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 |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 3 |
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 6 |
| 1860 | 2 |
| 1861 | 8 |
| 1862 | 6 |
| 1863 | 6 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 13 |
| 1876 | 97 |
| 1877 | 59 |
| 1878 | 47 |
| 1879 | 4 |
| 1880 | 19 |
| 1882 | 12 |
| 1883 | 78 |
| 1884 | 30 |
| 1885 | 76 |
| 1886 | 50 |
| 1887 | 47 |
| 1888 | 38 |
| 1889 | 117 |
| 1890 | 26 |
| 1891 | 89 |
| 1892 | 253 |
| 1893 | 212 |
| 1894 | 199 |
| 1895 | 209 |
| 1897 | 8 |
| 1898 | 24 |
| 1899 | 40 |
| 1900 | 6 |
| 1902 | 3 |
| 1903 | 102 |
| 1904 | 75 |
| 1905 | 4 |
| 1907 | 3 |
| 1908 | 22 |
| 1909 | 113 |
| 1910 | 18 |
| 1911 | 9 |
| 1912 | 3 |
| 1914 | 14 |
| 1915 | 19 |
| 1916 | 30 |
| 1917 | 27 |
| 1918 | 3 |
| 1922 | 2 |
| 1923 | 10 |
| 1924 | 4 |
| 1925 | 7 |
| 1928 | 1 |
| 1929 | 1 |
2,256 stories matching head
- A Circular Saw Opened His Skull—and He Stayed Conscious
At the Stetson Post Mill on Commercial Street, engineer Horatio Stetson crawled under a rip-saw table to fix a belt. The saw caught his head, cutting through bone and into his brain, yet he never lost consciousness.
- Twenty Rounds, No Knockout: Jack Dempsey Outlasts Billy McCarthy in Seattle
A large crowd at the Athletic Club watches the former champion carry a rugged Australian the full distance, splitting a $1,000 purse after twenty punishing rounds.
- Camp Kelpie: A Seattle Hunting Party in the Last Great Bear Country
In 1895, Seattle sportsmen pitched camp on Hood Canal between the Duckabush and Hamma Hamma rivers and found a wilderness thick with black bear, salmon, and one very unlucky tenderfoot.
- Telescoped at the Crossing: A Grant Street Horror
When a Northern Pacific freight train plowed into an electric streetcar on May 20, 1909, one man died and dozens were mangled in the icy water below. The crash exposed dangerous speeds and negligent watchmen at a city intersection that remains vital today.
- A Murder Plot on Puget Sound and a Sickbed Betrayal
A boat captain says two young 'timber buyers' planned to shoot him and rob an Admiralty Head rancher. The same circle of suspects is accused of robbing a sarsaparilla agent while he lay delirious in a Seattle hotel.
- A Dispatcher's 'Lap Order' Sent Two Freight Trains Head-On Near Orting
A single mistake on a foggy single-track line killed engineer Louis U. Harmon and critically injured fireman Edward F. Martin—and left the dispatcher waiting helplessly for the crash.
- The River That Swallowed a Steamboat: A Brave Attempt to Reach Snohomish Falls
Twenty-five passengers and tons of freight battled the treacherous Snoqualmie River on the steamer *Columbia*, only to be stopped by a massive landslide just miles from their destination.
- The 175-Pound Ghost That Fought Back
A skeptic grabbed a séance spirit, discovered a 175-pound man under the gauze, and touched off a fistfight in a Fremont parlor.
- The Unfair Tax on Being Alive
An 1878 Seattle citizen challenges the 'double and treble taxation' of poll taxes, arguing that labor should not be penalized while property owners receive preferential treatment.
- The Floor Gives Way: Panic and Death at Seattle’s Morris Opera House
A grand opening night turns into a nightmare when the second-story floor of the newly converted theater collapses into the stables below, killing several and injuring dozens in one of the city's earliest major disasters.
- Rabid Coyotes Put the Whole Columbia Valley on Edge
State College confirmed hydrophobia in a hog’s head from a Richland-area ranch, prompting dog quarantines and warnings that unusually bold coyotes could spread the disease through the valley.
- The Captain Who Caught a Monster: Seattle’s Own Sea Serpent Hoax
Captain Pat J. Boyton of Seattle claims to have captured a 63-foot sea serpent in the Pacific, sending a letter from his ship that has locals buzzing with wonder and skepticism.
- The Beating of Henry Brown: A Runaway Elevator Boy and a Family's Violent Secret
A 14-year-old black elevator operator flees his home after a savage whipping by his father, revealing a tangled story of poverty, pride, and punishment in 1894 Seattle.
- The State Draws a Line Along Seattle’s Waterfront
In 1896, Olympia fixed the harbor boundary from West Seattle to Meadow Point, mapped new Duwamish and Salmon Bay waterways, and cleared the way to sell tide lands.
- The Canal That Would Reshape Seattle, Held Up by Mud and Paperwork
In 1895 the government's Lake Washington ship canal was still a paper route, and every submerged lot owner had to sign away damages before a dredge could move.
- A Hanging in the Armory: The Unpopular Corporal and the Men Who Stuffed His Uniform
Company E turned a grudge into theatre — an effigy rigged with an electric-light wire, a pair of odd-coloured glasses and a chalked gravestone — and a military court may follow.
- The Street-Side Brawl Over Union Labor
A bakery driver was fined after physically attacking a union member who was picketing his wagon in 1891 Seattle.
- The Marsh That Could Feed a City: Snohomish’s Hidden Goldmine
A detailed survey of the vast wetlands between Snohomish and the Skykomish River reveals thousands of acres of fertile land, drained by new ditches and accessible by scow, waiting for developers to turn swamp into wealth.
- The Day the Kingston Died: A Steamship Collision and the Pilot’s Tale
Pilot Gatter recounts the terrifying moments when the steamer Glenogle collided with the passenger liner Kingston in Puget Sound, sending hundreds of feet of steel into the water.
- Death Reared Its Horrid Head: Steam Heater Explosion Kills Two Men in Downtown Seattle
A careless Japanese fireman left a boiler unattended at Second and Washington, causing a catastrophic explosion that killed one man instantly and mortally wounded another.
- A Saw Cut Through His Brain. Seattle Doctors Watched Him Live.
Horatio Stetson's head was nearly split in two by a rip saw at a Seattle mill. Thirty-six hours later, he was talking, moving his limbs, and astonishing the physicians at Providence Hospital.
- The Murder in the Bunkhouse North of Auburn
A young Japanese labor contractor was beaten and killed as he slept in a cabin on J.W. Nails's farm; a roommate was jailed while blood trails, a loaded musket and an opium pipe deepened the mystery.
- 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.
- The City Buried Its Own Mistake: Coroner’s Verdict Blames Seattle for Deadly Boiler Explosion
A coroner’s jury has issued a scathing indictment against the city of Seattle, its building inspectors, and a plumber for the negligence that led to a Tuesday night explosion. The verdict fixes blame on the municipality for allowing a dangerous steam heater beneath a public sidewalk without proper oversight.
- The Tragedy at Trent: A Deadly Railroad Collision
A passenger train and a freight train collide in a fatal error, killing a brakeman and prompting a rare condemnation of corporate negligence.
Also about this, in other words
- The Tragedy on the Duwamish
A young life cut short at the river's edge, highlighting the precarious nature of life for Seattle's riverfront residents.
- A Ghastly Discovery on the Skykomish River
Two prospectors uncover a human head suspended on a wooden stake in the remote wilderness of King County.
- The Tragic Cost of a Frontier Head Injury
A young man near Seattle is committed to the state hospital after a workplace accident leaves him with permanent brain trauma.
- The Serpent Slayer of Chehalis
A man wanders into town wearing a top hat to battle a monster he believes is terrorizing the rail lines.
- Two Dollars a Head: Seattle's Labor Commissioner Takes On the Employment Agencies
Charged with running the city's free employment office as a union errand boy, Commissioner John Lamb answers that the private agencies have been selling men jobs that do not exist.
- An Unknown Assailant, a Blow to the Head, and a Cut Throat in Walla Walla
A company agent was attacked at his letter-press and left unconscious for hours; no suspect was named.
- The Sylvania Baldness Epidemic
When a small-town boredom led to a mandatory, clipper-enforced hairstyle for every man in sight.
- The Hatchet in the Room
A New Year's night assault at a Seattle boarding house leads to a suspicious man, a bloodied hat, and a neighborhood hunt.