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 | 2 |
| 1858 | 4 |
| 1859 | 7 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1862 | 8 |
| 1863 | 2 |
| 1864 | 3 |
| 1872 | 11 |
| 1876 | 86 |
| 1877 | 63 |
| 1878 | 54 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 20 |
| 1882 | 9 |
| 1883 | 70 |
| 1884 | 24 |
| 1885 | 59 |
| 1886 | 29 |
| 1887 | 40 |
| 1888 | 46 |
| 1889 | 104 |
| 1890 | 16 |
| 1891 | 86 |
| 1892 | 181 |
| 1893 | 153 |
| 1894 | 193 |
| 1895 | 222 |
| 1897 | 3 |
| 1898 | 17 |
| 1899 | 42 |
| 1900 | 8 |
| 1902 | 5 |
| 1903 | 74 |
| 1904 | 51 |
| 1905 | 5 |
| 1907 | 4 |
| 1908 | 30 |
| 1909 | 77 |
| 1910 | 9 |
| 1911 | 7 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 19 |
| 1915 | 24 |
| 1916 | 40 |
| 1917 | 19 |
| 1918 | 5 |
| 1922 | 1 |
| 1923 | 9 |
| 1924 | 9 |
| 1925 | 2 |
1,957 stories matching small
- A Valley Drowns Every Spring—and One Farmer Wants a Better Dike
A correspondent warns that the Pend Oreille freshet has wrecked $50,000 worth of Calispel Valley crops—and argues the proposed diking districts are too piecemeal to save the basin.
- The Plague at the Doorstep: Seattle’s Battle Against Smallpox in 1877
As smallpox ravages Port Orchard and Salmon Bay, the city's Health Officer takes drastic quarantine measures against Indigenous communities, highlighting the fragile public health infrastructure of early Seattle.
- The County’s Cold Shoulder: Seattle Bleeds for Indigent Sick
In April 1877, the City of Seattle faced a financial crisis as King County refused to pay medical bills for indigent patients, leaving local taxpayers to foot the bill for care that should have been shared.
- The Case for Decentralizing the Timber Industry
An 1870s editorial argues that Snohomish County loggers are being exploited by giant corporations and proposes a localized milling model to ensure economic independence.
- 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.
- New Hotel Regulations Threaten Tacoma's Small Boarding Houses
A proposed legislative act would force small rooming houses to meet strict hotel standards, placing a financial burden on widows and small-scale landlords.
- The Cave at the End of the Boundary Trail
A 1908 Newport writer follows a blazed trail north of Metaline into a limestone cavern of bath-like basins, a 'Guardian of the Baths' and a music room already being vandalized.
- A White-Haired Husband's Thousand-Mile Hunt for the Wife Who Vanished
Since his wife eloped with another man last August, J. B. Small has crisscrossed the country and now reaches Seattle with nothing but a clue and a broken heart.
- Bellingham Bay Burned While Puget Sound Choked on Smoke
Forest fires from the British border to the Olympic Mountains sent a pall over Seattle, slowed steamers and trains, and destroyed homes, a bridge and a thirty-room mansion near Whatcom.
- The Man Who Stopped the Train
A landowner takes matters into his own hands by tearing up railroad tracks after failing to receive payment for his property.
- A Sudden Squall Rocks the Seattle Waterfront
A fierce windstorm capsizes a sailboat, sinks a boathouse, and tests the nerves of local sailors.
- The Great Canal Dream of 1887
A visionary project to link Lake Union and Lake Washington promises to turn Seattle into a fresh-water harbor, revolutionizing the lumber industry and securing the city's future.
- The $80,000 Cranberry Bog Behind the Ilwaco Beach
A state commissioner tours Pacific County's cranberry marsh — 1,600 acres, 7,280 bushels shipped to San Francisco, 200 pickers at fifty cents a bushel, and a company openly hoping to replace its Chinese crew with white labor.
- Seattle’s Temple of Learning Rises Between Two Lakes
In 1895, contractors raced to finish a $200,000 campus between Union and Washington lakes—complete with copper finials, a gymnasium and a hillside observatory—before the September opening.
- The First Engine: How One Machinist Built Seattle’s Heart
In April 1877, a local machinist named Mr. Bullene constructed the first engine ever built in Seattle for Stetson & Post’s new lumber mill, marking a pivotal moment in the city's industrial infancy.
- The Lumber Monopoly’s Messy Breakup
A multi-million dollar lumber corporation face an attachment suit after failing to pay for timber contracts in Walla Walla.
- The Lumber Barons Are Starving Themselves: Why Puget Sound Should Be Feeding Its Own Cows
A local editorial argues that Washington’s reliance on imported dairy is an economic absurdity, urging farmers to switch from beef to Devon and Jersey cattle to capitalize on our unique climate.
- The Brick Block Mandate: Why Your Empty Lot is Killing Seattle's Economy
An editorial argues that refusing to build substantial structures on city land is a civic failure, urging property owners to construct brick buildings to retain tradesmen and attract new industry.
- Vancouver’s Heart of Flame
A catastrophic fire destroys the business district of Vancouver, Washington, leaving small shopkeepers destitute and the city in shock.
- The 17,000-Horsepower Plan to Electrify Seattle
Engineers proposed an 800-foot steel pipe, a tunnel through basalt, and a 23-mile copper line to turn Snoqualmie Falls into the city’s power source.
- How Tacoma Beat Seattle for the Railroad—and Who Paid for It
An Eastern paper says Northern Pacific officials picked an inferior Tacoma site because it let a small coterie profit from townsite speculation, while Seattle refused to hand over its waterfront.
- The Vagrant Preacher: An Elderly Man’s Desperate Plea for Dignity in Spokane
Paul Hoffman, a German Lutheran minister turned job-seeker, was arrested for vagrancy after collecting donations from churchgoers. In his cell, he wept as he recounted his fall from grace.
- The Great Welcome: Seattle Plans a 'Rousing' Ovation for Returning War Heroes
Mayor Humes and city officials rally behind a public subscription to fund fireworks, banquets, and even a mock battle at Lake Washington to greet the Washington Volunteers returning from Manila.
- The Circus Comes to Town: Seattle’s First Big Top Spectacle
As the Hingling Bros. circus unloads its menagerie and performers in the Northern Pacific yards, locals gather for a parade and show that promises 'everything advertised.'
- The War on Tacoma's Knothole Gang
When the local baseball management deployed a park keeper with a sharp stick to drive away children watching from a fence, the crowd turned on the club.
Also about this, in other words
- The Weight of Little Things
A century and a half ago, a Seattle writer mused on how the smallest details of life—a penny, a word, a drop of water—shape our massive, often overwhelming destinies.
- The Professional Vagrant Who Could Not Stay Away
A habitual traveler of the rails, George P. Small, is caught once again in Oregon, highlighting the desperate, recurring struggle of the era's displaced poor.
- The Narrow Escape of 'Little Kate'
A harrowing account of a young woman's flight from a brutal employer in the Washington Territory, highlighting the vulnerability of domestic laborers.
- Tiny Performers Wow at Yesler’s Hall
A kindergarten concert by the Baptist Sunday School brings down the house to fund a new library.
- A Close Call on the Road to Town
A passing train frightens a horse, leaving a local woman injured after a harrowing fall into a rock pile.
- The Price of a Tiny Needle Prick
A trivial accident at home turns into a harrowing medical ordeal for a Seattle woman.
- The Tragedy of the 'Professional Beggar'
A man sentenced to three months in the county jail for vagrancy writes a desperate letter from his cell, claiming he is dying and pleading for the bail money he cannot afford.
- The Unkindest Cut
A young boy's poignant question about inclusion and dignity sheds light on the treatment of people with disabilities in our community.