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HomeCollections and ResearchCollections Search

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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.

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.

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506 results for: Government and Public Services

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Image of Farm near Seattle Electric Power Plant, Georgetown, 1907
Photograph

Farm near Seattle Electric Power Plant, Georgetown, 1907

This view of Georgetown looks across a farm to the Seattle Electrical Power Plant in the distance. Handwritten on verso: Georgetown from Graham Ave looking West. Seattle Electric Power Plant 1907.
ID Number:1974.5868.233
Date:1907
Image of Major John C. Gotwals, Seattle, March 30, 1926
Photograph

Major John C. Gotwals, Seattle, March 30, 1926

In 1912, President William H. Taft created the Alaska Railway Commission to study the feasibility of rail transport in the northern territory. Two years later Congress authorized construction of the Alaska Railroad. Major John C. Gotwals, an Army Corps engineer, was a member of the Alaska Engineering Commission that oversaw completion of the 470-mile segment between Fairbanks and Seward. The…
ID Number:1974.5923.143
Date:1926
Image of Puget Power & Light payment to King County Sheriff Matt Starwich, Seattle, circa 1924
Photograph

Puget Power & Light payment to King County Sheriff Matt Starwich, Seattle, circa 1924

This image documents a payment from Puget Power and Light to King County Sherriff Matt Starwich. Above is a reproduction of a Puget Power and Light check for over $655,000 made out to Starwich signed by Puget Power and Light President A.W. Leonard. The photo below shows Starwich accepting the check.The mock up is part of a collection from McBride…
ID Number:1974.5923.181
Date:Circa 1924
Image of NOAA ocean survey ship Oceanographer, Seattle, 1974
Photograph

NOAA ocean survey ship Oceanographer, Seattle, 1974

NOAAS Oceanographer (R 101), originally USC&GS Oceanographer (OSS O1), was an American Oceanographer-class oceanographic research vessel in service in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1966 to 1970 and in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 1996. She served as flagship of both the Coast and Geodetic Survey and NOAA fleets. During her 30…
ID Number:1974.5946.1
Date:1974
Image of Gus Carlson's machinists union dues book, 1919-1923
Logbook

Gus Carlson's machinists union dues book, 1919-1923

The Seattle General Strike was a work stoppage by more than 65,000 workers in Seattle from February 6-11, 1919. The strike began in shipyards when workers were refused pay increases after two years of World War I wage controls. Most of the city's 110 local unions joined the walkout in solidarity with the shipyard workers. Although the strike was non-violent…
ID Number:1977.6478.2
Date:1919-1923
Image of Men with mail sacks and mail truck outside Washington Mutual Savings Bank, circa 1941
Photograph

Men with mail sacks and mail truck outside Washington Mutual Savings Bank, circa 1941

Men, probably Washington Mutual employees, pose with a U.S. postal worker near a mail truck being loaded with sacks containing interest payments outside the Washington Mutual Savings Bank building at 1101 Second Avenue, Seattle. Washington Mutual (WaMu) was incorporated as the Washington National Building Loan and Investment Association on Sept 25, 1889. It grew to be the United States' largest…
ID Number:1979.6747.77
Date:Circa 1941
Image of Temporary Ration Card No. 33726, 1962
Ephemera

Temporary Ration Card No. 33726, 1962

Temporary ration cards were distributed to residents of Washington State by the Department of Civil Defense to prepare for the possibility of nuclear war or other emergencies. Applications for emergency ration cards were included with electricity bills and returned by residents voluntarily. The State Department of Civil Defense processed the applications and issued cards to the applicants with food and…
ID Number:1980.7023.21
Date:1962
Image of Passengers on board the ship Patterson, Seattle, October 16, 1917
Photograph

Passengers on board the ship Patterson, Seattle, October 16, 1917

Born in Georgia, cartographer Clifford Gordon Quillian (1880-1948) first came to Seattle in 1907. He married Cora Elizabeth Armstrong (1888-1957) in 1912, served with the U.S. Navy in the Philippines, WWI, and WWII, was the commander of various ships in the United States Coast Guard and Geodesic Survey, and was a chartered life-insurance underwriter.In this image, a group of passengers…
ID Number:1980.7038.302
Date:1917
Image of Rev. Robert E. Dunlap's letter from Mayor J.T. Ronald, October 3, 1893
Correspondence

Rev. Robert E. Dunlap's letter from Mayor J.T. Ronald, October 3, 1893

Judge J. T. Ronald served the Seattle community for well over sixty years. He and his wife, Rhoda, moved to Seattle in 1882 with Ronald beginning his long law career the next year when appointed King County Deputy District Attorney. Ronald served as U.S. District Attorney of King, Kitsap, and Snohomish counties, was Seattle mayor in 1892, and had a…
ID Number:1980.7046.1
Date:1893
Image of City of Seattle local improvement tax receipt, 1903
Ephemera

City of Seattle local improvement tax receipt, 1903

This January 8, 1903, receipt from the City of Seattle's Treasury Department was issued to a Jennie Kinney for a payment of $6.43. The fee was for the Local Improvement Tax, used to create roads, pavement, and sidewalks in Seattle. This payment was for Lot Six, Block Three, and the Street was Broadway and DeForest for the Nagles Addition. It…
ID Number:1981.7191.6.6
Date:1903
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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
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