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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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768 results for: Businesses and Corporations

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Image of Waterfront building at Kirkland woolen mill, circa 1905
Photograph

Waterfront building at Kirkland woolen mill, circa 1905

Edward Eyanson organized Washington state's first woolen mill at Kirkland in 1892. The mill was built on the shore of Lake Washington, and workers used its pure waters in the cleaning and dyeing processes.This photo, taken sometime between 1900 and 1910, shows one of the buildings at the woolen mill at Kirkland, Washington. SHS category: Mills
ID Number:SHS9278
Date:Circa 1905
Image of Dredge at Solomon River, Alaska, circa 1900
Photograph

Dredge at Solomon River, Alaska, circa 1900

By 1901, many of Alaska's small scale mining operations had been replaced by large industrial mining companies. Many of these companies used large steam-powered dredges to scoop up the gravel from creekbeds. This photo, taken around 1900, shows a dredge belonging to the Three Friends Mining Co. working the Solomon River, Alaska. Original title: Three Friends Mining Co. dredge Solomon…
ID Number:SHS9546
Date:Circa 1900
Image of Hydraulic mining at Glacier Creek, near Nome, Alaska, circa 1904
Photograph

Hydraulic mining at Glacier Creek, near Nome, Alaska, circa 1904

By 1904, many of the gold mining claims around Nome, Alaska, were owned and operated by large mining companies. That year, the Miocene Ditch Company used hydraulic mining techniques at Price Bros. claim No. 2 below the original strike on Glacier Creek.This photo shows the Miocene Ditch Company's hydraulic mining operations at Glacier Creek, near Nome. A high powered stream…
ID Number:SHS9547
Date:Circa 1904
Image of Second Avenue sidewalk during the gold rush, 1899
Photograph

Second Avenue sidewalk during the gold rush, 1899

After news of gold strikes in the Klondike region reached Seattle in 1897, many local businesses boomed by selling specialty goods to the miners.This 1899 photo shows Seattle pedestrians walking by several outfitters on Second Avenue. Sleds lean against the outside walls of the buildings. Striped woolen blankets are stacked below a sign directing people upstairs to the Mosquito-Proof Tent…
ID Number:SHS9551
Date:1899
Image of Members of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, circa 1904
Photograph

Members of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, circa 1904

The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce was founded on April 17, 1882, by a group of 26 business and community leaders, to devise a way to win a $12,000 annual mail route to Alaska over a competing San Francisco steamship company. The Chamber's first decade was dominated by the fight to obtain a railroad for Seattle. Chamber founders Thomas Burke,…
ID Number:SHS9796
Date:Circa 1904
Image of Aerial view of Bethlehem Pacific Steel plant, Seattle, 1954
Photograph

Aerial view of Bethlehem Pacific Steel plant, Seattle, 1954

In 1903, William Pigott (1860-1929) formed Seattle Steel Company (later Pacific Coast Steel Co., then Bethlehem Steel Co., now Nucor Steel) on 55 acres of the Duwamish River estuary tide flats in Humphrey (later Youngstown, now the North Delridge neighborhood of Seattle). Operations began on May 4, 1905, and the Seattle Sunday Times proclaimed the plant "Seattle's Little Pittsburgh."In this image…
ID Number:SHS11316
Date:1954
Image of PT&T operators working at Garfield Exchange, Seattle, 1951
Photograph

PT&T operators working at Garfield Exchange, Seattle, 1951

Telephone service in Seattle began with 90 customers in 1883. One of Seattle's original service providers, Sunset Telephone-Telegraph Company (later Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, then AT&T) built a new exchange building in 1921 to help handle what was by then 83,347 customers, making half-a-million local telephone calls every day. The Garfield Exchange was built on Queen Anne Hill at…
ID Number:SHS11511
Date:1951
Image of Wallace Bridge & Structural Steel employees, Seattle, March 4, 1930
Photograph

Wallace Bridge & Structural Steel employees, Seattle, March 4, 1930

John Duthie opened a small shipyard in Seattle around 1900. By 1930, Duthie & Company had changed its focus and renamed itself Wallace Bridge & Structural Steel Company. The Wallace plant fabricated structural steel for a number of bridges in Washington state, including Seattle’s Montlake Bridge (1925), the Lewis & Clark Bridge over the Columbia River (1929), and the Deception…
ID Number:SHS12521
Date:1930
Image of James and Ethel Stout with their delivery wagon in front of Stout Grocery, Seattle, circa 1913
Photograph

James and Ethel Stout with their delivery wagon in front of Stout Grocery, Seattle, circa 1913

James Albert Stout (1877-1962) moved to Seattle with his wife Henrietta Ethel Wilson (1876-1958) in 1910 from Michigan. They settled on Phinney Ridge in 1912 and bought a grocery store at 359 West 75th Street and later a garage and service station at 7208 Greenwood Avenue North.This image shows Ethel and James standing with their horse and delivery wagon in…
ID Number:SHS15724
Date:Circa 1913
Image of William B. Mullin Plumbing advertisement, circa 1901
Ephemera

William B. Mullin Plumbing advertisement, circa 1901

William B. Mullin (circa 1875-1945) was a contractor and Secretary of the Plumbers' Union and early settler of Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. This advertisement highlights high-grade plumbing and repair work provided by his business at 1903 First Avenue in downtown Seattle. Caption source information: "Mrs. William B. Mullin Dies at 80," The Seattle Times, January 17, 1955, p. 34.
ID Number:SHS15827
Date:Circa 1901
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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
Phone: 206 324 1126
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