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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 6 |
| 1858 | 4 |
| 1859 | 5 |
| 1860 | 4 |
| 1861 | 8 |
| 1862 | 9 |
| 1863 | 3 |
| 1864 | 3 |
| 1871 | 3 |
| 1872 | 25 |
| 1876 | 193 |
| 1877 | 163 |
| 1878 | 81 |
| 1879 | 8 |
| 1880 | 29 |
| 1882 | 29 |
| 1883 | 218 |
| 1884 | 94 |
| 1885 | 181 |
| 1886 | 119 |
| 1887 | 128 |
| 1888 | 120 |
| 1889 | 304 |
| 1890 | 67 |
| 1891 | 264 |
| 1892 | 672 |
| 1893 | 600 |
| 1894 | 581 |
| 1895 | 581 |
| 1896 | 1 |
| 1897 | 9 |
| 1898 | 46 |
| 1899 | 140 |
| 1900 | 17 |
| 1902 | 13 |
| 1903 | 264 |
| 1904 | 267 |
| 1905 | 31 |
| 1907 | 15 |
| 1908 | 120 |
| 1909 | 361 |
| 1910 | 97 |
| 1911 | 76 |
| 1912 | 19 |
| 1914 | 57 |
| 1915 | 62 |
| 1916 | 93 |
| 1917 | 66 |
| 1918 | 9 |
| 1919 | 2 |
| 1922 | 5 |
| 1923 | 44 |
| 1924 | 22 |
| 1925 | 7 |
| 1928 | 4 |
| 1929 | 3 |
6,352 stories matching work
- The City Wharf as a Stone Yard: Seattle's Plan to Put Its Idle Men to Work
A petition signed by dozens of prominent Seattle businessmen asks the city council to turn the waterfront into a public stone yard, trading honest labor for meals and lodging — and to run the beggars out of town.
- 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 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 Rifle War: Knights of Labor vs. Mine Owners in Newcastle
A bitter feud between rival labor unions in King County erupts into armed conflict, with rifles smuggled from Seattle to support striking miners.
- The Dredgers Are Coming: Seattle's Canal Project Finally Starts Moving
After years of financing delays, engineers promised to begin bulkheads and surveys on the south canal—and to haul giant hydraulic dredgers north to reshape the tide flats.
- Five Hundred Men and a Steam Shovel: Newport Becomes a Railroad Town
The Idaho & Washington Northern finally signs Grant Smith Co. to grade the line up the Pend Oreille to Ione — and Newport bets its winter, its wages and its warehouses on the boom.
- Seattle’s 1895 Co-op Where 150 Unemployed Men Ate for 7 Cents a Day
At a Belltown barracks, unemployed single men pooled their wages, submitted to military-style rules and fed an average of 150 people daily for about 7 cents each.
- Blueslide Breakthrough: The Tunnel That Pushed the Idaho & Washington Northern Through
After months of hand drilling, a crew of more than 500 blows a heading through the Blueslide tunnel — while the railroad’s general manager limps on crutches after a freak construction accident.
- Eight Hundred Men, a Tunnel, and a Bridge
The I.W.N. extension put hundreds of laborers to work on grades, bridges and the Blueslide tunnel—while a bridge contractor was hurt by a falling timber.
- The Rails Come to Newport: Yards, Depots, and a Town Betting Its Future on the I. & W. N.
Railroad brass walk the ground for new yards, surveyors push down-river, a depot rises, and the town council is asked for a franchise — as high water stalls the Great Northern bridge at Albeni Falls.
- The 1893 Plan to Untangle Seattle’s Government
A powerful city official wanted a stronger mayor, a one-house council, and fewer commissions—arguments Seattle still has today.
- A Damning Report on Seattle's Water Works
A Chamber of Commerce committee found a hastily built municipal water system, political patronage and missing maps—and urged Seattle to hire a professional engineer at $5,000 a year.
- San Francisco Capitalists Plan a New Waterway at Smith's Cove
A newly incorporated dredging company asks the state for the right to dig out and fill Seattle's northern tide flats, promising wharves, railroad yards and mills.
- Olympia’s Booster Year: Brick, Bridges and a 50,000-Person Promise
As 1891 closed, the capital city counted $3 million in new buildings, a record bridge, electric lights and new rail lines — and predicted 50,000 residents within a decade.
- When Seattle's Mayor Took on Poverty: The 1895 Charity Bureau Meeting
At the Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Byron Phelps and local leaders discussed unemployment, aid to families, and the growing demand for relief during a depression year.
- The Salvation Army’s Plan to Turn a Kitsap Farm Into a Lifeline for Seattle’s Unemployed
With a 250-acre bequest near Sidney and a crowded food-and-shelter depot at Weller and South Third, the Army proposed a co-operative farm, woodyard and prison-gate brigade to put hundreds of jobless men to work.
- The Dredgers Were Coming: Seattle Builds Its Tide Flats
Engineers surveyed bulkheads, plotted fill, and prepared to bring two big dredgers to the Duwamish tide flats—while speculators rushed applications to buy the new land.
- The Customs Collector and the Straw Men of Puget Sound
A Tacoma official accuses Collector J. C. Saunders of padding the customs payroll with political workers—including a no-show inspector—for work never done at the Interstate Fair.
- The Sewer Under Beacon Hill
After quicksand, floods and a costly detour, Seattle’s South Tunnel is weeks from completion—and somehow still inside its $100,000 budget.
- Tacoma's Water Chief Accused—and the City Hall Feud Behind It
Mayor Orr's appointment of George H. Hollidge to run Tacoma's water and light plants blew up into a public corruption fight, with secret affidavits, anonymous postal cards and a grand jury waiting.
- The Ten-Hour Day That Split Seattle’s Streetcar Men
A new state law barred Seattle’s streetcar companies from forcing motormen and conductors to work more than ten hours a day. But some workers petitioned to keep the old schedules, because they were paid by the hour.
- Washington's Public Lands Were Run by a Patchwork. Reformers Wanted One Powerful Board.
A joint legislative committee concludes that county tide-land boards, roving land cruisers and district attorneys have wasted public money, and recommends a three-member state land board to manage school and tide lands.
- The Conquest Mine Strikes a Twelve-Foot Vein—and Newport's Mining District Wakes Up
A rich assay at the Conquest mine promised dividends, new work and a revival for the Pend Oreille mining district.
- Spokane Falls Council Tackles Charter, Cash, and a Dead Horse
In August 1883, the Spokane Falls City Council met to discuss a new city charter, unpaid bills, street assessments, and the problem of a dead horse. The meeting offers a glimpse into the challenges of a growing frontier town.
- A Seattle Utopia Sold in One-Cent Shares
A society of unemployed men pools its wages and plots a Bellamy-style commonwealth of railroads, coal mines and common tables — starting from $5 of capital and 500 one-cent shares.
Also about this, in other words
- The Radical Defense of Sweat Equity
In an 1876 editorial, a fierce local voice challenges the city’s idle wealthy to stop 'illustrating fashion's caprices' and embrace the dignity of physical labor.
- The Unseen Labor of a Household
A spicy letter from a 'Little Worker' challenges a farm editor’s complaints about the difficulty of finding domestic help.
- The Labor of Living: A 1888 Plea for Early Closing
Seattle store clerks organize to secure a shorter workday, challenging the relentless 'open-until-late' culture of the booming city.
- The Hidden Labor of the Kitchen
A late 19th-century editorial critiques the grueling, unregulated work conditions of domestic servants in Seattle households.
- The Teamsters’ Fight for the Sunday Off
A landmark report on how the International Brotherhood of Teamsters transformed the lives of workers by ending mandatory Sunday labor.
- The School of Unionism
A young worker discovers the power of collective bargaining when he moves from a non-union shop to a city factory.
- The Persistent Promise of Easy Money
A classic 19th-century 'work from home' pitch promises Snohomish laborers a fortune for minimal effort.
- The Eight-Hour Day: Who Gets It and Who Doesn't?
A definitive ruling clarifies that Washington’s landmark labor protections were intended for physical toil, not office work.