Archives Gazette
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ARCHIVES GAZETTE City of Seattle Office of the City Clerk Seattle Municipal Archives Number 66 Winter 2018 Legislative Department Out of the Archives Seattle at 150 Years A researcher visited the Archives recently Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the looking for materials documenting the original incorporation of the City of Seattle. The Municipal construction and planning of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Archives has partnered with HistoryLink to produce a We’ve seen questions about the viaduct increase over publication rich with images showcasing the City’s the past several months, perhaps not surprisingly as history and the SMA’s own collections on a wide Seattleites prepare for the viaduct’s closing and the range of themes. opening of the replacement SR 99 tunnel. The publication will include documents, Among the many reports, subject files, maps, photographs, maps and more illustrating events, photographs, and other related records we have in our projects and people that engage the reader in the holdings are a series of original pencil drawings from City’s history. The concept for the publication is to 1948 showing the viaduct as envisioned the year before tell the history of the City in 150 objects. Staff and construction began. writers are hard at work. Stay tuned for updates. Newly Processed Collections One of several new collections recently processed at SMA are Bicycle Program Records from the Seattle Department of Transportation (Series 8105-01). Covering the years 1987 to 2000, these records document plans and programs to create a bicycle- friendly city by making it more accessible to bicycles. Records include proposals, plans, and sketches of streets and trails. The series also has Alaskan Way Viaduct drawings, 1948. some records of the Engineering Department Maps and Drawings (Series 2613-01), SMA. Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board, The drawings are from the City’s Engineering established in 1987 Department, and show the viaduct from several and active until different angles and locations. Some even include 2000. details of buildings, cars, and streets. Another A report issued that year by the Engineering recently processed Vehicle Volume Summary for Stone Way N. & Department regarding preliminary plans for the record series is N. 45th St. as of July 17, 1990. Alaskan Way viaduct gives many additional details, made up of Zoning Bicycle Program Records (8105-01), SMA. even including recommended speed. “It should be Policy Map Change emphasized that the term free-way does not mean Requests for the years 1979-1982 (Series 4605-04). speed-way,” it cautions, “and there is no thought that a As part of widespread zoning updates in the 1980s, speed limit in excess of 35 miles an hour will be either the City created a policy map. This series reflects desirable or tolerable on the Alaskan Way freeway at appeals to specific portions of the map submitted by any point in its entire length.” (Alaskan Way Viaduct: residents. Arranged by neighborhood, each request Report on Preliminary Plans, June 1948. Document includes a form with location, current zoning, 198968, SMA.) proposed zoning, petitioner's request, staff Our researcher was happy to find these and recommendation, reason for request, community many other resources for her topic here at SMA, and response, staff discussion, and final decision. Maps we’re happy we can make them available for her and and correspondence for each case are also included. others! (cont’d next page) 2 (newly processed, cont’d) Moving Image Preservation Grant Also newly available for research are Seattle The Municipal Archives is pleased to be Arts Newsletters published participating in a grant Moving Image Preservation by the Seattle Arts of Puget Sound (MIPoPS) received from the National Commission between 1977 Historical Records and Publications Commission and 2002 (Series 7400-04), (NHPRC). containing updates on arts Titled Visualizing History in the Pacific Northwest: projects in the City, articles Saving Our Magnetic Media, the project is providing about local artists, minutes public access to historical records that broaden public of the commission, and understanding of democracy, history and culture in the more. Pacific Northwest. MIPoPS was formed to help preserve A substantial audiovisual heritage in the Pacific Northwest by number of boxes have also assisting heritage organizations with the conversion of been added to an existing analog video recordings to digital formats according to series, the Board of Parks Seattle Arts Newsletter, April 1993. archival best practices. Commissioners Subject Seattle Arts Newsletters (7400-04), SMA. SMA will be digitizing the magnetic media in Files (Series 5800-07). Containing correspondence, the Seattle Channel collection. Seattle Channel reports, briefing materials, clippings, plans, agendas, programming narrates the political, social, and cultural minutes, flyers and photographs, this series is a great fabric of Seattle’s history in the last thirty years, a period resource for information on parks projects and topics of of intense change, both in terms of infrastructure and interest to the Board. the built environment and its social landscape. Programming includes topics such as homelessness, race relations, public safety, the arts and environmental New! Crowdsourcing at SMA issues. Created from 1980 to 2010, there are 400 videotapes in the collection representing an estimated SMA is happy to announce the launch of a new 400 hours of content. The tapes are in a variety of crowdsourcing project for transcribing early City formats including DVCAM, VHS, 1-inch Type C, Digital- records. The project is available at https:// Betacam, Betacam SP, ¾” U-matic and D-2. Volunteer fromthepage.com/sma-archives/city-of-seattle-records. Jennifer Zook will be working with audiovisual archivist All are welcome to participate! Simply create a free Libby Hopfauf on the Seattle Channel Collection. account, select a page to transcribe, and follow the brief transcription guidelines provided. Records ready for transcription include Welcome Libby Hopfauf! petitions and letters submitted to City agencies and officials, as well as early legislative records such as City SMA is pleased to announce the addition of a Council minutes and ordinances. Most date from the half-time audiovisual archivist to our staff, Libby 1870s to the 1890s and contain glimpses into the lives Hopfauf. Libby has worked as a temporary employee in and activities of a quickly growing Seattle. The petition various capacities for several years and we are thrilled to shown here was signed by over 100 residents have her on board as a permanent employee. She works requesting ordinances prohibiting the sale of milk from as Program Manager for Moving Image Preservation of cows fed malt Puget Sound as well, which is housed in the Office of the leftover from City Clerk, so she will wear two hats. breweries, as they believed such milk caused disease. In addition to recording the function of government, the Can you read this handwriting? If so, you can help! document shows General File 991067, July 9, 1891, SMA. how residents engaged with their City through their own words, intent, and signatures. Maybe you’ll see a name you recognize! Once the records are transcribed, the full content of each page will be searchable in our Digital Libby graduated from the University of Collections site so others can find names, places, and Washington with a Master’s in Library and Information events they recognize, too. The project is currently in a Science in March 2015. She has trained many in the trial period, and we plan to continue adding documents process of digitizing magnetic media and worked as demand increases. Please join us in helping to make extensively with SMA’s audio collection and Seattle City these records more accessible to all! Light’s moving images. Welcome Libby! 3 Recently Processed Photos Guide to the Comprehensive Plan Consumer Protection Photographs (Series 2705 Among the more frequently asked questions -03) from the Weights and Measures Division have here at the Archives are those relating to City zoning been processed and are available for research. and planning efforts, both past and present. The division was established in 1911 in the To help answer these questions, we’ve added a new Department of Public Utilities and included a chief Guide to the Comprehensive Plan on our website, inspector, two assistant inspectors, and a bookkeeper/ which outlines Seattle’s earliest to most recent stenographer. Spanning 6 decades (1910-1960s), this planning efforts, and traces how the plans have shaped collection shows the City we know today. Also included in the guide are the work of the links to digitized copies of records such as planning and zoning commission reports, meeting minutes, Inspector at desk, estimated 1960s. maps, and other related original documents. Item 191681, SMA. inspectors, who were responsible for checking loads of firewood, weighing coal deliveries, testing taximeters, inspecting oil pumps, and verifying the net contents of packaged goods. Similar functions are now performed by the Consumer Protection unit of the Department of Finance and Administrative Services. The 189 digitized image records showcase an assortment of early to mid-century vehicles including taxis, sight-seeing cars and busses, ambulances, and tow trucks. Early photos show lumber wagons from a number of well-known companies carrying firewood, as well as inspectors in A segment of Seattle’s first Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in 1957 and the field and presented by the Seattle Planning Commission in the form of an illustrated map. various Map 1753, Engineering Department Maps and Drawings (2613-01), SMA. types of confiscated scales and 83 Years Ago: The “canoe menace” other equipment. In 1935, Kenneth Gilbert wrote to City Councilmember Austin Griffiths about his concerns relating to small pleasure craft in the city's lakes and Room full of harbor. He writes: “Newspaper accounts of the near- confiscated scales, drowning of three boys clinging to an overturned canoe 1915.