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 | 62 |
| 1858 | 29 |
| 1859 | 52 |
| 1860 | 27 |
| 1861 | 101 |
| 1862 | 87 |
| 1863 | 69 |
| 1864 | 32 |
| 1865 | 11 |
| 1871 | 11 |
| 1872 | 140 |
| 1876 | 812 |
| 1877 | 678 |
| 1878 | 526 |
| 1879 | 64 |
| 1880 | 180 |
| 1882 | 130 |
| 1883 | 911 |
| 1884 | 499 |
| 1885 | 838 |
| 1886 | 492 |
| 1887 | 484 |
| 1888 | 440 |
| 1889 | 1,324 |
| 1890 | 287 |
| 1891 | 1,115 |
| 1892 | 2,855 |
| 1893 | 2,829 |
| 1894 | 2,116 |
| 1895 | 1,830 |
| 1896 | 2 |
| 1897 | 62 |
| 1898 | 196 |
| 1899 | 446 |
| 1900 | 114 |
| 1902 | 34 |
| 1903 | 1,332 |
| 1904 | 1,126 |
| 1905 | 124 |
| 1907 | 53 |
| 1908 | 351 |
| 1909 | 1,545 |
| 1910 | 413 |
| 1911 | 160 |
| 1912 | 73 |
| 1914 | 261 |
| 1915 | 300 |
| 1916 | 545 |
| 1917 | 332 |
| 1918 | 45 |
| 1919 | 5 |
| 1920 | 1 |
| 1922 | 18 |
| 1923 | 185 |
| 1924 | 151 |
| 1925 | 64 |
| 1928 | 14 |
| 1929 | 19 |
1,830 stories
- The Variety Palace That Became a Business Block
John Cort's Standard Theater, where rival bands paraded in Pioneer Place and 'box rustlers' rode through the streets, is being remodeled into ordinary commercial space at South Second and Washington.
- When the Entiat Log Jam Let Go
Eight loggers were caught in a sudden torrent near Wenatchee in 1895; two were badly hurt and the river was still rising.
- The Hotel Room Assault That Sent Seattle Detectives on a Weeklong Manhunt
After Ruby Stanley was found beaten and bloodied at the International Hotel, police hunted John Diegan until a Tuesday-night struggle ended in his arrest.
- No Safety Net, No Ordinance: A Trapeze Act Falls in Seattle
Two acrobats plunged from a Madison Street trapeze in 1895, exposing a gap in city safety rules and a very lucky escape.
- Seven Votes Decide an Office: The Ballots Are 'Indescribable'
A contested Seattle election heads to the state supreme court, where a recount has whittled a 78-vote plurality down to seven — and counsel warns that some ballots defy description.
- Who Owns the Mud Beneath Smith Cove?
Seven King County men file claims on twenty acres apiece of Seattle tide flat, then protest the state's plan to fill and sell the same ground out from under them.
- The Cancer Doctor and the Constable
A self-styled German physician who promised to cure cancer is arrested in Seattle, charms his way through a bail hearing, then slips out of town by steamer.
- The Persistent Barber Who Conned the City
A petty swindler known as 'Clark' or 'Rieff' spent weeks running up tabs at local drugstores and shops by impersonating city employees and prominent businessmen.
- The Piano Salesman Who Vanished With the Money
A Centralia sewing-machine and organ dealer bolts for the Sandwich Islands, leaving a destitute wife, two children, a borrowed horse, and a trail of suspicious fire insurance behind him.
- The Bicycle Craze Is Killing the Horse Trade
A traveling horseshoe salesman reports that the wheel has gutted demand for horses, harnesses and carriages — and that Western horses are now worth 'less than nothing.'
- A Drunkard Sold His Mother's Grave for Whiskey Money
Arthur Schmieg deeded the Lake View cemetery lot holding his mother and uncle to a saloonkeeper to cover a liquor debt — and the family went to court to stop the bodies being dug up.
- The Mine That Wasn't: A Spokane Man's $5,000 Hole in the Ground
C. P. O'Brien swears he was sold a fourth interest in the O.K. mine for $5,000 — a claim that turns out to have no ore, no ledge, and no existence at all. Clerks, businessmen and a woman stenographer say they were fleeced too.
- The Co-op That Wanted to Sell Its Own Coal
A twenty-man miners' cooperative in Renton can dig the coal but can't get it to market — the Oregon Improvement Company will rent them bunkers, but won't let a competitor sell out of its yard.
- Tacoma's 1894: Falling Lumber, Rising Flour, and a New Rolling Mill
The Ledger's year-end review found reasons for optimism in shipping, smelting, meat packing, and new rail connections—even as low prices cut into the lumber trade.
- A Trapper Walked Into the Snow and Never Came Back
William McKeiver’s cabin was found in good order, his rifle untouched, and his diary blank since November. Cougar tracks circled the traps.
- The Yellow Church the Neighbors Want Gone
A Renton Addition resident airs a neighborhood feud over a 'mission church' on Hyde and Filbert streets that blocks the view, lowers property values — and that its owner refuses to move, even at the neighbors' expense.
- Four Candy Counters and a Prostitution Charge
Police called the fruit-and-candy stands on Third and Front streets a front. The women who kept them, and the men who lived with them, stood in police court and pleaded not guilty.
- A Coal Elevator Gives Way at the Foot of Madison Street
Two coal cars and three workers fall twenty feet when a corroded hydraulic cylinder bursts at the Seattle Coal & Iron Company bunkers; all escape without a scratch.
- The Pigeons That Flew Down From Rainier With News the Mountain Was Smoking
Seven homing pigeons carried dispatches from Mount Rainier's slopes, disproving the era's altitude limits and delivering word that the volcano was steaming.
- A Narrow Escape at the Shilshole Crossing
A switch engine slams into a team on Shilshole Avenue, killing a horse and nearly killing the driver—who crawled out thanks to a broken wagon tongue.
- Seattle's Silver Crusaders Packed the Armory and Demanded a Free-Silver Senator
Populists, Democrats and Republicans found one thing to agree on in 1895: unlimited silver coinage—and a Legislature that would send a silver man to Washington.
- Silence Was Golden: How Two Japanese Laborers Escaped Deportation
A smuggler's luck and a well-timed memory lapse freed two Japanese laborers held in a Washington county jail—a small episode in the era's fierce battles over immigration.
- The Judge Who Believed the Cigar-Factory Girl
A working woman prosecuted a street harasser in Seattle's municipal court, and Judge Glasgow publicly praised her courage.
- A Walk to the Post Office, Then a New Name in Seattle
A Tacoma stepfather recognized Dora Covey in a newspaper notice — arrested in Seattle as 'Dora Stout' after vanishing from a probationary release.
- The Judge Forgot the Evidence, and the Gambling Case Walked
Charles Shaw’s Union Club prosecution ended when the judge couldn’t recall Chief Rogers’ key testimony. The gambling furniture went out the door anyway.