The first city partnership between a US and a Soviet city, the official Seattle-Tashkent sister city relationship was established in 1973 but was preceded by ties that began in 1961 between the University of Washington and academic institutions in Tashkent.

In this image volunteers from Seattle show off the completed Earth Mound, a mosaic of the Earth viewed from the North Pole. The sculpture is located in Tashkent at Friendship Park (or Seattle-Tashkent Peace Park, or Babur Park). The park, a gift from the City of Seattle, was dedicated simultaneously in Seattle and Tashkent via telephone on September 12, 1988.

Caption information source: "Seattle-Tashkent Peace Park in Uzbekistan is dedicated in Tashkent and at Seattle Center on September 12, 1988," by Priscilla Long, HistoryLink.org Essay 3595
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.