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
- Seattle’s 1895 Co-op Where 150 Unemployed Men Ate for 7 Cents a Day
At a Belltown barracks, unemployed single men pooled their wages, submitted to military-style rules and fed an average of 150 people daily for about 7 cents each.
- A Saw Cut Through His Brain. Seattle Doctors Watched Him Live.
Horatio Stetson's head was nearly split in two by a rip saw at a Seattle mill. Thirty-six hours later, he was talking, moving his limbs, and astonishing the physicians at Providence Hospital.
- The Night Federal Agents Made Chinatown Show Its Papers
A certificate sweep through Wa Chong’s rooms broke up card games and opium pipes and netted one man accused of lying in a deportation case.
- The Waterfront War: Railroads Clash Over Seattle Tide Flats
A long-standing right-of-way dispute between the Great Northern and the Oregon Improvement Company turns physical as crews rip up tracks at the foot of Washington Street.
- The Meat Market Collector's Secret Life
A trusted employee at a Seattle meat market vanishes, leaving behind a trail of debt and a hidden history of gambling arrests.
- The Fight to Clean Up the Shadow of the Church
A municipal court judge rules against a family accused of running a vice operation near the Plymouth Congregational Church.
- The Horse Whisperer of Armory Hall
Professor O. R. Gleason packs the Armory with his controversial, high-stakes horse-taming exhibitions.
- The Battle for the Waterfront
Tacoma and Seattle clash with the state over who owns the land between the high tide line and the harbor.
- Seattle’s Crumbling Infrastructure Crisis
City Engineer R.H. Thomson warns that the city’s aging wooden box sewers are on the verge of collapse, threatening the streets above.
- Seattle's Fire Chief Vanished Before His Day in Court
A.B. Hunt disappeared after telling friends he was off to Tacoma for trial; the city removed him, named Alexander Allen Jr. chief, and left a mystery that only deepened when his father was summoned to prove his birth.
- The Only Witness to a Saloon Killing
James Murphy’s second murder trial hinged on the sole eyewitness to a quarrel that began over cocktails and ended with Philip Dawe shot under the eye behind his bar.
- The Treasurer They Refused to Seat
A thousand men packed Seattle's Armory to demand that John W. Maple take office as county treasurer, threatening a tax strike against King County commissioners — until a collection plate emptied the room.
- Seattle's 1895 Warning: Secure Cedar River Water Before Private Speculators Do
City Engineer R. H. Thomson says Seattle's overworked pumps cannot survive another summer and urges the city to buy the Cedar River watershed, dams and reservoir sites while it still can.
- The Tragic End of a Civil War Veteran
A former soldier, recently discharged from the Soldiers' Home, is found dead in the bay at the foot of Pike Street.
- The Vigilantes’ Bones: Seattle Dug Up Its Most Notorious Lynching
Thirteen years after a mob hanged three men on James Street, a county doctor exhumed their skeletons for anatomy students— ropes, necktie and all.
- The Booster Who Sold a Forest by the Lot
A Tacoma real-estate promoter turned a virgin forest into a one-day $135,000 land rush—then got lost in the woods and stumbled on a surveyor’s stake from his own subdivision.
- A 14-Year-Old Vanishes Between School and the Streetcar
Katie Arper disappeared after classes in Seattle, leaving behind a Tacoma orphanage, a devoted matron, and a young man named Hopkins.
- ‘Bought for Hard Gold Coin’: The Railroad Bill Dies in Olympia
The Helm railroad bill, passed by the House, was killed in the Senate. Newspapers across Washington condemned the railroad lobby and the senators who voted against lower freight rates.
- The Tacoma Gold Rush That Was Salted With Quicksilver
A mining journal exposes how placer claims on Tacoma school land turned a public trust into a speculative jackpot—complete with imported gold, alleged bribery, and a land office that kept saying yes.
- Seattle Offers a Bluff to Win the Army's Guns
Gen. Otis wants a garrison on Magnolia Bluff to guard Puget Sound — but the land the government thought it already owned has been quietly claimed out from under it, and Fort Townsend is running dry.
- A Wooden Pistol Emptied the King County Jail
Thomas Blanck, awaiting appeal for murder, locked the night jailer in a cell and walked out with eight other prisoners—armed with a black wooden fake.
- The Wooden Revolver That Freed Ten Prisoners
Thomas Blanck held a jailer hostage with a carved fake gun, emptied the King County jail, and vanished into Seattle's streets.
- The Wooden Revolver That Sprung Tom Blanck
A murderer awaiting appeal in the King County jail used a hand-carved fake gun to force his way past the night jailer, then vanished into the Black River woods as a sheriff's posse rushed south by special train.
- Debs Comes to Seattle, Fresh From Jail, and Tells the Crowd How He Got Six Months
A thousand workingmen meet the Pullman strike leader at the boat landing, march him through town, and pack the Seattle theater to hear him name the real conspirators.
- Katie Hackworth Vanished From School. Her Parents Say a Procuress Took Her.
A habeas corpus petition accuses Mrs. Ollie Ryther of luring 14-year-old Katie from the Pacific school with presents and money and holding her for 'purposes of vice.'