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.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 4 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 8 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1909 | 3 |
| 1917 | 1 |
44 stories matching temptat
- The Silent Dangers of Seattle’s Early Boarding Houses
A 19th-century public health warning reveals the grim reality of sanitation in early Seattle, where overcrowded and poorly drained boarding houses became breeding grounds for typhoid fever.
- The Shell That Survived the Fire: A Seattle Man’s Close Call with a Civil War Artifact
An eccentric local resident discovers a live cannonball in his firewood, leading to a terrifying explosion that sends him tumbling down a hillside.
- The Manufactured Boom of Medina
A speculative land development near Lake McMurray, Skagit County, uses a new railroad and promised natural resources to lure investors to a 'crescent' townsite.
- The Newspaper Bribe: How State Printing Muzzled New Jersey's Press
A Seattle editor warns against a Washington law that would pay newspapers to print the statutes, citing New Jersey's scandalous 'corruption fund.'
- The First Gold-Cure Club in Washington
At Olympia's Keeley Institute, former patients formed the state's first Bi-chloride of Gold Club—part mutual-aid society, part fundraising engine for poor alcoholics who could not afford the cure.
- The Employer's Trap: Spokane Laborers Mock Plan to Union-Bust
As local merchants and manufacturers plot a new association to counter union power, Spokane’s labor leaders see through the scheme, citing stable wages and predicting failure.
- A Senate Seat, a 'Boodle' Cry, and Two Rival Caucus Calls
With the legislature barely organized, Republicans war over who should go to Washington—accusations of bribes, a strange 'binding' caucus call, and candidates angling for the prize.
- The Baseball Game the Gamblers Paid Stanford to Lose
A Tacoma betting ring recruited Stanford’s manager, pitcher, catcher and fielder to throw a game for $500. Captain Sheehan refused $100 — and then played like a demon to win it anyway.
- 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 University’s Dilemma: Should UW Sell Its Prime Seattle Land?
In 1890, the University of Washington’s regents warned that its current campus in the heart of the city was a financial and educational liability, urging the state to sell the valuable property and move to quieter grounds.
- The Body in the Box: A Political Murder Haunts Spokane County
Charles F. Gloystein crossed the Freeman's Protective Silver Federation and disappeared. Now his neighbors are offering a $1,000 reward—not for a killer, but for the body.
- Deadlock in Olympia: A Governor Says No and the Senate Seat Stays Empty
Governor McGraw refuses a U.S. Senate seat, George Turner is pushed forward, and Ankeny's backers dig in as Populists threaten to break the deadlock.
- A 'Close Combination' at the Courthouse: Surveyor Accuses King County's Ring of Self-Dealing
King County's surveyor says commissioners paid the prosecuting attorney's rent to their own chairman's Union Block while refusing to cover his office — and he names the men he says run the courthouse for themselves.
- There's "Dough" in Every Street Contract: A Preacher Takes On City Hall
Rev. Napoleon Hoagland reads the nation's municipal record aloud — reeking streets, a million-dollar franchise given away, councilmen who elsewhere would count themselves lucky to stay out of prison — and asks why democratic America breeds more thieves than the Tsar's Europe.
- Work for a Meal: The Salvation Army’s ‘Elevator’ Opens in Seattle
The Salvation Army opened a combined shelter, soup kitchen and workshop near Third and South Second, offering hundreds of meals and 130 beds—provided able-bodied men earned their keep.
- A Walla Walla Pastor Defends the Prison's Sunday 'Boxing Bouts'
Rector W. Law writes to defend Warden Coblenz and the penitentiary's Sunday programs, insisting the glove contests that scandalized critics were gentler than a schoolyard game.
- The Temple of Thought: Snohomish Builds Its Own Athenaeum
A visiting orator declares the new Snohomish Athenaeum a 'temple of science, literature, and art,' rising from the wilderness to preserve the intellectual legacy of the Pacific Northwest.
- Trapped by the Tide on the Road to Queets
In 1892, poet Herbert Bashford joined a camping party for a walk up Washington’s wild Olympic coast—and found the rising tide more dangerous than any highwayman.
- The Dairy Commissioner’s War on Adulterated Food
A Washington dairy official warns that fake honey, poisoned candy, oleomargarine and brewers’ grain are cheating farmers — and demands stronger pure-food laws.