Donald Schmechel Oral History Collection

October is American Archives Month and we are celebrating with the completion of a new digital collection: the Donald Schmechel Oral History Collection.

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Donald Schmechel was a Seattle Public Library board member who, in the 1980s, created a project to interview prominent figures in Pacific Northwest History. Schmechel raised funding for the project, volunteered his time to manage it, and conducted interviews along with a crew of volunteers. The resulting oral histories were divided between the Seattle Public Library and the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI).

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 Ellen Latimer Stephens, Clara Latimer Bickford, and Emma Chesney Latimer Reynolds.

Narcissa, Alice, Hattie, Clara, and Emma Latimer, circa 1880.

The descendants of the Latimer family played a significant role in the founding of Seattle. Alexander Latimer’s sister, Sarah Latimer, married her first husband, Richard Boren in 1822. Their children, Mary Ann Boren Denny, Carson Dobbins Boren and Louisa Boren, were in the group of Seattle’s first settlers who landed at Alki on November 13, 1851. They were accompanied by Arthur Armstrong Denny (husband to Mary Ann Boren Denny) and David Thomas Denny (soon to be husband to Louisa Boren). Arthur and David were the sons Sarah Latimer’s second husband John Denny from a previous marriage.

New to our digital collections: Seattle’s Town Crier Newspaper

We’ve just added over 1,200 issues from Seattle’s local arts periodical, The Town Crier, to our digital collections. The Town Crier was a weekly magazine focusing on Seattle’s news, arts and culture between 1910 and 1938. Over its lifetime, the paper included coverage of the work of individuals such as Frank Kunishige, Edward S. Curtis, Ella McBride, Kenneth Callahan, Mark Tobey, Roi Partridge, Imogen Cunningham and more.

Every year, the paper produced a lengthier Christmas edition with a cover designed by a local artist featuring holiday articles, reproductions of photographs and artwork from local names, and lengthier features on topics such as Seattle homes, industries and history.

Intiman’s Dragon Lady and Philippine Migration

The migration of a family from the Philippines to America has been explored in colorful form by Sara Porkalob in Dragon Lady, a one woman show at the Intiman Theater, closing October 1st. She revisits the arc of Philippine culture and assimilation from her grandmother’s time to her own, as she portrays three generations of her family members. Along the way she dramatizes the themes of stereotyping, resiliency, sexual exploitation, gangster feuds, teen pregnancy, and single parenting, through the lives and eyes of Filipinos on the islands, and as immigrants of color in America. (Check out this brief interview with the title character of Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Lady. Porkalob will also be reading from a banned book at the Library’s panel on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries this coming October 4 at 7 p.m.).

New to our Digital Collections: Seattle Mail and Herald

Want to explore Seattle headlines from over 100 years ago? Take a look at our new Seattle Mail and Herald digital collection. The Mail and Herald was a weekly paper discussing the city’s news, politics, society events, entertainment and more. The paper included articles on topics such as Seattle’s regrades, the Alaskan Gold Rush, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, the Lake Washington Ship Canal, and the proliferation of crime and vice under Seattle’s “Open Town” policy. Issues often include portraits of prominent Seattleites and visiting entertainers along with photographs of buildings and scenery in Seattle, Washington State and Alaska.