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 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1863 | 3 |
| 1871 | 8 |
| 1872 | 110 |
| 1876 | 536 |
| 1877 | 378 |
| 1878 | 279 |
| 1879 | 15 |
| 1880 | 134 |
| 1882 | 98 |
| 1883 | 511 |
| 1884 | 326 |
| 1885 | 566 |
| 1886 | 361 |
| 1887 | 327 |
| 1888 | 314 |
| 1889 | 800 |
| 1890 | 11 |
| 1891 | 340 |
| 1892 | 1,332 |
| 1893 | 1,606 |
| 1894 | 1,246 |
| 1895 | 1,087 |
| 1896 | 2 |
| 1897 | 9 |
| 1898 | 21 |
| 1899 | 366 |
| 1900 | 6 |
| 1902 | 6 |
| 1903 | 153 |
| 1904 | 71 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 76 |
| 1910 | 26 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 5 |
| 1915 | 5 |
| 1916 | 28 |
| 1917 | 10 |
| 1923 | 9 |
| 1924 | 12 |
| 1925 | 3 |
| 1928 | 14 |
| 1929 | 17 |
11,240 stories
- Federal Judge Hanford Sentences Coxeyite Protesters
Twenty-six members of the Coxeyite industrial army face jail time after seizing a Northern Pacific train in defiance of federal court orders.
- A Life Undermined by the Vault Explosion
After years of struggling with the physical and nervous aftermath of a horrific gas blast in the sheriff’s office, a prominent Seattle Republican has passed away at age 30.
- A Brother's Bullet: Deputy Marshal Dies, and the Accused Killer Asks Only for a Match
Shot by his own brother at Pioneer Place and James Street, Deputy U.S. Marshal Edward Minsch lingers a day and dies at Providence Hospital — while Frank Minsch, cool and indifferent in the city jail, shows no grief and admits only that he is 'subject to epileptic fits.'
- Seattle Cut Water Rates—Then Claimed the Lake
In one night at City Hall, the council trimmed water bills for every ratepayer and got legal cover to take Lake Washington water, even if it meant digging its own canal past a private company.
- When the Water Came Up to the Post Office: Floods Cut Seattle’s Rail and Mail Lines
Spring freshets submerged low streets, stalled Great Northern and Northern Pacific trains, and left Seattle business houses waiting days for mail.
- Ousted Over an $18.90 Lumber Bill, a Councilman Gets His Seat Back
Ballard's council removed Thomas Winsor without a hearing — right after he accused the city treasurer of pocketing $1,058. A judge ruled the whole thing illegal and threw out his replacement.
- The Coxey Army Marches West
A radical movement of the unemployed faces hostility from the press as it turns its sights toward the Pacific Coast.
- The Tragic Death of a Devoted Teacher
A Rainier School teacher passes away after a heroic, fatal attempt to shield her students from a schoolroom fire.
- The Brother vs. Brother Tragedy
A Seattle jury delivers a verdict in a fatal downtown shooting between two brothers.
- The Collapse of a Seattle Dynasty
Facing mounting debt, the city’s founding family reorganizes its sprawling land and streetcar empire under a new corporate umbrella.
- The Pullman Strike Reaches Seattle
Striking railroad workers and their sympathizers gather at the depots as a tense national labor dispute ripples through the city.
- James J. Hill's Railroad Ultimatum to Seattle
The Great Northern president tells Seattle's council he will build freight and passenger terminals 'right away'—if the city grants the track franchises he wants across the tide flats and South Third.
- The License Collector Caught in His Own Trap
E. W. Bates shook down Lake Washington resorts, tried to pin the money on his boss, and was fired and arrested in the same afternoon.
- Seattle’s fire chief indicted for fraud — and he saw it coming
A federal grand jury in Tacoma charges Chief Albert B. Hunt; a deputy marshal arrests him at Seattle headquarters, then trails him through town on a hunt for a bondsman.
- A Switch Thrown in the Dark: The Plot to Wreck the Portland Train
Someone opened a Northern Pacific switch on a waterfront trestle just before the night express from Seattle came through — and a quick-thinking crew stopped a hundred passengers short of the deep water.
- Private Employment Agents Fight Back Against the City's Free Labor Bureau
Accused of swindling job-seekers, a Seattle employment firm blames organized labor and a union-backed city bureau for a campaign to put it out of business — and dares the city to investigate.
- Hop Growers Pledge Their 'Word and Honor' to Pay Pickers Less
With the hop market collapsing in the summer of 1894, growers from ten Puget Sound counties met at Puyallup and fixed a single price for picking — 65 to 75 cents a box, down from the dollar they had promised. Ezra Meeker, the valley's biggest grower, said out loud what the resolution implied: the pickers had no seat at the table.
- Death to Traitors: The Farmer Who Refused the Oath
Charles F. Gloystein vanished after he refused to join a secret Silver Federation lodge. Washington newspapers called it political murder—but no body was found.
- A Tin Box of Gold Hidden in the Rafters
South Seattle police say the hammer that killed a mother and her baby belonged to Henry Cramer — and the money taken from the dead woman's house was stashed in his shed. Now the neighbours are talking about a rope.
- The Wife Asked Three Times: 'Henry, Where Were You Monday Night?'
Already charged with a double murder in South Seattle, Henry Craemer now stands suspected of a second killing after a cheap silver watch and a pillow-rigged fire surface as evidence.
- Ballard’s Fire Chief Killed by a Falling 1,200-Pound Head-Block
Frank Finnerin was guiding five men across a mill tramway when the stringer gave way. He died fifteen minutes later in the boarding house, leaving a wife and three small children.
- King County Commissioners Billed Taxpayers for 25,943 Miles—More Than the Earth's Circumference
A letter to the editor by F. F. Ames accuses the King County board of padding mileage, charging for trips to Olympia, and paying an unauthorized colleague from county funds—violating state law.
- King County's Almshouse 'Vindication' Came With a Taxpayer Bill
A committee appointed to investigate charges against King County commissioners billed the public for its own defense—including $10-a-day duty and a detective sent after a newspaper leak.
- 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.
- The Sheriff Who Arrested the Election Judges
At the opening of a Republican primary in Seattle’s First Ward, Sheriff Woolery had the judges jailed and then tried to pull police off the polls. A judge’s restraining order stopped him—barely.
Download the first 10,000 as a spreadsheet (CSV) · Show them on the map