The Police Academy Records (Record Series 6408-01) include pages from a notebook created by Howard E. Hartsfield when he was in training at the academy in 1952. The pages in Hartsfield’s meticulous handwriting note what he was learning in his classes, with the occasional hand-drawn illustration. His table of contents… [ Keep reading ]
We recently processed the records of City Councilmember Mark Solomon, who served as interim representative for District 2 on the council in 2025. Solomon was born and raised in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle. After earning a BA in humanities from Seattle University in 1981, he entered the U.S…. [ Keep reading ]
Neighbor Appreciation Day started in Seattle in 1995 as an opportunity to recognize caring neighbors and help all neighbors to get to know each other. Over the past 31 years, the annual event – now called Neighbor Day – has continued to encourage community connections, with many neighborhoods participating through… [ Keep reading ]
We recently received an accession of posters from the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute that show the variety of events sponsored by the center over the years. With the help of our volunteer Natalie Edmonds, they are now processed and available as Record Series 7420-03. The Langston Hughes Performing Arts… [ Keep reading ]
In 1982, plans moved forward to install two 50-foot red cedar totem poles in Market Park (now Victor Steinbrueck Park), adjacent to Pike Place Market. SMA’s Market Park Totem Poles Photograph Collection (Record Series 5801-09) includes 125 photographs documenting the carving, finishing, painting, transport, and installation of the poles in… [ Keep reading ]
Sometimes we come across folder titles that cry out for further investigation. When we saw a 1971 file labeled “Haircut Incident” listed in Mayor Uhlman’s records, we couldn’t resist heading to the vault to check it out. The folder turned out to contain records documenting a dispute about whether firefighter… [ Keep reading ]
Happy National Poetry Month! Not so very long ago, poetry readings were a regular event at some City Council committee meetings. Soon after he took office in 1998, Councilmember Nick Licata began holding a series of poetry readings at his committee meetings related to the arts, establishing the nation’s only… [ Keep reading ]
We’re in peak cherry blossom season, with crowds flocking to the University of Washington quad and other spots in the city that are bursting with pink blooms. Our Seattle Center Promotion and Publicity Records (Record Series 7613-01) include a folder documenting early years of Seattle’s Cherry Blossom Festival. The 1979… [ Keep reading ]
Here at SMA we hold many different kinds of records: textual records, photographic materials, drawings, posters, maps, and audiovisual materials – that is, film, video, and audio recordings. These recordings exist in both analog and born-digital formats, each with their own needs and challenges for preservation and access. For example,… [ Keep reading ]
Drawn in 1926, the Porter Map of Seattle is a large wall map covering the entire city. It’s impressively detailed, with keys describing public buildings, road types and grades, street designations, and churches according to denomination. The author is shown as Mrs. Florence Porter. The name was unfamiliar to us,… [ Keep reading ]
