• 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

506 results for: Government and Public Services

Share:
Videorecording

Human Rights: The Constitution and Public Access, Community Television Agency program, July 12, 1989

Started in 1976 by Virginia Brookbush, CTA produced up to seven half-hour public access television shows a week in the late 1970s and 1980s. Designed to let anyone use public air time to talk about local issues, CTA produced regular shows like "You Have the Right to Know," "Community Bulletin Board," "Visiting Over the Backyard Fence," "This Town's Talent," and…
ID Number:2021.84.21
Date:1989
Image of
Scrapbook

"The Legislation Needed," Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer, November 20, 1885

Seattle's earliest Chinese residents are believed to have arrived in the early 1860s, and while welcomed at first for the role they played in the region's development, Chinese immigrants were not allowed to vote and were subjected to numerous laws that restricted their rights. In the mid-1870s and early 1880s the national economy took a downturn, increasingly leading white workers…
ID Number:2022.3.3.16.2
Date:1885
Image of Fireboat Snoqualmie, Seattle, circa 1900
Photograph

Fireboat Snoqualmie, Seattle, circa 1900

Sign in image: Steamers Utopia and Starr Leave This Dock Daily at 2 P.M. for Whatcom, Anacortes and BlaineCaption on image: S.P.CoPhotographer's Reference Number: 1080
ID Number:Lib1988.33.41
Date:Circa 1900
Image of Building 50 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, circa 1898
Photograph

Building 50 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, circa 1898

Building 50 was built in 1896 and initially served as the Administrative Headquarters for the Puget Sound Naval Station (now the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility). The building is still standing today and has been moved a total of three times throughout its life. It is now owned by the City of Bremerton and is the building…
ID Number:Lib1988.33.43
Date:Circa 1898
Image of City Hall, Seattle, circa 1898
Photograph

City Hall, Seattle, circa 1898

In 1882, the government of King County occupied a wood frame courthouse at Third Avenue, between Jefferson Street and Yesler Way in downtown Seattle. In 1890, the county offices moved up the hill to a new courthouse near the present site of Harborview Hospital and sold the old building to the city of Seattle. It was used as a city…
ID Number:Lib1988.33.48
Date:Circa 1898
Image of Fire Station No. 3, Seattle, circa 1898
Photograph

Fire Station No. 3, Seattle, circa 1898

Caption on image: Wilse.Photographer's Reference Number: 593C
ID Number:Lib1988.33.86
Date:Circa 1898
Image of Staff outside U.S. Assay Office, Seattle, circa 1899
Photograph

Staff outside U.S. Assay Office, Seattle, circa 1899

The United States monetary system used to be on the gold standard. People used gold coins, as well as paper currency which was backed by gold. When gold started arriving in Seattle from the Klondike in 1898, the government opened an assay office to buy gold and to certify its purity.This photo shows the U.S. Assay Office and its staff.…
ID Number:Lib1988.33.163
Date:Circa 1899
Image of Wharf and beach homes on waterfront, Seattle, circa 1895
Photograph

Wharf and beach homes on waterfront, Seattle, circa 1895

Predating the settlement that became the city of Seattle, the Duwamish had an encampment with two longhouses situated along the north central waterfront, roughly at the intersection of present-day Bell Street and Alaskan Way. By around the 1860s, the longhouses were gone, leaving only modest beach structures. In the 1890s the waterfront from Pike Street north to Broad Street had…
ID Number:Lib1991.5.78
Date:Circa 1895
Image of Seagulls at Montlake Landfill, Seattle, 1955
Photograph

Seagulls at Montlake Landfill, Seattle, 1955

The Montlake Dump (known variously as the Ravenna Dump, University Dump, Union Bay Dump, and the Montlake Landfill) was used as a garbage dump by the city of Seattle for over 40 years, until it closed in 1966. Photographer Josef Scaylea capture this view of one of the sanitation workers surrounded by seagulls in 1955.Scaylea (1913-2004) worked for 35 years…
ID Number:Lib1993.20.170
Date:1955
Image of Fireboat Alki in Elliott Bay, Seattle, 1949
Photograph

Fireboat Alki in Elliott Bay, Seattle, 1949

Photographer Josef Scaylea (1913-2004) worked for 35 years as chief photographer for the Seattle Times, winning over 1000 awards for his photographs highlighting the scenery and people in the Pacific Northwest. He donated a collection of his photographs and photography equipment to MOHAI in 1993.Scaylea took this photo of the Fireboat Alki in 1949, and wrote, "The old Alki, the…
ID Number:Lib1993.20.296
Date:1949
Previous 1 … 44 45 46 47 48 … 51 Next

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