Research the archive
Narrow 25,688 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 |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 8 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 8 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 7 |
| 1886 | 6 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 12 |
| 1890 | 8 |
| 1891 | 15 |
| 1892 | 19 |
| 1893 | 10 |
| 1894 | 17 |
| 1895 | 19 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1900 | 2 |
| 1904 | 4 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1909 | 5 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1924 | 1 |
168 stories matching breast
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died 150 Feet From Safety
An 1894 coroner's jury in Franklin, Washington, heard how a small fire in the Oregon Improvement Company's coal mine became a wall of smoke — and why the men who could have escaped stayed to fight it.
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died Because They Stayed to Fight the Fire
A blaze in the Franklin coal mine sent smoke through the gangways on Aug. 24, 1894, killing 37 men and boys who thought they had time to escape.
- The Franklin Mine Fire: Thirty-Seven Dead, Not a Scratch on Them
A fire in breast sixty-two traps miners between flame and return airway; bodies are laid in rows as Seattle sends a special train.
- Into the Black: A Descent into Bellingham Bay Coal Mines
An intrepid traveler documents the perilous journey down an 800-foot incline to explore the workings of the Bellingham Bay Coal Company in the late 19th century.
- A Jury Called the Franklin Mine Fire Arson. Thirty-Seven Miners Were Already Dead.
A coroner's jury found that someone deliberately set the fire that suffocated 37 workers in the Franklin mine. The only survivor described how one opened door and one stopped fan turned the gangway into a death trap.
- The Newcastle Mine Riot
A bitter dispute over a 'breast' of coal at the Newcastle mines escalated into a violent confrontation between the Miners’ Union and the Knights of Labor, leaving one man dead and many injured.
- A Breath of Fire-Damp Killed Twenty-Three Blue Canyon Miners
A coal-mine explosion near Lake Whatcom wiped out nearly an entire shift just before it was due to change, leaving only two survivors to tell what happened underground.
- The Franklin Mine Dead Were Buried. Then the Miners Went Back Down.
A relief fund swells with donations from Eddyville millmen and Seattle readers as surviving miners reopen the levels that did not burn.
- Fifty Turns on the Shaft: A Foundry Apprentice's Miraculous Escape
Nineteen-year-old Charles Meydenbauer was caught in the shafting at Moran's foundry, spun fifty times twenty feet above the floor—and lived to describe it.
- A Forgery Arrest, a Suicide Attempt, and a Case Spokane Papers Got Wrong
Brad Knapp was arrested in Seattle over school warrants; days earlier his wife had shot herself, and a mistaken identity muddled the story.
- The Powerhouse Killing in Hamilton
A quarrel over steam, firewood and a dollar a day left an electric-light manager dead, a young night watchman charged with murder, and a town talking of lynching.
- The Preacher Who Shot His Client: A Land Grab Gone Deadly
In a bizarre twist of frontier justice, Reverend G. W. Walker allegedly shot settler Herbert Wilson in the breast after a dispute over land titles, revealing a pattern of fraud that had already drawn legal complaints.
- The Orphan’s Plea: A Poem That Moved Seattle to Tears on Decoration Day
As the city honored Civil War dead with solemn processions and speeches, a young girl’s grief over her father’s unmarked grave brought the Grand Marshal to tears.
- The Price of Coal and the Cost of Living in Newcastle
As winter tightens its grip, a labor dispute at the Newcastle coal mines forces a shutdown, leaving families without work and the community in crisis.
- Miners Trapped in Newcastle Cave-In
Two workers survived a terrifying collapse in the Coal Creek mine after being pinned under four feet of rock and coal for ninety minutes.
- The Knife in the Overcoat: A Seattle Street Fight
A local businessman outsmarts two footpads on a dark corner of Battery Street.
- The Fight for Life in the Depths
A harrowing, vivid account of a fisherman's life-or-death struggle against a giant cephalopod, reprinted from Victor Hugo's 'Toilers of the Sea' in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
- The Race War in Roslyn: How Seattle’s Coal Mines Became a Battleground for Labor and Lynching
As strikers hold the line, the company imports Black miners from Illinois to break them. The result is not just a labor dispute, but a violent racial confrontation that exposes the dark underbelly of Washington's industrial boom.
- Tensions Rise on the Puyallup Reservation
While U.S. regulars and the Puyallup people clashed on the ground, a high-stakes legal battle was simultaneously waged in the courts over land rights.
- Twenty-Three Miners Died in a Nearly Undamaged Mine
Inspector Edmunds told a Seattle paper that the Blue Canyon explosion was one of the strangest disasters he had ever seen: the mine was barely damaged, yet 23 men were dead, most killed by concussion and gas.
- A Town Buries Its Miners
Funeral services for the Blue Canyon mine disaster dead fill Bay View cemetery as a coroner's jury begins asking whether enough air—and enough regulation—reached the men underground.
- The Judge’s Double Life: Seduction, Abortion, and the Cover-Up That Shook Tacoma
In 1889, a young canvasser named Sadie Brantner took the stand to accuse Pierce County Probate Judge James Wickersham of luring her into a trap in Seattle, forcing an illegal abortion, and paying her off to silence. The trial revealed a web of deceit involving fake names, land fraud, and medical conspiracies.
- The Siege and Tragedy at Friday Harbor
A reclusive farmer's descent into madness and murder in the San Juan Islands ended in a gruesome, fiery standoff with local law enforcement.
- The Accused Killer Who Wrote to Seattle Police
Oluf Ellingson was found on the Lake Washington shore with his throat cut and a razor in his hand. Four years later, suspect Tony Miller’s letter still insisted he was coming back to clear his name.
- The Vigilantes' Ghost: Seattle's Dark Secret in Two Maple Trees
A poem published in the *Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer* reveals the city’s foundational myth: that its current 'peaceable' order was bought with the blood of six men hanged by a secret committee when the law failed to act.
Also about this, in other words
- The Widow’s Pig-Feeding Innovation
A resourceful widow in Steilacoom finds a way to feed her livestock using garden weeds and a boiler, turning a chore into a sustainable practice.
- The Milk Route Aristocrat of Archer Avenue
A satirical social drama involving a milk route heiress and a love triangle, printed as news filler in 1881.
- The Invisible Killer in Your Milk: Seattle’s Health Officer Warns of Tuberculosis Cows
With consumption rates soaring and no dedicated veterinary inspector on staff, local officials admit the city is dangerously unprepared to stop diseased cattle from entering the food supply.
- A Child’s Fall into a City Excavation
A young girl’s tumble into a construction pit sparks a damages lawsuit against an investment firm.
- The Martyrdom of the Needle
A fiery plea from the pulpit for women's right to work and fair wages.
- The Minnow in the Milk
A Tacoman discovers a live fish swimming in their morning delivery, raising alarm over local dairy standards.
- The Victorian Era's Original 'Manosphere' Rant
A satirical lecture from 1879 captures the era's obsession with policing women's appearances and the absurdity of 'social performance' in the Pacific Northwest.
- A Warning Ignored, a Blast That Broke Four Ribs
A Great Northern worker was badly injured near Newport when a heavy blast threw a rock into his chest, despite warnings to move.