1
2020 Washington State Topic List
Washington State Historical Society
Each year National History Day selects a theme to help students direct their research, and the 2020 theme is Breaking Barriers in History. This topic guide lists notable people and events of Washington State history. It shares where to find primary sources and suggests which search terms to use. Reference the logo guide to find which organizations have relevant items in their collections.
2
Logo Guide for Local and National Archives National Archives, Pacific Alaska Region
University of Washington Libraries
Washington State Library
Washington State Archives
Center for Pacific Northwest Studies
White River Valley Museum
Providence Archives, Seattle
Wing Luke Museum
Museum of History and Industry
Washington State Historical Society
Washington State University Libraries
3
Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture
Seattle Public Library
Whitman College
Spokane Public Library
Centralia Timberland Public Library
National Archives and Records Administration
Susan B. Anthony House
Lewis and Clark College Library
Library of Congress
Oregon Historical Society Research Library
4
Mourning Dove Publishes Cogewea
Mourning Dove was the pen name of Christine Quintasket, an Interior Salish author who collected tribal stories among the Northern Plateau peoples. Her novel Cogewea is the first known published novel by a Native American woman.
Mourning Dove, Washington State University Library
Search terms: Mourning Dove, Christine Quintasket, Cogewea
5
Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart
Esther Pariseau entered the convent of the Sisters of Charity of Providence in 1843, taking the name “Joseph” in honor of her father. In 1856 Mother Joseph arrived with four sisters in Fort Vancouver, after Bishop A.M.A. Blanchet requested assistance. Under Mother Joseph’s leadership more than thirty hospitals, schools, and homes were opened for orphans, the elderly, and the sick in the Pacific Northwest.
Search terms: Esther Pariseau, Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart
6
Cannery Workers’ and Farmers’ Union Local 18257
From 1898 to 1946 the Philippines was a U.S. Territory. During these decades, Filipino laborers immigrated to the U.S. mainland to work in salmon canneries and harvest fields. In 1933, a few community members of Seattle formed the Cannery Workers’ and Farm Laborers’ Union Local 18257. It was the first Filipino-led union organized in the United States.
Search terms: Filipino Cannery Workers, Filipino Americans, Silme Domingo, Gene Viernes
7
Federal Theatre Project, Seattle Division
The Federal Theater Project employed artists and theatre professionals during the Great Depression and exposed many Americans to live theatre for the first time. Seattle had four theatre units separated by content and segregated by race. Its African American Unit, the Negro Repertory Theatre, gained a reputation for its experimental Federal Theatre Project, Seattle productions and was considered University of Washington Library one of the best units in the nation.
Search terms: Federal Theater Project, Federal Negro Theater Project, Pauline C. White, Sara Oliver Jackson, Joseph I. Staton, Washington State Theatre, Seattle Repertory Playhouse
8
The Boldt Decision
In the 1850s a series of treaties were passed that established the parameters in which settlers could populate lands traditionally occupied by Native Americans. The treaties also granted the tribes the right to continue fishing in their accustomed locations and traditional ways. As the human population increased, the fish populations decreased. And the State of Washington sought to regulate tribal fishing as it did commercial fishing, violating the treaty rights. In 1974 the United States sued the State of Washington on behalf of the tribes to uphold the treaties. Judge George Boldt oversaw the case.
Search terms: Indian Treaties, Indian Fishing, Commercial Fishing, George Boldt, Fish Wars, Indian Affairs
9
African American Pioneers of Washington State
Some of the earliest frontiersmen in the Pacific Northwest were African American. And by the 1850s African American pioneers, like George Washington Bush, settled in Washington State as an attempt to escape racial prejudices. He and his family settled in what is now Tumwater.
Search terms: George Washington (founder of Centralia), George Washington Bush, Bush Prairie James E. Chase, Hagin Family
10
Dr. Nettie Asberry, Musician and Activist
Dr. Nettie Craig Asberry opened doors for African American women through social activism, in the early twentieth century. She was the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D., which she earned from the Kansas Conservatory of Music and Elocution in 1883. She was also a founding member of the Tacoma NAACP.
Dr. Nettie Asberry, Washington State Historical Society
Search terms: Nettie Asberry, Tacoma NAACP
11
The Founding of Pike Place Market
At the turn of the twentieth century in Seattle, farmers sold their produce to wholesalers who in turn sold the goods to consumers. Occasionally farmers made a profit, but often only broke even or lost money. When Pike Place Market opened in 1907 it bypassed the wholesalers and high prices and connected farmers directly with consumers at an affordable cost.
Search terms: Pike Place Market, farms, agriculture, Wesley C. Uhlman, Victor Steinbrueck, George R. Bartholick,
12
May Arkwright Hutton and Emma Smith Devoe, Frenemies Fight for Women’s Right to Vote
In 1909 both May Arkwright Hutton and Emma Smith Devoe agreed that women in Washington deserved the right to vote. They did not, however, agree on the campaign methods to win that right. Divided by mountains and ideologies, Hutton and Devoe had to work past personal differences in order to secure women’s suffrage.
Search terms: May Arkwright Hutton, Emma Smith Devoe, Washington Equal Suffrage Association, National American Woman Suffrage Association
13
Suffragists and the Mountaineers Summit Mount Rainier
In July 1909 Washington suffragists and members of The Mountaineers jointly climbed Mount Rainier and planted a “Votes for Women” pennant at the summit. The expedition brought major publicity to the women’s suffrage movement in
Washington State. On summit of Mount Rainier. Washington State Historical Society
Search terms: Asahel Curtis, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton King, Edmond Meany, the Mountaineers, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Washington Equal Suffrage Association, National American Woman Suffrage Association
14
Susan B. Anthony and Abigail Scott Duniway Tour the Pacific Northwest
In 1871 women’s rights leaders Susan B. Anthony and Abigail Scott Duniway toured the Pacific Northwest, on a campaign for women’s suffrage in Washington Territory. Duniway was a leading activist in Oregon, founding the first women’s rights newspaper in the Northwest, The New Northwest. She also served as Anthony’s tour manager in Washington, studying how to run a suffrage campaign.
Search terms: Susan B. Anthony, Abigail Scott Duniway, The New Northwest, National American Woman Suffrage Association, Washington Equal Suffrage Association
15
The Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was a historic wagon route that connected the Missouri River to Oregon. It was laid by fur traders and trappers from about 1811 to 1840 and transferred about 400,000 settlers westward. Ezra Meeker, Marcus Whitman, and Arthur A. Denny are all famous pioneers of Washington to travel the Oregon Trail.
Search terms: The Oregon Trail, Ezra Meeker, Marcus Whitman, Arthur A. Denny