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 Pastor Who Took His Whole Flock With Him
Rev. Allen W. Whaley, ousted from Seattle's Jones Street African Methodist Episcopal church, preaches to a packed hall on the university grounds and vows to have the matter 'sifted to the bottom.'
- After the Page Trial, Seattle Asks Why Every Man Carries a Revolver
An editorial demands an end to the city's gun-carrying habit, arguing that petty disputes end in bloodshed because half the town is a walking arsenal.
- Three Boys Drowned on a Raft of Logs, and a City Mourns
Louis Blanchard and the Birkel brothers died playing on a log boom in Seattle harbor. Their funeral drew crowds into the streets — and one small boy's wish for flowers was granted.
- A One-Letter Typo That Cost a Telegraph Giant $6,000
A misplaced 'a' in a cable address sent a lumber shipment's sale instructions to the wrong man, and a Seattle jury made Western Union pay.
- Three Groans, Then Dead at the Yokohama
A young Japanese cook takes two bowls of Chinese gin at a Washington Street restaurant and dies before he can be carried up the stairs of his hotel.
- A Stranger Gored Saving Women and Children at the Tacoma Driving Park
John Christer rushed a mad bull to shield a crowd of women and children. The animal tossed him with his entrails out, and doctors at Fannie Paddock hospital say inflammation will decide whether he lives.
- A Half-Million-Dollar Gamble to Shave Two Hours Off the Trip to Olympia
A promoter asks Seattle's Chamber of Commerce for a subsidy to build a twelve-mile rail link at Colby and Vaughn, promising fast steamer connections and a boom for the capital route.
- A Fourth of July Armada: Seattle's Yacht Clubs Race and Light Up the Harbor
The Northwestern Yachting Association gathers at West Seattle to set the rules for the holiday regatta, as local clubs ready their fleets and a fireworks-lit naval parade is planned for the evening of the Fourth.
- The Iron-Jawed Worm That Ate Seattle's Wharves
At the foot of Harrison Street, the Colman family has a new weapon against the teredo worm: steam, a vacuum, and a dose of dead oil of tar.
- Seattle’s Streets Were Still Mostly Wood—Until the Brick Came
With 750 miles platted and only 106 improved, city engineers pushed permanent pavement on Union Street and dreamed of brick from local clay.
- A Depression Year Didn’t Stop Seattle’s Builders
The state university rose toward three stories and Senator Squire’s four-story block went up at Main and South Second—part of $466,077 in construction logged in 1894.
- The Pioneer Pastor Who Counted Seattle's Weddings and Funerals
Rev. John F. Damon arrived in 1869 and spent a quarter-century marrying and burying Seattle—often without enough in return to cover his car fare.
- A Storefront for the Jobless: Seattle's Co-operative Relief Effort
The Industrial Co-operative Society opens quarters in North Seattle to feed and find work for about 100 unemployed men.
- Forty-One Ships Built on Puget Sound in a Depression Year
Only two oceangoing vessels left the yards in 1894, but smaller launches and schooners kept the Sound's shipwrights working through hard times.
- Eastern Washington Lawmakers Want Cheaper Freight and a Break on Taxes
Fresh from wheat country, representative-elect Moses Bull and Senator J. L. Roberts laid out their Olympia agenda: grain inspection, lower railroad rates, softer tax penalties, and leaner county government.
- When Tacoma Protestants Told the Pope to Stay Out of Their Lodges
A 2,500-person rally in Tacoma’s Armory Hall denounces a papal edict against secret societies, blending fraternal pride with fierce anti-Catholic nativism.
- The Poker Club That Wrote ‘No Gambling’ Into Its Own Rulebook
Seattle detectives raid a Third and Cherry social club and find a members-only poker game hiding behind a constitution that strictly forbade gambling.
- A Revolver in the Marriage: Minnie Ober's Divorce
A Seattle court grants Minnie G. Ober a divorce from Harry Ober after testimony that he threatened to shoot her and once pointed a large revolver at her.
- A 20-Year Marriage Ends in 'Uncontrollable Aversion'
Jennie S. Holmes asks a Seattle court for divorce, saying she and her husband cannot endure each other's company—and lets their two children choose whom to live with.
- The Bankrupt Streetcar Company Ordered to Keep a Mansion Lit
A Seattle court rules that a receiver must honor a close corporation's strange side deal to power G. E. M. Pratt's home.
- A $125,000 Estate, a Missing Will, and the Assyrian Husband Left Out
A Tacoma legal adviser says a missing will leaves a $125,000 estate to him—while the dead woman’s Assyrian husband may get nothing.
- The $5,000 Will Fight Over Two Seattle Lots
McClanahan says Jane Harmon promised him the estate; her sisters' children say the will should not stand.
- After the Great Fire, Tull Built Bigger
A Spokane furniture merchant lost a new bank building in the 1889 blaze, then rebuilt at Riverside and Stevens with the city's largest block.
- She Fell Into Puget Sound and Woke to Fishermen at Dawn
An 18-year-old hotel guest went shell hunting near Smith Cove, slipped between the logs, and spent a rainy night unconscious on the beach before two fishermen found her.
- A Sloop Built on Sundays, Lost at Deception Pass
Captain Robert Jack and William Foley are presumed drowned after the Lily and Maud capsizes in Deception Pass, not long after the captain's Sunday-built sloop sank on launch day.