The Washington State Historical Society collects material associated with the human history of
Washington State. Our mission is to preserve our history and tell the stories of our state
and its people. The collections include many different kinds of artifacts, among them are
tools, clothing, machines, furniture, artwork, toys, household items, and American Indian artifacts. We also hold an extensive archival collection of photographs, manuscripts, maps, ephemera, and publications.
Our collections are diverse. You can examine a map of the North Pacific in the 17th century,
a Yakama woman's basketry cap, a suffragette's yellow sash reading "Votes for Women,"
a painting by Gustav Sohon of the 1855 treaty council at Walla Walla, a photograph of a Makah
whale hunt, a pioneer woman's pinafore, an 1892 broadside reading "The Chinese Must Go!,
" a large flaked point from the East Wenatchee Clovis site, and Governor Isaac Stevens
sword and epaulets. All of these things and many more fascinating artifacts are available
for viewing in these online collections.
Collections Highlights
features artifacts and images from the Washington State Historical Society Collections. The WSHS Collections currently include
artifacts, ephemera, books, maps, manuscript collections, photographs and negatives, and
"born digital" items.
Finding aids
are the keys to our manuscript holdings. They give the
background of a collection, what the scope and content of a collection is, and provide a listing
of the folders, often with more detailed description.
The Washington State Historical Society announces new opportunities for companies with digital scanning services to sponsor one or more of the Society's permanent collections. Any company which offers commercial scanning or digital imaging services may be eligible to work in partnership with the Society's Collections Department, to create digital images from one of more of the historical photography collections encompassing over 600,000 original prints and negatives, or other Special Collections archived at the Washington State History Research Center facility in Tacoma.
More Information
The Women's History Consortium includes women's history materials from the Consortium Partners:
- Washington State Historical Society
- Eastern Washington State Historical Society
(Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture)
- Washington State University
- University of Washington
- Central Washington University
- Eastern Washington University
- Western Washington University
- Washington State Archives
- Washington State Library
Our
curricular materials are intended to serve public, private, and homeschool teachers
working with elementary, middle, or high school students. To encourage the teaching of history
in an interdisciplinary fashion, our lesson plans incorporate not only history but also civics,
geography, language arts, science, math, or art. These curricula were designed to help students
to achieve state learning requirements appropriate to their grade level and may also be used to
fulfill a Classroom-Based Assessment.