.” We are honored to be among this year’s AKCHO award recipients, listed here: 2017 AKCHO Award Honorees.

About the exhibit

Responding to AIDS: The Seattle-King County Department of Public Health, 1982-1996 is a history of the department’s AIDS Prevention Project, from its formation in response to the emerging AIDS epidemic, to when effective AIDS treatment became widely available.

The exhibit presents archival records from the program and incorporates video clips from ten oral history interviews with current and former Seattle-King County Department of Public Health employees — leadership and staff from the AIDS Prevention Project.

Above: oral history interviewees, former staff and leadership from the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health. Top row: Hunter Handsfield, former Director of Public Health – Seattle & King County STD Control Program; Ann Downer, former AIDS Prevention Project Education Program Manager; Tim Burak, former AIDS Prevention Project Program Manager. Second row: Frank Chaffee, retired Manager of Public Health – Seattle & King County’s HIV/STD Program; Karen Hartfield, former HIV Prevention Project Planner (currently Health Services Administrator for the Communicable Disease Epidemiology & Immunizations Section of Public Health); Dr. Robert Wood, former Director of the HIV/AIDS Control Program. Third Row: Gary Goldbaum, former Assistant Medical Director for the AIDS Prevention Project; Patricia McInturff, former Regional Division Director for the Department of Public Health; Sharon Hopkins, former AIDS Prevention Project Senior Epidemiologist.

The oral history subjects describe professional, scientific, and political challenges in responding to the epidemic before HIV-AIDS was well understood, during a time of heightened fear and amidst widespread homophobia. They reflect on their personal experiences: the bonds between program staff; losing colleagues, friends, and loved ones; and living with HIV.

AIDS changed everything

The oral histories also discuss broader topics such as the effect of AIDS activism on medical practices and how the response to the epidemic influenced societal acceptance of LGBT individuals. As former AIDS Prevention Project Education Coordinator Anne Downer put it, “AIDS changed everything.”

Many other issues addressed in the exhibit remain relevant today. Examples include privacy rights; sex education in schools; the challenge to public health agencies in reaching disadvantaged and minority populations; overcoming fear of government among stigmatized groups; public panic around emerging epidemics; and civil rights protections for sexual minorities.

Graphical materials

The exhibit also features a rich collection of graphic materials, illustrating how the program reached out to the Gay Community and to racial and ethnic minorities with culturally relevant and sensitive campaigns, while educating a frightened public about the latest scientific understanding of the disease.

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Poster advertising the Be a Star study, ca. 1987. “Stars” (Mae West, James Dean, Judy Garland, Oscar Wilde, Billie Holiday, and Marilyn Monroe) were assigned to study subjects in a system designed to allow long-term, anonymous participation. [Series 1825, History files, Seattle-King County Department of Public Health: Prevention Division / HIV-AIDS Program. 1825-6-5.]

AIDS Prevention Project staff

Our archival collection helps document the history of King County and its people. AIDS Prevention Project staff and leadership are an amazing group of people, and it was an honor to learn from them. The archival record of their work and the oral histories capture their commitment to profession and to public service.

We are grateful to those whom we were able to interview, who were generous with their time as well as with their insight, corrections, and ideas.

Further research

By necessity, the exhibit was limited in scope and depth. We regret that we were unable to interview more program staff for this project, and we hope that our online exhibit might inspire others to continue documenting their story. There is also much more to be learned from the records of the program, and we encourage further research at the Archives. See the references and resources section of the exhibit or contact us at archives@kingcounty.gov for more information.

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At the AKCHO Award Ceremony, hosted by the Northwest African American Museum on April 25, 2017. Back row from left: Bob Wood; Tim Burak; Lawrence Knopp (oral history interviewer); Hunter Handsfield. Front row: Deborah Kennedy, Manager of Archives, Records Management, and Mail Services Section, Records and Licensing Division, King County Executive Services; King County Assistant Archivist Rebecca Pixler; County Archivist Carol Shenk; Patricia McInturff.

Knute Berger on journalism and history

06 Monday Feb 2017

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Knute Berger at the Nordic Heritage Museum, AKCHO Annual Meeting, January 31, 2017. Photo by Teresa Anderson.

 

At the annual meeting of the Association of King County Heritage Organizations, in a keynote address he described as a “love-letter of a kind,” Crosscut columnist Knute Berger reminded AKCHO members — historical societies, preservation organizations, archives, libraries, and museums from around King County — how their work supports journalism.


Journalists need facts, you have them. The public needs context, perspective, and together we can provide it.
– Knute Berger, AKCHO keynote address January 31, 2017

In his address, Berger warned that growing economic pressures and technological change are straining both journalism and heritage organizations, and that we face these challenges at a time when our physical and social environments are also rapidly changing, when preserving and remembering our history is especially important.

It is a dangerous time if journalism flounders—and it *is* floundering, faced with disruptive technological change, shifting business models, and downsizing. That is no good for our democracy. We need a literate, informed, and motivated electorate, and constitutionally protected media that speak truth to power.

It is a dangerous time if we are not informed by the past, by actual history. Many of the most precious resources that feed democracy—libraries, historical societies, archives, museums—have barely recovered from the knife cuts of the Great Recession and require more resources to modernize. Our built environment is now symbolized by cranes and the wrecking ball. Heritage groups have been impacted by technological changes and changes in the public’s attention span now too often limited to Facebook feeds or messages of no more than 140 characters, your Twitter handle excluded.

Establishing facts

Berger described using local repositories to research several recent stories, including a series on racist place names in Washington State (see for example, “Racist Names to be Scrubbed from Washington Maps“).

I have looked at maps, mining claim documents, photographs, and probed databases, read reports from local historians and historical societies to understand how our names on the map came to be, and why they are important, why changing them might or might not be a good idea.

The variety of sources Berger consults in his work speaks to the importance of wide and deep research in establishing facts and in understanding and interpreting history.

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Detail of map showing Coon Creek, one of the racist place names discussed in Berger’s series. Snoqualmie National Forest Cedar Lake Road No. 222, 1938. Series 488, Department of Transportation Road Services Division Maps and plans: Virtual Map Vault. King County Archives.

Historical records as evidence

In discussing maps, Berger pointed out that even some original, historical records, in so far as they are products of a given culture, don’t necessarily describe reality.

Maps are a mix of facts and alternative facts. To be on a map is to be, to exist. Remove a village from a map and its inhabitants will cry foul. But the politics of how places get named and after what or whom is important. How maps can reflect our best and worst selves is good to understand. Maps are where the rubber of regional and national identity hits the road, and a reassessment of values and history takes place.

 

Historical records can reflect cultural or other bias. They can also capture a record-keeper’s arbitrary decisions or mistakes. And, not insignificantly, they are limited by the technology employed to establish facts and to record them. Thus, piecing together multiple perspectives and cross-checking assertions from multiple sources, both primary and secondary, is critical to creating an accurate historical picture.

At the King County Archives, our primary role is not to interpret history, but to preserve and provide access to records that help establish and explain it. Our clients include teachers and students, business owners, homeowners, academics, attorneys, government employees, hobbyists, genealogists, engineers, policymakers, journalists, and others, from all walks of life.

It is our job, along with other heritage organizations, to record what was and what is, to preserve a sense of place, to document rights and obligations, and to invite newcomers to join in our region’s shared history.

Both Berger’s address and the AKCHO meeting served as a reminder that although we have different missions, institutions such as schools, news organizations, museums, libraries, and archives all share in common the desire to promote interest in and understanding of the past to inform the present.

Thanks to Knute Berger for permission to quote his keynote address here.

Join us at the Northwest Film Forum’s second Archival Screening Night!

01 Wednesday Feb 2017

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The King County Archives is delighted to be participating in a second archival screening night at the Northwest Film Forum, hosted by Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound (MIPoPS). The event takes place on Friday, February 17 (doors open at 7pm, showtime is at 8pm) and promises to offer an interesting and entertaining mix, with contributions from the Sally Sykes Group, Scarecrow Video, the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Public Schools, the Wing Luke Museum, the Seattle Municipal Archives, the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, and the King County Archives.

The screening will feature videos that have been converted from analog formats to digital for preservation and access using equipment, software, and expertise provided by MIPoPS. The King County Archives is fortunate to be a MIPoPS partner, allowing us to conserve our at-risk archival videos.

Why digitize video?

Videotape — magnetic media like Betacam, VHS, and Umatic — in many cases is the original format of moving image recordings dating from the 1970s into the 1990s.  In other cases, videotaped copies are our only versions of original film. These materials are increasingly at risk, as magnetic tape deteriorates over time. Sadly, we have already discovered one significant tape in the King County Archives collection that has become unplayable.

King County’s Waste Away

At the February 17th screening, we will be contributing a shortened version of Waste Away (1966) a lighthearted and optimistic look at advances in solid waste management. The film captures a time when public awareness was just beginning to form around the problem of garbage in a consumer society.

Adam and Eve
Early waste management
Illegal dumping
Above: stills (Adam and Eve, early waste management, and illegal dumping) from Waste Away, 1966.
Below: animated gif created from stills (engineer designing “The Mole”).

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The Mole

Waste Away highlights King County’s experimental mobile trash-compactor, affectionately known as “The Mole.” Sold at auction in the early 1970s, the Mole is rumored to have been purchased by George Lucas’s film company and to have served as the model and/or inspiration for the Star Wars Tatooine sandcrawlers.

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Sandcrawler

Top: The Mole. Series 400, Department of Transportation, Road Services: Photograph and Moving Image Files, Box 57, #1316, ref ID 400.123.70. King County Archives. Bottom: Tatooine Sandcrawler from Star Wars (Image courtesy of Wookieepedia: The Star Wars Wiki).

Get your tickets!

Advance warning: the October 2016 Archival Screening Night at the Northwest Film Forum sold out.

We hope to see you there!

Event details

An executive transition in King County

20 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by in Events, From the Vault, Videos and film

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Tim Hill’s county identification card. Record Group 140, County Executive Tim Hill, King County Archives.

In 1993 King County Executive Tim Hill was campaigning for a third term.  King County government was verging on a transition: the merger with the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (METRO), to start on January 1, 1994.  Tim Hill had put in much groundwork for this day.  He appealed to voters that he was the best person to continue overseeing the merger.

Excerpts from promotional video on the King County-METRO merger, Architects of Change, 1993. Series 1423 Office of Information Resource Management, photographs, audio/visual material, King County Archives.

 

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Gary Locke

On November 3, 1993, King County voters chose popular state legislator Gary Locke as County Executive; and Tim Hill found himself stepping down after eight years in office.

The Seattle Times and cartoonist Brian Bassett commented on the challenges facing the Executive-elect on the day after the election.

Gary Locke. Series 473, Box 3, Folder 1
Below: newspaper clippings, Series 1931, Box 2, Folder 3, King County Archives.

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Also on the day after the election, Gary Locke wrote to Tim Hill.

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Series 1880, Box 7, Folder 18

 

Gary Locke: from campaign to public office

Records of Joan Yoshitomi, transition manager for Gary Locke, provide insight into the democratic process of peacefully transferring elected authority. In the first days after the election, the Locke team had to:

  • Conclude business arrangements regarding its rented campaign office space
  • Arrange for the new executive to receive attorney-client briefings from Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng
  • Plan and cost inauguration
  • Raise funds for inauguration from donors
  • Hire a management consulting company
  • Develop a communication strategy for the Executive; solicit speechwriters/ assistant
  • Solicit input regarding Locke Administration priorities
  • Develop a “first 120 days” action plan that could be communicated to the public
  • Receive instructions for operating Executive Office computers
  • Solicit suggestions for new department directors and executive staff
  • Request resignations of the current administration’s Executive Office staff and department directors

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Letter of resignation by Parks, Planning and Resources Department Director Lois Scwennesen.  Series 1880, box 7, folder 13, King County Archives.

 

Tim Hill: from public office to private citizen

At the same time, Tim Hill and his Executive Office staff were:

  • Arranging transition materials from County executive departments
  • Arranging exit counseling, making vacation leave arrangements, and holding unemployment briefings for persons who were being asked to resign
  • Making arrangements with the Locke team for paying transition personnel

Tim Hill retired from elected politics but continued public service in the Seattle-King County area as a teacher and as a board member for various nonprofit organizations. He remains involved in politics as a private citizen.

Tim Hill’s records to the Archives

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Detail of handwritten notes, Series 435, Tim Hill management work papers, King County Archives.

On leaving public office Tim Hill also took care to make arrangements with University of Washington Libraries for the transfer of some of his executive working papers to its manuscript collections. The papers were returned to the King County Archives a few years later as Series 435, Management work papers, and Series 436, Project files.

 

Governor Locke

Gary Locke was sworn in as King County’s fifth county executive on January 3, 1994. After a year in office, Executive Locke addressed the Council about his vision for a new way of governing, challenges facing the County, and how to work through differences between governmental branches and political views. Below is the conclusion of that speech, in which he embraces the political cartoon with him as “Captain Locke” of the starship U.S.S. King County.

Conclusion of King County Executive Gary Locke’s State-of-the-County Address to the King County Council, (ca. 1995) Series 1423 Office of Information Resource Management, photographs, audio/visual material, King County Archives.

Locke served until 1996 when he was elected Washington State governor. He later served in the Obama Administration as Secretary of Commerce and ambassador to China.

County Executive Records, 1981-1996

The Locke transition records are a small part of a large collection of King County Executive records processed by King County Archives staff between 2008 and 2016. The twenty-three series, from the administrations of Executives Randy Revelle, Tim Hill and Gary Locke, include county agency files, board and commission files, chronological correspondence files, legislative files, news releases, proclamations, studies and reports, and Metro transition files. Taken together, the records document a wide range of important policy issues, including:

  • Expansion of the Farmlands Preservation Program
  • Construction of a new county detention facility in downtown Seattle, and a Regional Justice Center in Kent
  • Onset of AIDS in King County, and the county’s response to the epidemic
  • Ongoing discussions with the Seattle Mariners over their continued tenancy in the Kingdome stadium
  • Beginning of efforts to replace the Kingdome with new stadiums
  • Land use planning under the Growth Management Act
  • Approval of the Regional Transit Authority, later known as Sound Transit
  • Merger of the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle with King County government

The King County Archives invites researchers to contact us regarding this significant collection.

A little sweetness

31 Monday Oct 2016

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In 1975, King County Police officers made presentations on Halloween safety at 38 elementary schools, reaching approximately 20,000 students.

Volunteers from Girl Scout Troop #421, a retirement home, and a senior citizens’ club helped prepare by stapling candy to 20,000 flyers. The candy had been donated by several local manufacturers and distributors.

The children were impressed!

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And, the officers were congratulated by the Department of Public Safety for promoting safety and goodwill among “the youngsters.”

 Happy Halloween!

Source: Series 314, Department of Public Safety Issue Files, Halloween Safety Project, Box 17, Folder 16, King County Archives.

Come see us at the Northwest Film Forum’s Archival Screening Night!

21 Wednesday Sep 2016

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The King County Archives is delighted to be participating in a screening of clips from local archives and cultural organizations at the Northwest Film Forum, located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.  The event is being held in honor of Archives Month and promises to be a treat.

 

The King County Archives is contributing a variety of clips, including some local sports history, 1930s silent film, and more!

We hope to see you there!

Event details

 

 

 

Happy 50th Anniversary, Fairwood!

08 Monday Aug 2016

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In the March 27, 1966 edition of The Seattle Times, the better part of page 15E covered the announcement by United Homes and Sherwood Development Co. that the two companies had joined forces to develop a $50 million planned community near Maple Valley, including a championship-level golf course, shopping center, and clubhouse over 750 acres. The area soon to be called Fairwood initially had 1800 homes and advertised the neighborhood as the ideal combination of luxurious amenities and proximity to nature and recreation. Over the years, Fairwood has grown into a diverse, independent community in unincorporated King County, built around its verdant parks, 20,000 sq. ft. Fairwood Library, and the Cedar River Trail.

Fairwood_Web_ButtonFairwood is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer. Represented by King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, the celebration culminates in a festival on Saturday, August 27 at Petrovitsky Park, hosted by King County Parks and Councilmember Dunn, who also commissioned a display of Fairwood history from the King County Archives, to be displayed around Fairwood during the month of August.

displayUsing historical materials from the Archives alongside news articles, property records, and local keepsakes collected by Fairwood residents, Archives staff created three 7-foot panels, each detailing a different era of area history: the Cedar River valley and the people who called it home in the 19th and early 20th Centuries; the founding of Fairwood and how residents built their community; and the questions facing Fairwood citizens today.

Below are a few selections from the exhibit, or see it for yourself in Fairwood while celebrating this milestone!

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The Archives would like to acknowledge the indispensable assistance of those who provided additional materials for this display: Fred Gurney and Laurie Finlayson at the Fairwood Library; Councilmember Reagan Dunn and his staff; the Renton History Museum; King County Parks; and the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI).

 

 

 

 

Graffiti contest decorates the Archives and Records Center buildings

31 Sunday Jul 2016

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Yesterday, the walls of the Archives and Records Center served as blank canvas for a graffiti contest hosted by local artist Andrew Morrison in collaboration with 206 Zulu, our neighbors at Washington Hall.  Thanks to all who participated!

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