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
- Spokane's Council Narrowly Votes to Dry Out Variety Theaters
After a three-hour hearing, aldermen voted 9–6 to ban liquor in variety theaters—pitting ministers and reformers against theater managers and nearly 3,000 petitioners.
- The Housekeeper's Lie: A Seattle Wife's Wild Chase to Honolulu
A servant's false tale of an elopement sends a Seattle grocer's wife racing to the Islands, while the scheming housekeeper quietly ships the family's furniture to San Francisco.
- Seattle’s Street-Grade Tax Test Case
A judge upholds the city’s assessment method, setting up a Supreme Court fight over who pays when a street is graded under an old charter.
- Seattle's Half-Million-Dollar Gamble to Dig a Canal to the Sea
Boosters promised a transformed city: a Lake Washington ship canal, reclaimed Squak Slough farmland, filled tide lands and Seattle as the 'Liverpool of the Coast.'
- Boosters Pass the Hat for the Ship Canal
Tacoma coal money, St. Louis money and Vancouver money swell Seattle's canal subsidy fund — even as promoters insist the waterway is 'a Seattle affair.'
- The Editor Who Made the Post-Intelligencer a Power—and Died Too Soon
When George H. Heilbron died suddenly at his Seattle home, newspapers across Washington mourned a young editor whose pen had become a force in state affairs.
- Seattle’s Tide-Flats Canal Clears the Court
The state Supreme Court upholds the Seattle Lake Washington Waterway Company’s contracts, leaving only a $500,000 subsidy before dredging begins.
- A Sailor Fled the Guardian as Seattle's Waterfront Labor War Heated Up
A union sailor says a ship's mate threatened to kill him; shipowners vow to tie up their vessels rather than hire union men.
- The Railroad Land Agent Who Pocketed the Payments
A Northern Pacific receiver says a dead Tacoma land agent kept buyers' installments for years, leaving them with receipts but no deeds — and a loss that could reach $250,000.
- A Hospital Takes Shape in a Rented Building
A charitable board leases the Avon building near Cedar Street and calls on churchwomen to furnish and oversee Seattle’s new general hospital.
- Fifteen Minutes and the Whole Town Core Was Gone
A flue fire in the Hotel Sedro kitchen took the Pioneer Block with it — the council chambers, the bank, the druggist and the newspaper, all in one afternoon.
- The Railroad Man Who Gave Seattle Its First Real Baseball Team — Then Lost Everything
W. R. Thornell organized the Pacific Northwest League and the 'Seattle Reds,' then lost his bank job over a forged note. Bright's disease took him at Paddock Memorial Hospital in Tacoma; he was buried in the city that once cheered him.
- The Canal Fund Was Almost Full—and St. Louis Was Waiting
Seattle waterway boosters needed $50,000 to start contract No. 3. With a deadline looming, Eugene Semple promised the money in three or four days.
- The Fight Over Washington’s Missing School Sections
A Port Townsend case over “lieu lands” reaches a federal courtroom—and the title to hundreds of thousands of acres of school land.
- The Fight for Salmon Bay's Tide Flats
State land commissioners hear the first of eleven contests over who gets to buy Salmon Bay harbor land, as shore owners, railroads and mill companies crowd the Ballard council rooms.
- The Tide Land Freeze: Ballard’s Waterfront Plats Go to Court
A judge restrains appraisers from filing supplemental tide-land plats as landowners, the state land commission and the county auditor fight over who controls the shore.
- Tacoma's Mayor Throws Every Appointment Back in the Council's Face
Mayor Ed S. Orr withdraws all nominees in a patronage war over the city attorney and police chief — then the council cuts salaries across the board.
- City Hall Refuses to Rewrite Its Own Rulebook — and Dares the Supreme Court to Decide
Seattle's council rejects the freeholders' petition for a new city charter, declaring the enabling law unconstitutional, and offers to bankroll a test case all the way to Olympia.
- Governor McGraw Refuses to March for Free Silver
Invited to send three delegates to a Salt Lake City convention, Washington’s governor writes a blunt refusal—and says 16-to-1 coinage is not a popular doctrine in this state.
- One Man Now Holds Both Railroads That Built Seattle and Tacoma
James J. Hill's takeover of the Northern Pacific ends rate competition between the Northwest's two transcontinental lines—and leaves the region wondering what an 'emperor among railroad kings' will do next.
- A Love Triangle Ends in Gunfire in North Yakima
A jealous husband confronts his wife's suitor over a patch of vegetables; a single shot and a dying man's statement point to murder.
- Seattle Raises $500,000 for the South Canal While Ballard Dreams of Steel
In hard times, Seattle subscribers oversubscribe a half-million-dollar canal subsidy, with surveyors on the government route and D. H. Gilman's steel works and car shops said to be materializing across the bay.
- Seattle Raises Half a Million Dollars for the Lake Washington Canal
Washington's small-town papers marvel as Seattle's wealthy close a $500,000 subscription for the canal — and call it the secret of the city's relentless rise.
- A Tacoma Murder Case Opens Again—With a Fight Over the Prosecutor’s Opening
W. T. Taylor stands accused of killing E. R. Capron on Christmas Eve. As the second hearing begins, lawyers clash over how much of the state’s story the jury should hear before any witness takes the stand.
- St. Louis Money Comes to Dig Seattle's South Canal
A telegram to Eugene Semple announced that the Ames brothers and their St. Louis backers were on their way to take charge of the South Canal, as engineers surveyed the tide flats and a dredger headed west.