SMA’s photograph holdings include over 1.5 million photographic images of City of Seattle projects and personnel. The images can be a real treasure trove for anyone doing historical research or investigating their family history, but would be even more useful if more of the people depicted were identified. Since City photographers generally were taking photos to document job functions, municipal projects, public programs, and the like, the names of people in the photos often were not noted at the time the photo was taken.
This is where you come in! We have created a set on Flickr of some of our images that include unidentified people. The album includes photos from the early 1900s all the way up to the 2010s. Many are of city workers at their jobs or at related events such as City Light Employee Association activities. Other photos depict people in parks, residents interacting with city employees, and participants in community activities.
Did you have a parent or grandparent who worked for the City? Are you familiar with Seattle history and have a knack for recognizing faces? Do you have family, friends, or neighbors who participated in city programs and might show up in their photo documentation? If you answered yes to any of the above, you never know if you might recognize someone in one of these images!
You can scroll through photos in the set below or click over to Flickr to view the whole album there. If you see anyone you recognize, please email us at archives@seattle.gov or comment directly on Flickr if you have an account there. We will continue to add to the album, so there will be more photos to identify in the future.
If you’re looking for a relative who was a City of Seattle employee and don’t see them in the album, know that we have tens of thousands more images in Digital Collections and many more that are not yet digitized. Contact us if you’d like help in searching for photos of them and we’d be happy to assist. (Also check out our guide to genealogical research at SMA.) It’s possible that you’ll find “new” family photos from decades ago.