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283 results for: Retail and Department Stores

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Image of Woman spinning in Swedish Folk Art exhibition, February 1937
Photograph

Woman spinning in Swedish Folk Art exhibition, February 1937

In mid-February 1937, various Swedish groups sponsored a Swedish Folk Art Exhibit at Seattle's Frederick and Nelson department store. Exhibits included handicrafts, utensils, furniture and weaving and spinning demonstrations. During the exhibit, Mrs. Ingeborg Soderlund demonstrated how to spin thread on an early 19th century wheel brought to Seattle from Gamtland in northern Sweden.This photo, taken in Seattle in February…
ID Number:PI22473
Date:1937
Image of
Photograph

"Evacuation sale" at Japanese store, Seattle, 1942

On February 19, 1942, shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and United States entry into WWII, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, calling for the exclusion of all civilians of Japanese descent from "designated military areas." More than 9,000 Japanese and Japanese American people living in the Pacific Northwest were forced into incarceration camps in Idaho and California…
ID Number:PI28065
Date:1942
Image of Miners and supplies outside Cooper & Levy, circa 1897
Photograph

Miners and supplies outside Cooper & Levy, circa 1897

After news of Klondike gold reached Seattle in July 1897, many of Seattle's stores joined the excitement and became gold rush outfitters. Cooper & Levy, just south of Pioneer Square, provided gold seekers with crates and sacks of flour, bacon, dried fruit, condensed milk, tea, soap, matches, and many other items needed for life in the north.This 1897 photo shows…
ID Number:SHS401
Date:Circa 1897
Image of Soda fountain at Weed's Pharmacy, circa 1910
Photograph

Soda fountain at Weed's Pharmacy, circa 1910

Melvin Albert (Bert) Weed (1882-1964) began in the pharmacy business in 1898 as a clerk at the Bartell Drug Company. After college he partnered with Albert G. Keene and worked as a pharmacist at Lake Washington Pharmacy. Lake Washington Pharmacy became Weed's Pharmacy in 1910, operating in the same Central District location until Bert's retirement in 1958.This photograph shows the…
ID Number:SHS798
Date:Circa 1910
Image of Shorey's Books at 3rd Ave. and Cherry St., Seattle, circa 1895
Photograph

Shorey's Books at 3rd Ave. and Cherry St., Seattle, circa 1895

Legendary Seattle bookstore Shorey's was founded by newspaperman Samuel Fernald Shorey (1851-1932) in 1890 as a small magazine and cigar store at Third and James. Sam's great-nephew John W. "Bill" Todd Jr.(1914-2007) bought the store in 1939, and it was later run by his son, Jim Todd. Shorey's maintained its huge inventory even though the store had to move several…
ID Number:SHS1317
Date:Circa 1895
Image of Theodore Wernecke and employees inside fur store, Seattle, 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
Image of Exterior of C.T. Wernecke fur store, Seattle, circa 1897
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
Image of William Myers and Frank Krauland in Georgetown Market, Seattle, 1911
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
Image of Second and Union, looking southeast, Seattle, circa 1885
Photograph

Second and Union, looking southeast, Seattle, circa 1885

Between about 1888 and 1893, Seattle grocer Charles Louch sold groceries, seeds, cigars and other goods from his store on Front Street (now First Avenue). At some point, he advertised his store, and his 1888 brand of hams and bacon, using give-away photographs of downtown Seattle with his roof sign prominently displayed in the foreground.This photo, taken by Walter Davis…
ID Number:SHS5336
Date:Circa 1885
Image of Steamship office and drug store in Nome, Alaska, circa 1903
Photograph

Steamship office and drug store in Nome, Alaska, circa 1903

By late fall 1899, reports of gold strikes at Nome gained enough credibility to draw gold seekers from Dawson. Some 2,500 people left Dawson for Nome, traveling by river or trail. Once the word was out in Seattle and elsewhere, the small settlement grew quickly.This photo shows a commercial building in Nome sometime between 1900 and 1905. A drugstore and…
ID Number:SHS7900
Date:Circa 1903
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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.
Address: 860 Terry Ave N, Seattle WA, 98109
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