Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine1 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 6 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1863 | 2 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1872 | 8 |
| 1876 | 37 |
| 1877 | 31 |
| 1878 | 18 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 7 |
| 1883 | 34 |
| 1884 | 23 |
| 1885 | 21 |
| 1886 | 10 |
| 1887 | 18 |
| 1888 | 23 |
| 1889 | 78 |
| 1890 | 24 |
| 1891 | 74 |
| 1892 | 117 |
| 1893 | 96 |
| 1894 | 98 |
| 1895 | 107 |
| 1897 | 9 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 22 |
| 1900 | 3 |
| 1903 | 72 |
| 1904 | 55 |
| 1905 | 9 |
| 1907 | 6 |
| 1908 | 14 |
| 1909 | 78 |
| 1910 | 25 |
| 1911 | 33 |
| 1912 | 9 |
| 1914 | 6 |
| 1915 | 9 |
| 1916 | 23 |
| 1917 | 16 |
| 1918 | 3 |
| 1919 | 1 |
| 1922 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 6 |
| 1928 | 1 |
18 stories matching system
- The 'Chisel' Game: How Seattle's Working Class Fought Labor Exploitation
A scathing report from 1887 reveals the corrupt 'ticket' system that allowed middlemen to siphon wages from laborers—a century-old echo of modern gig-economy wage theft.
- Seattle's Corrupt Policing: The Fee System of 1887
How Seattle’s police force was incentivized to hunt for arrests and padding their own pockets through court fees, sparking a local civic scandal.
- The Brutal Reality of Convict Leasing in the Washington Territory
A scathing look at the state's profit-driven 'convict lease' system, where human beings were treated as disposable capital and exploited for labor with zero accountability for their survival.
- The Forgotten Women of the 1887 Labor Convention
A rare glimpse of women organizers taking the floor at an early Seattle-area political gathering, challenging the 'monopolists' of the Gilded Age.
- The Unseen Cost of a Changing Railroad
A 1887 editorial warns that new federal commerce regulations could dismantle local trade networks in Seattle and beyond, favoring big cities at the expense of regional producers.
- The Shame of Seattle's City Jail
A grand jury investigation into Seattle’s penal system reveals a crumbling facility plagued by filth, corruption, and the disappearance of evidence.
- The Great Crew Shortage of 1887
Facing a labor scarcity and rising costs, Seattle ship owners considered an radical, cost-cutting plan to import crews from the East Coast.
- The Eight-Hour Day Battle in 1887
Washington territorial legislators spar over radical new labor laws, including mandates for an eight-hour workday and the end of company-scrip payment systems.
- The Railway King's Monopoly Game
A rare glimpse into the backroom dealings of 1887 Seattle, where coal and rail barons haggled over the city's infrastructure and the 'survival of the fittest'.
- The Logging War on the Cascade Branch
A standoff between federal agents and the Northern Pacific Railroad reveals the brutal reality of timber 'development' in Washington Territory.
- The Day Seattle Marched: Labor, Liberty, and the 1887 Fourth of July
A massive parade of unionized labor, from shipbuilders to coal miners, takes over Seattle’s streets for a patriotic Fourth of July that doubles as a fierce critique of land monopoly.
- The 'Committee of Fifteen' and the Struggle Against Chinese Labor in Tacoma
An archival look at the exclusionary 1886 resolution that fueled the violent campaign to purge Chinese residents from Tacoma.
- The Last Man Left Behind
A lonely figure in Tacoma navigates a hostile city after a systemic campaign of expulsion drove his neighbors into exile.
- The Jury That Called Out King County’s Corruption
A scathing 1887 report from the Grand Jury exposes the mismanagement, dangerous roads, and broken record-keeping systems of pioneer-era Seattle.
- The Price of Resistance: Seattle Unions Take On 'Dark' Boarding House Practices
While Seattle’s 1887 press was full of land speculation and railroad hype, a quiet labor dispute reveals how maritime workers fought back against predatory rooming house keepers who swindled sailors out of their hard-earned pay.
- The Wealth of the Nation Trapped in the Vaults
A century and a half ago, President Grover Cleveland grappled with a modern-sounding crisis: federal budget surpluses causing economic panic, skyrocketing costs for common goods, and the crushing weight of a tariff system on working families.
- The Wild West of Seattle Grading
In the late 1880s, Seattle’s haphazard street construction and 'dirt-moving' contractors left the city a muddy, confusing, and financially murky landscape for residents and letter carriers alike.
- The Divine Sarah Bernhardt’s Theatrical Meltdown in Seattle
When the legendary French actress discovered her grand stage at the Columbia Theater had been booked for a minstrel show, she didn't just walk off—she unleashed a legendary, multi-lingual tantrum.