Seattle's 1939 Potlatch Festival opened July 25 and ran for five days. Its Golden Jubilee theme celebrated Washington's 50 years of statehood. Events included a Western horse show, an original play on the history of Seattle, visiting warships, a beauty contest and three parades. On the last day of the festival, an estimated 300,000 people lined the streets and watched from windows during the main street parade.

The name “Potlatch” appropriates a Chinook Jargon word describing a Native ceremony of celebration and gift giving. Seattle's Golden Potlatch Festival ran from 1911 to 1914 and was revived as the Potlatch Festival from 1934 to 1941. Many organizers and participants in the Potlatch dressed in stereotyped imitations of traditional Native attire, as part of a created Potlatch myth. The appropriation of Native culture in order to market products or events was one common example of discrimination and marginalization faced by Native peoples in the United States.

Signs in image read: State of Washington Golden Jubilee - Welcome. Gold Fish. Ex-Lax. 2nd Ave Drug Co. Visit our fountain. Hotel St. Regis.
Handwritten on image: Seattle Potlatch, 39.
Handwritten on sleeve: Potlatch - Seattle - 1939 (parade).