1514 results for: City of Seattle
Photograph
Crowd with steamship "Australia" at Seattle pier, circa 1898
Gold seekers streamed to Seattle by the thousands, eager to board ships bound for the Klondike gold fields. Seattle's shipping industry and waterfront businesses boomed during the gold rush. In March 1897, before the news of the Klondike gold finds reached Seattle, port records show that only 18 ships sailed to or from Seattle. In March 1898, with the gold…
ID Number:SHS2504
Date:Circa 1898
Photograph
Steamship "Australia" loading at Seattle pier, circa 1898
The United States was in the grip of a nationwide economic depression in the 1890s. When the steamer "Portland" arrived in Seattle in July 1897 with more than a ton of Klondike gold, the city's depression ended. Pacific Northwest shipping companies were eager to profit from the gold rush. They scrambled to provide passenger and freight service to the Alaskan…
ID Number:SHS2506
Date:Circa 1898
Photograph
Theodore Wernecke and employees inside fur store, Seattle, circa 1898
An estimated 100,000 prospectors migrated to the Klondike region of the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1896 and 1899. Most of them stopped in Seattle to purchase supplies, greatly contributing to the city's economic success. Ohio-born Charles Theodore Wernecke (1852-1922) came to Seattle around 1897 and operated at least one store catering to miners headed to Alaska during the Klondike…
ID Number:SHS2508
Date:Circa 1898
Photograph
Exterior of C.T. Wernecke fur store, Seattle, circa 1897
Fur trading in the Pacific Northwest dates back to the 1700s. The first raw fur auction in the United States was organized in Seattle in 1898, coinciding with the Klondike Gold Rush, which had started in 1896. Ohio-born Charles Theodore Wernecke had come to Seattle in 1897 and ran a store that bought raw furs, manufactured fur clothing, and catered…
ID Number:SHS2525
Date:Circa 1897
Photograph
Seattle's first July 4th celebration, 1865
Seattle was first incorporated by the Washington Territorial Legislature in 1865, with a population of 350 and an economy based on timber. The Fourth of July celebration depicted in this photo would have been the first for the new city, as well as the first after the end of the Civil War. Pioneers pose in front of a foliage-covered structure,…
ID Number:SHS2772
Date:1865
Photograph
View of Lake Union from the Lake Washington Bicycle Path, Seattle, circa 1902
Between about 1894-1904, after the horse and before the automobile, bicycles were the hottest new form of do-it-yourself urban transportation in Seattle. The region's many cycling groups regularly sponsored outings along the twenty-five miles of urban bicycle trails which were built, funded, and maintained with the aid of city engineers. Bike cops enforced cyclist speed limits, safety, and dealt with…
ID Number:SHS2964
Date:Circa 1902
Photograph
Two women on Lake Washington cycling path, circa 1901
The 1890s boom in bicycling hit Seattle and the rest of the country. Public and private money built a network of bicycle paths in Seattle and out into the wooded countryside. Four tracks were built for bike racing. As the city grew, many of the trails became streets and lost their use as bike paths. This photo shows two women…
ID Number:SHS2968
Date:Circa 1901
Photograph
Militia lined up during anti-Chinese riot, Seattle, February, 1886
The Seattle riot of 1886 occurred on February 6–9 amidst rising anti-Chinese sentiment caused by intense labor competition and in the context of an ongoing struggle between labor and capital in the Western United States. The dispute arose when a mob affiliated with a local Knights of Labor chapter formed small committees to carry out a forcible expulsion of all…
ID Number:SHS3486
Date:1886
Photograph
William Myers and Frank Krauland in Georgetown Market, Seattle, 1911
Louis Steen (1845-1922), a butcher born in Germany, came to the U.S. in about 1867 and opened his meat market in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood on Duwamish Avenue, now Airport Way. In this image, two of Steen's employees stand in the interior of the market. William Myers, left, is listed as a meat cutter in the 1911 Seattle City Directory, and…
ID Number:SHS3643
Date:1911
Photograph
Chen Chong and his wife, 1866
Chen Chong arrived in Seattle in the 1860s and became one of the city's first Chinese merchants. He owned a cigar store on the east side of First Avenue South, near Washington Street and supplied contract labor to area businesses and industries. In 1866, Chen Chong was married at the Brown (Methodist) Church. Both bride and groom wore borrowed clothing…
ID Number:SHS4000
Date:1866