• Visit
    • Museum Accessibility
    • Community Access
    • Group Visits and Tours
    • Programs
      • History Café
      • MOHAI Mercantile Literary Series
      • First Thursday
      • Denny Lecture
      • Al Young Educator of the Year
      • Everyday Heroes
    • MOHAI Mercantile
    • Gourmondo at MOHAI
  • Exhibits
  • Events
  • Collections and Research
    • Collections Search
    • Themed Collections
    • Research Library
    • Image Ordering
    • Donate an Artifact
    • Curator’s Fellowship
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Membership at MOHAI
    • Gift Memberships
    • Corporate Support
  • Education
    • Field Trips
      • Self-Guided School Year Explorations
      • Creating Our Community
      • Cracking the History Code: Salish Stories
      • Cracking the History Code: Settling Around the Sound
      • Hands on History
      • Self-Guided Summer Field Trips
      • Homeschool Group
    • Portable Museum Program
    • Scholarships
    • Education FAQ
    • Primary Source Analysis
    • Online Curricula
    • Teen Programs
    • Idea Lab
    • Discovery Packs
    • Summer Camps
  • About
    • Annual Reports
    • The MOHAI Blog
    • Contact MOHAI
    • Opportunities
    • Leadership
    • Private Events
  • Donate
  • Tickets
  • Membership
HomeCollections and ResearchCollections Search

Collections Search

Explore stories in Northwest history through highlights from MOHAI’s collections. Search by keyword below or browse the entire online collection by entering the asterisk symbol (*). Filter your search by type of materials.

Download lower resolution images directly from an item page. MOHAI offers high-resolution digital reproductions of photographs and other materials from our collections for personal and professional use.

We have many more items in our collections and not everything you see online is on view at the museum. We have additional materials online at the University of Washington’s Digital Collections.

MOHAI Statement on Harmful Content

Search by Collection

Not finding what you are looking for?
Ask the MOHAI Collections Staff

169 results for: Agriculture and Farms

Share:
Image of Indigenous women picking hops, Snoqualmie Hop Ranch, circa 1895
Photograph

Indigenous women picking hops, Snoqualmie Hop Ranch, circa 1895

From the late 1860s to the early 1890s, hop farming was an important activity in the valleys of the Puget Sound region, including Puyallup, White River, and Snoqualmie. Indigenous workers came from throughout the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Alaska (but especially from regional tribes like the Puyallup, Snoqualmie, Muckleshoot, Duwamish, Sammamish, Lummi, and Nisqually) as a seasonal labor force to…
ID Number:SHS1052
Date:Circa 1895
Image of West Seattle grain elevator, circa 1895
Photograph

West Seattle grain elevator, circa 1895

Colonel Thomas Ewing, the major developer of West Seattle, foresaw a great industrial center on the peninsula. In 1890, Ewing built a grain elevator and hailed it as the key to Seattle's future as a worldwide grain exporter. Ewing convinced the Northern Pacific Railroad to build a trestle across the tide flats to reach his grain elevator. The railroad carried…
ID Number:SHS1053
Date:Circa 1895
Image of Indigenous men, women, and children working in hop field, Kent, circa 1895
Photograph

Indigenous men, women, and children working in hop field, Kent, circa 1895

From the late 1860s to the early 1890s, hop farming was an important activity in the valleys of the Puget Sound region, including Puyallup, White River, and Snoqualmie. Indigenous workers came from throughout the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Alaska (but especially from regional tribes like the Puyallup, Snoqualmie, Muckleshoot, Duwamish, Sammamish, Lummi, and Nisqually) as a seasonal labor force to…
ID Number:SHS1975
Date:Circa 1895
Image of Reindeer and Sami at Woodland Park, 1898
Photograph

Reindeer and Sami at Woodland Park, 1898

In 1892, the United States government started bringing reindeer from Siberia into Alaska as a new food source for the native peoples. In 1898, the government brought in Norwegian reindeer, along with Sami herdsmen and their families. They stopped in Seattle to wait for a ship to Alaska. Some Sami remained in Alaska, while others eventually returned to Seattle or…
ID Number:SHS2899
Date:1898
Image of Hop pickers near Auburn, Washington, circa 1900
Photograph

Hop pickers near Auburn, Washington, circa 1900

Brewers use the fruit of the hop plant to flavor beer. Beginning in the 1880s, hop growing brought great prosperity to western Washington state. In 1888 alone, over three quarters of a million pounds of hops were harvested in the area. The boom waned in the early 1890s when the fields were attacked repeatedly by an insect pest.This photo, taken…
ID Number:SHS6026
Date:Circa 1900
Image of Landing sheep at Nome for Carstens Brothers & Dashley, circa 1900
Photograph

Landing sheep at Nome for Carstens Brothers & Dashley, circa 1900

There is no harbor at Nome, Alaska, and when the Nome gold rush started in 1899, there wasn't even a city. It was a challenge for ships to bring in passengers and supply the new town with food and fuel. Vessels anchored in deep water and barges brought freight and passengers to the shore through the shallows. Each year, supplies…
ID Number:SHS9552
Date:1900
Image of Richard Desimone in his family’s produce truck, Seattle, circa 1946
Photograph

Richard Desimone in his family’s produce truck, Seattle, circa 1946

Desimone has been a big name in the history of Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Giuseppe “Joe” Desimone, a Neapolitan immigrant, farmed successfully in the South Park area, and sold his produce at the Market. He invested his earnings in real estate and business, and by 1941, had become the majority owner of the Pike Place Market. Richard Desimone, Joe’s son,…
ID Number:SHS10720
Date:Circa 1946
Image of Hop picking, circa 1895
Photograph

Hop picking, circa 1895

In western Washington, hop vines were grown on tall poles. At harvest time, workers lowered the vines and picked the hops into wooden boxes. The boxes were a standard size and had handles so that two people could carry them. Pickers were paid by the box or by the pound.In this photo, probably taken in the 1890s, a man checks…
ID Number:SHS15558
Date:Circa 1895
Image of Quileute Indians in a western Washington hop field, 1904
Photograph

Quileute Indians in a western Washington hop field, 1904

The Quileute are an Indigenous people whose historic lands are on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula, in the valleys of the Quillayute and Hoh Rivers. The Quileute are not related to either the Makah to the north or the Coast Salish peoples of western Washington and the Quileute language is unrelated to any other in the world. Quileute…
ID Number:SHS19061
Date:1904
Previous 1 … 15 16 17

Land Acknowledgement

MOHAI stands on the historic and contemporary lands and shores of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, and other Coast Salish Nations. We acknowledge the forced displacement of Native Communities from this land while honoring the endurance of the Duwamish people who still live here.
Address: 860 Terry Ave N, Seattle WA, 98109
Phone: 206 324 1126
  • Plan a Visit
  • Directions and Parking
  • Accessibility
  • Group Tours
  • About

Sign up to Receive our Newsletter

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Copyright 2026, Museum of History & Industry. All Rights Reserved