Research the archive
Narrow 22,457 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 |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 5 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 6 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 6 |
| 1894 | 4 |
| 1895 | 5 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1903 | 2 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1917 | 1 |
57 stories matching omit
- The Mugwump’s Ledger: How Seattle’s Territorial Secretary Gamed the Law Printing Contract
A fierce editorial exposes Secretary Owings for delaying the publication of territorial laws to favor a cronies’ printing bid, while padding the bill with 40 pages of his own party platform.
- The Lynching of Aldy Neal: A Mob’s Midnight Justice in Rockford
After escaping custody for horse theft and returning to his hometown under the guise of visiting his sister, a young man named Aldy Neal was intercepted by an armed mob north of Rockford and hanged from a tree limb.
- A Missing Section 25: How a Clerk's Slip Could Cost the Collins Heirs $500,000
Grandchildren of John Collins's first wife want a one-sixth share of the Seattle hotel property. The whole case turns on whether a territorial statute took effect on December 2, 1869 — or 42 days too late.
- The School Law That Existed Only in the Enrolled Bill
A $3,700 school-fund dispute in Spokane exposed a legislative clerk's error—and left Washington's superintendent asking whether the enrolled bill or the journals were law.
- When Seattle Society Turned Shakespeare Into a Skirt-Dance Spectacle
The Seattle Athletic Club packed Cordray's Theater for three nights with an all-local Shakespeare travesty, imported costumes, and a cameo from 'everybody' in society.
- City Council Caught in Costly Pipe Scandal
Seattle’s city fathers accused of wasting thousands of dollars by rejecting cheap, high-quality pipe in favor of a politically connected supplier.
- The Rockets Turned Around: Tacoma's Fourth of July Went Up in a Sheet of Flame
A spark touched off the entire $500 pyrotechnic stock at Wright Park, driving rockets and bombs into a crowd of thousands and leaving women and children burned, trampled and briefly lost in the smoke.
- The Water Works Betrayal
Tacoma citizens feel duped after voting for a massive bond issue to purchase a water plant under the false promise of a new railroad to Mount Rainier.
- When the Local Paper Cheers the Mob
A governor's push to prosecute the Colfax vigilantes draws a shocking defense from Whitman County newspapers—and a sharp rebuke from The Olympian.
- The Warden Fights Back: Prison Labor, Jute Sacks and a Seattle Newspaper Scandal
Accused of selling prison-made sacks to middlemen and brutalizing convicts, Walla Walla’s warden answers his critics with a detailed defense—and a challenge to inspect the prison.
- The Railroad Map That Erased Seattle
Northern Pacific's latest map omits two under-construction Puget Sound lines and reduces Seattle to a dot. The Post suspects a land-selling scheme behind the silence.
- The Railroads Wanted a Senator, and They Worked Olympia to Get Him
A Republican paper accuses John L. Wilson of backing a railroad-friendly bill while transcontinental lines quietly lobby the legislature to send him to the U.S. Senate — and Tacoma's A.P.A. splits over the fight.
- The Engineer Who Had the City by the Throat
In a bitter 1909 standoff over Seattle’s waterworks, engineer Benezet Williams accused city officials of squeezing him into submission after they canceled his contract. The advisory board’s final offer left him with little choice but to walk away.
- The Great Washington Delay: How Congress Stalled Statehood for a Political Game
In January 1889, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an 'Omnibus Bill' to admit four territories as states, but fierce partisan fighting over Dakota and Montana left Washington Territory in limbo—delaying its entry into the Union by nearly two years.
- Washington Kept Dodging Its Own Congressional Map
After the 1890 census gave Washington a second representative, the state spent years avoiding the required division into two congressional districts.
- Drafting Washington’s State Constitution
As the Constitutional Convention approaches its one-month mark, delegates race to finalize the blueprint for the future state, balancing high-minded debate with emotional politicking.
- Tribal Delegation Heads to Washington D.C.
After realizing a survey of their reservation omitted significant lands, the Yakama people sent a delegation to appeal directly to the 'Great Father.'
- A Christmas Auction That Fell Short—and a Mother Sent Home
Donations expected to bring $600 fetch only $158.40, but the Bureau of Associated Charities still outfits 100 families and buys a destitute mother a ticket to Kansas City.
- A Wife's Testimony Was Enough: Supreme Court Reverses Divorce Denial
The Washington Supreme Court ruled that a wife's own account of cruelty and habitual drunkenness could justify a divorce, reversing a lower court that had dismissed Nellie Lee's case.
- The Engineer Who Says Olympia Stiffed Him for Sewer Plans
A civil engineer hired to draft Olympia’s sewers says the city accepted his $700 bid, starved him of data, then canceled his contract and paid another man $1,500 for plans he calls a public nuisance.
- The Great Assessment Scam: How King County Taxpayers Were Fooled by 'Blunders'
A local reporter exposes the absurdity of county tax assessments, where landowners receive notices for huge back-taxes on property they already paid off, forcing them to chase down exhausted commissioners in a cycle of bureaucratic error.
- The Wedding of Sally Feet
A rare glimpse into the life of an Indigenous bride and her Chinese groom in the 1880s, amidst the backdrop of strict exclusion laws.
- The Scandal of the 'Assignation House' on Front Street
A public, anonymous accusation of moral impropriety sparks a newspaper rebuttal and a demand for civic dignity in early Seattle.
- The Price of a Scandalous Dinner
When the Liberal Club stopped holding dinners at the Tacoma Hotel, the local Ledger newspaper turned its editorial page into a weapon.
- The Law That Vanished Overnight
When a new legislative act replaced the state's logger's lien law, it inadvertently vaporized the legal standing of workers fighting for their unpaid wages.