354 results for: Visual Arts
Portrait of Monsignor Francis X Prefontaine, ca. 1868
Father Francis X. Prefontaine (1838-1909) was born in Quebec and arrived in Seattle in 1867. He was the city's first resident priest and built Seattle's first Roman Catholic church, Our Lady of Good Help, located on Third Avenue and Washington Street. In 1877, he bought a soap factory and this became the site of the Sisters of Providence first hospital…
ID Number:1953.360
Date:Circa 1868
Mural of 1889 Seattle Fire, painted in 1953
Seattle’s Great Fire occurred on June 6, 1889, in a carpenter shop at 1st Avenue and Madison Street. The story goes that a workman, John Back, was melting glue in a pot that boiled over onto the floor, igniting wood shavings and sawdust. The fire quickly grew and flames swept out through the shop’s open doors and windows, spreading to…
ID Number:1953.545.1
Date:1953
Mannequin dressed to represent Japanese court lady Shizuka Gozen, ca. 1951
The legendary Shizuka Gozen—Lady Shizuka—sang and danced at court in samurai Japan more than 800 years ago. The city of Kyoto, Japan, presented to Seattle this life-size Shizuka in red and white shirabyoshi robes during the city's first Japan Trade Fair in 1951, six years after WWII. Both Seattle and Japan greeted this mending of our longtime relations with enthusiasm.
ID Number:1953.546
Date:Circa 1951
Portrait of David T. Denny by Edwin Isaac Ames, 1894
David T. Denny (1832-1903) was the first of the Denny party to set foot on the shores of Puget Sound. He served in the organized militia, as a regent of the University of Washington, King County Treasurer, Probate Judge, Seattle School Board member and Seattle City Councilman. A respected businessman, Denny developed and consolidated the Seattle streetcar system. Artist Edwin…
ID Number:1954.541.a
Date:1894
Portrait of Louisa Boren Denny "The Sweet Briar Bride," 1894
Louisa Boren Denny (1827-1916) left her safe Illinois home to travel across the country in a covered wagon, arriving with the Denny Party at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. She was Seattle's first bride, marrying David Denny. She was a friend of the Indigenous peoples in the area and a champion of women's suffrage. She lived to see Seattle…
ID Number:1954.541.b
Date:1894
Portrait of Kikisoblu (Princess Angeline) at home, 1892
Watercolor painting by artist C.C. Maring of Kikisoblu (Princess Angeline), daughter of Chief Si'ahl (Chief Seattle), sitting in front of her house at the foot of Pike Street. She lived and worked in Seattle until her death in 1896. Cassius Clay (C.C.) Maring (1863-1905) was a local artist, illustrator, and engraver. The drawing of Washington's portrait for the state seal…
ID Number:1954.686
Date:1892
Photographic print of portrait drawing of John Edward Chilberg by Frank Calvert, 1909
Frank Calvert (1876-1920) was an illustrator for the Seattle Times, a painter, and a member of the Society of Beaux Arts, which was established "to develop art and its appreciation here in the Northwest." In 1908, he helped create and develop an art colony in the Bellevue area on the eastern shores of Lake Washington, and the City of Beaux…
ID Number:1954.751
Date:1909
Model of first gas station at Holgate and East Marginal Way in Seattle in 1907
This model, of which the maker is unknown (possibly Stanley Stretton), features what claims to be the first gas station ever established right here in Seattle. This is highly debatable as it is more widely known that St. Louis, Missouri, holds that title dating back to 1905. The story goes that John L. Mclean, local manager for Standard Oil (now…
ID Number:1954.1698
Date:Circa 1950
Painting of Smith's Cove and Dr. Henry Smith's house by Emily Inez Denny, 1870-1880
This painting depicts the home of Dr. Henry A. Smith, who had come west by wagon in 1851. He was a physician who used his skills on the wagon train trip from the Midwest, in Seattle and in Snohomish, where he cared for Native Americans as he developed tidal land there. He was involved in Seattle politics, served as chair…
ID Number:1955.878.3
Date:1870-1880
Pan from the Great Seattle Fire of 1889
This pan, rescued from Seattle's 1889 fire, features a painting by J.H. Barnes that depicts the railroad depot on Columbia Street.
ID Number:1955.898
Date:Circa 1889