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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.

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182 results for: Curtis

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Image of Chin Gee Hee, Chinese labor contractor, circa 1904
Photograph

Chin Gee Hee, Chinese labor contractor, circa 1904

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese labor contractors brought thousands of Chinese men to the Pacific Northwest to build railroads and to work in canneries, logging camps and coal mines. Companies depended on labor contractors to recruit workers, to move them where they were needed, to feed and house them, and to keep track of their pay.…
ID Number:SHS1152
Date:1901
Image of Laying the cornerstone of the Children's Orthopedic Hospital, Seattle, March 15, 1911
Photograph

Laying the cornerstone of the Children's Orthopedic Hospital, Seattle, March 15, 1911

In this image Anna Herr Clise, founder of the Children's Orthopedic Hospital Association, holds a trowel over the cornerstone of Children's Orthopedic Hospital's new 40-bed facility at Warren Avenue and Crockett Street on Queen Anne Hill. The man closest to the building is Rev. Dr. Samuel Koch, with Rev. H. H. Gowen to his right, and at the far right,…
ID Number:SHS1226
Date:1911
Image of U.S.S. Nebraska launching October 7, 1904
Photograph

U.S.S. Nebraska launching October 7, 1904

In 1904, the Moran Brothers shipyard in Seattle launched the battleship "Nebraska." This vessel was the first steel ship to be built on Puget Sound and the first naval battleship to be built in the Pacific Northwest. At the launching, bands played, people cheered, dignitaries made speeches, and the daughter of the Governor of Nebraska christened the vessel with a…
ID Number:SHS2042
Date:1904
Image of Crowd with steamship
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
Image of Steamship
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
Image of Sailing ship
Photograph

Sailing ship "Lucile" loading at Seattle pier, 1898

In 1897 and 1898 so many people wanted to go north to the Klondike gold fields that all kinds of ships were pressed into service. Some were sailing ships which had carried passengers, coal, lumber, or salmon up and down the west coast of the United States.This 1898 photo shows the wooden sailing ship "Lucile" loaded with gold miners and…
ID Number:SHS2551
Date:1898
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 Photographer Edward S. Curtis, Seattle, 1951
Photograph

Photographer Edward S. Curtis, Seattle, 1951

Edward Sheriff Curtis was born in Wisconsin in 1868. He moved to Seattle with his mother and siblings around 1890 and became a professional photographer. Through the decade, Curtis became a respected photographer across the United States. Edward's brother Asahel was also a well-known photographer, but they were permanently estranged after Edward claimed Asahel's work as his own. In the…
ID Number:SHS5202
Date:1951
Image of Dr. David S. Maynard, Seattle, circa 1868
Photograph

Dr. David S. Maynard, Seattle, circa 1868

Dr. David S. "Doc" Maynard arrived in Seattle in 1852. His original plans to salt salmon for the San Francisco market failed, but he set up Seattle's first store, selling medicine and general merchandise in his salting works on First Avenue and Main Street. It was Doc Maynard who proposed naming the new city Seattle after Chief Si'ahl (Chief Seattle)…
ID Number:SHS5595
Date:Circa 1868
Image of Adding floors to the County-City Building, circa 1930
Photograph

Adding floors to the County-City Building, circa 1930

In 1916, the new King County Courthouse and Municipal Building, also called the County-City Building, opened on Third Avenue in downtown Seattle. The building, designed by Seattle architect Augustus Warren Gould, was five stories tall, with a partial sixth story for the use of the city engineer. In 1929-1931, architect Henry Bittman's six story addition expanded Gould's original building upwards.This…
ID Number:SHS6523
Date:Circa 1930
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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.
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Phone: 206 324 1126
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