Preserving the Bounty of Puget Sound
How local naturalists prepared a comprehensive collection of Washington's fish for the 1893 World's Fair.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In the work of preparing the samples of food fishes of Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest for the Washington exhibit at the World's Fair, Mr. Adam Hubbart, a very competent taxidermist and member of the Seattle Young Naturalists' Club, has been employed since October 1892. Assisted by Miss Parker, a student of the state university, Hubbart operated out of the Young Naturalists' Club on the university grounds behind the Armory. The collection includes about ninety mounted specimens and 125 alcoholic specimens, costing fully $1,000. These range from common herring and smelt to giant halibut and salmon. Hubbart emphasizes that the fisheries of Washington could become second only to lumber in importance, provided the state encourages the industry through better transport and processing facilities.
“The waters of the Northwest are alive with these fish just awaiting capture; there should be enterprise enough and capital enough to open a great and growing industry.”
The 'Young Naturalists' Club' mention captures a moment when the University of Washington was still consolidating its identity, and its location near the Armory recalls a downtown campus footprint that has long since shifted north. This document serves as a time capsule for an era when the state was actively inventing its public identity through World's Fair boosterism.
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