Digital Document Libraries

These digital document libraries are conceived as a resource for teachers and students of Washington State History. They contain digital representations of a few primary source documents on the selected topics listed below. Although the geographic focus is Seattle, the topics reflect events at the state and national level.

Primary sources are documents created or received by a person or organization during the course of events or conduct of business. Primary sources are used by historians to write histories, which are interpretations of the past. Reading primary source documents provides a glimpse of what people were doing and thinking in the past.

Homelessness in City Records

Black History Month in Seattle

The Great Seattle Fire of 1889

Implementing the ADA in Seattle

Century 21 World's Fair

World Trade Organization Protests in Seattle

Gay Rights in the 1970s

Prohibition in Seattle

The Seattle Open Housing Campaign, 1959-1968

City Councilman Sam Smith

Hoovervilles in Seattle

The 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition

Unemployment and the WPA in Seattle

LGBT Issues in the 1980s

Women in the Fire Department

Seattle's Open Government Laws

NE 45th Street Viaduct

Municipal Archives, City Clerk

Anne Frantilla, City Archivist
Address: 600 Fourth Avenue, Third Floor, Seattle, WA, 98104
Mailing Address: PO Box 94728, Seattle, WA, 98124-4728
Phone: (206) 684-8353
archives@seattle.gov

The Office of the City Clerk maintains the City's official records, provides support for the City Council, and manages the City's historical records through the Seattle Municipal Archives. The Clerk's Office provides information services to the public and to City staff.