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| Year | Stories |
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| 1859 | 1 |
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307 stories matching skill
- Washington’s World’s Fair Standoff
A bitter, months-long deadlock between state commissioners and Chicago architects ends in the victory of a 'uniquely Washington' log cabin design over a 'commonplace' courthouse style.
- The Great Skilled Labor Shortage: Why Seattle’s Builders Are Paying $4 a Day
As construction booms in Magnolia and Bellevue, local employers are desperate for carpenters and masons, driving wages up to unprecedented levels.
- World Shingle-Packing Championship Crowns Everett's Best
Skilled union workers prove that brainpower beats raw speed in a test of precision at the A.-V.-P. fairgrounds.
- The Pioneer Hospital of the Pacific Northwest
Dr. G.A. Weed’s establishment promised 'skillful medical or surgical treatment' to those without a home, claiming superiority over any institution north of San Francisco.
- Japanese Cabinetmakers Arrive in Seattle for A.-Y.-P. Exposition Despite Labor Exclusion Laws
Ten skilled Japanese workmen are granted special entry to build the Japanese exhibit, highlighting the complex intersection of immigration policy and international spectacle.
- Machinists Break the 'Open Shop' Blockade
A Seattle manufacturing firm finds their 'non-union' waiting list empty, forced to return to the union to keep their machinery running.
- The Hustle of the Frontier: Training for the New Economic Order
An advertisement for the Puget Sound Business College paints a vision of a rapidly industrializing Snohomish, where young men and women were taught the cold, hard skills of accounting and commerce to survive in a burgeoning territory.
- The Shingle Packing Showdown
Thousands gathered in Snohomish to watch a test of skill that crowned a local favorite and showcased the vital labor of the timber industry.
- The Bricklayer Shortage of 1888
As Seattle began its rapid expansion, contractors scrambled to find enough skilled labor to keep pace with the building boom.
- The Six-Year Labor of the 'State of Washington'
A Port Madison artisan spends half a decade hand-crafting a scale model ship, turning ivory, gold, and silk into a $2,500 masterpiece.
- The Forgotten Pioneer Hospital of Seattle
Before modern medical complexes, the city’s sick and homeless were cared for in a modest, private facility on Commercial Street.
- The Narrow Escape of the Ship Spartan
A historic vessel remains in Port Townsend Bay, a survivor of a devastating waterfront fire that nearly cost its captain his life.
- A Heroine in the Sound
A young woman saves two men from drowning after their boat capsized in a storm.
- The Company Blamed the Dead Miner
After thirty-five men died in the Franklin mine, the Oregon Improvement Company answered a widow's lawsuit by saying her husband assumed the risk—and should have run sooner.
- The Auld Mill Experiment
Shingle weavers launch a cooperative, sharing the risks and rewards of their labor during a period of economic uncertainty.
- The Seattle Mill Revolt
When mill workers walked off the job in 1886 to protest the hiring of Chinese labor, the resulting confrontation revealed the era's deep-seated exclusionary labor politics.
- The Forgotten Sick of 1876
Dr. G.A. Weed’s ad for the Seattle Hospital promises care for those without homes, offering medical and surgical treatment at a time when the city was still finding its infrastructure.
- The Lonely Death of 'Mike the Rooster'
A once-prominent figure in the city's sporting fraternity dies in a lodging house on Washington Street from a morphine collapse.
- A Fairhaven Prize Fight
A boxing match between two 'heavyweights' is set for the Cas Theatre, promising a display of athletic skill rather than a slugfest.
- A Nighttime Break-in at Lake Union
A foreman for the Western Mill Company falls victim to skilled thieves who managed to slip his locks.
- The City Police Station Turns Into an Impromptu Barbershop
Twenty-six aspiring barbers descended upon police headquarters for a rigorous examination and practical test of their skills.
- Seattle Calls a Patent Bluff and Wins
A federal judge rules that John Klein's insulation-pin patent was no invention at all—saving Seattle a payout that Portland and San Francisco had already made.
- The Death of Wooden Shipbuilding
As iron vessels take over the industry, skilled shipwrights in Seattle find their trade vanishing and their unions struggling to adapt.
- A Fatal Ride on the Range
A young, skilled rider is killed instantly after being thrown from his horse near the government ranch.
- The Pride of the Vagabond
A man in Whatcom chooses starvation over begging, highlighting the grim extremes of dignity and survival in the 1890s labor market.