Hazel Wolf: Washington State Environmentalist

Hazel Wolf (far right) with others looking at field guide, Seattle Audubon Society Field Day, May 1966.

March is Women’s History Month.  The life of Hazel Anna Wolf (1898-2000), longtime environmentalist and political activist, is an example of the highest personal contributions made by a Washington State woman to community service.  When Wolf died at the age of 101, more than 900 of her friends and acquaintances crowded Seattle’s Town Hall to honor her memory and share the outrageous “Hazel stories” they had collected over the years.

As a youngster, Hazel Wolf caroused in the salt water of the Gorge in the inlet intersecting Victoria, British Columbia.  Her daily playing, swimming, and rough-housing with friends translated into an equally action-packed adulthood of fighting for human rights, feminism, labor, and environmental protection.  Wolf was a prominent member of the Seattle Audubon Society, served as its secretary for over 35 years, and was awarded the National Audubon Society’s Medal of Excellence in 1997.  She frequently lectured at schools and universities across the nation, lobbied Congress on many environmental and peace issues, and corresponded with global leaders.  Wolf also revitalized the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs and edited the organizations newsletter, “Outdoors West.”  In addition to these and many other activities, she laid groundwork for a unique coalition of Native Americans and environmentalists who began working together on issues relating to nuclear energy, fisheries, and oil pipelines.

Part of Hazel Wolf’s success had to do with getting people to laugh.  She had a knack for telling short stories that were full of anecdotes and one-liners and ended with a punch line.  Wolf admitted that she often wondered where those one-liners came from:  “They just pop into my head and out […]  It’s part of fighting the establishment, I think.”  In Hazel Wolf:  Fighting the Establishment (University of Washington Press, 2002), Susan Starbuck, biographer, follows Wolf’s “lifetime of burning with a fierce desire for justice […] Whether organizing for labor rights or founding chapters of the Audubon society, battling to save old-growth forests or fighting deportation to her native Canada as a Communist, over and over she put herself in the line of fire.  ‘I was just there,’ Wolf said, ‘powerless and strong, someone who wouldn’t chicken out.’”

Preliminary Guide to the Hazel Wolf Papers 1916-2000

Image credit: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division, Seattle Audubon Society Photograph Collection, PH Coll 671.

Submitted by Chery

Mystics among us

A few months ago, Nicolette Bromberg (Visual Materials Curator @ UW Special Collections) brought in a collection of photographs from Richard M. Kovak of the Nile Shrine Center in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. The collection documents the membership and activities of Seattle Shriners (members of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Nile Temple).

According to the history on the Nile Shrine website, the AAONMS (an offshoot of Freemasonry) was “originally established [in 1872] to provide fun and fellowship for its members.” The Nile Temple of Seattle was formed by splitting off from the Afifi Temple of Tacoma in 1908; the following photograph was probably taken around that time.

Officers of Seattle

In elaborate costumes, these Shriners certainly appear to be enjoying fun and fellowship!

A major portion of the collection consists of member portraits, many of them identified. In most portraits, the member wears a fez hat which is decorated with the title of that member’s role or office, such as “Recorder” and “Potentate.” There is also a series of panoramic group photographs which show how membership and customs changed over the first half of the twentieth century.

Later snapshots collected in photo albums show the Shriners’ social and community activities, such as their participation in the children’s hospitals they fund, visits to schools, and their appearances in local parades, often dressed in homemade costumes of “Disnay” characters like Pinocchio and Mickey Mouse.

The collection is unprocessed and unsorted, but a preliminary finding aid is available.

Seattle Archives Fair: Part Two

Seattle Archives Fair 2009

PNW Blog paid a flying visit last Friday to the Archives Fair, which was held for the first time in the dramatic setting provided by SPL’s Central Library.  By all accounts, the event was even better attended than usual this year and deemed a real success.  Kudos to the organizers and all participants!  And come back soon, Hannah!

Scott C. Bone manuscript, correspondence, and other materials

Portrait of Alaska Territorial Governor Scott C. Bone

Recent additions to the University of Washington Special Collections include .21 cubic feet of materials relating to Scott C. (Cardelle) Bone, 1860-1936, a past editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and governor of Alaska Territory from 1921-25.  Nellie L. Bruce of Tehachapi, California made the gift in August of this year;  it supplements an earlier donation of Scott C. Bone items, dating 1909-1920.

According to the New York City American Press [December 1920], Scott C. Bone was, first and foremost, a newspaperman who firmly believed in government using paid newspaper advertising to talk to the people.  He was “a curious chap [with] a mild, genial personality,” and his enigmatic smile was likened to that of da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.”  Bone was further described as a man who could not easily be disturbed, but someone who could stand in the middle of a furor and calmly read his home town newspaper as if nothing else were transpiring.  A staunch and active Republican, Scott C. Bone professed that “fairness in handling political matter, in both news and editorial columns, is a prerequisite to the influence of any newspaper.”

In addition to serving as editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Scott C. Bone served as editor for the Washington Post and founded the Washington Herald, in which he wrote a tribute dated March 5, 1909 to Theodore Roosevelt after the end of his presidential term.  It was during Bone’s tenure with the P.I. that he became interested in Alaska, particularly after taking the Alaska Tour of 1913, sponsored by the Alaska Bureau of Commerce.

Newly elected Governor Bone and his family reported to Juneau and were all quite surprised to find a stately three-story New England colonial mansion among rugged surroundings.  President Harding told once told Bone:  “Why Governor, your ‘White House of the North’ is finer than my own” [Marguerite Bone Wilcox, “Memories of the Mansion:  A Governor’s Daughter Remembers Her Life in Juneau,” Alaska Journal, 1986 16: 42-47].  While in office, Scott C. Bone ordered a relay of dog teams to transport diphtheria antitoxin to Nome in order to fend off an epidemic during an outbreak of the deadly disease.  This mission is now commemorated as the popular Iditarod sled dog race.

In his later years, Scott C. Bone wrote various accounts of his Alaskan experiences, some of which are also available at Special Collections.  Well-meaning friends offered advice on Bone’s health after observing the aging newspaper mogul’s persistent sweet tooth and expanding waistline.  “You are adding weight and consuming much candy,” one wrote to him in April 1932, advising that Bone cut meats and all sugar from his diet unless he wished to meet his demise.  Four years later, Scott C. Bone died from a heart attack in Santa Barbara, California, apparently not heedful of his good friend’s advice.

Highlights of the most recent addition (1923-1932) to the Scott C. Bone collection include a manuscript:  “Hugh Hamilton:  A Tale of Two Capitals” (ca. 1930?), as well as personal and business correspondence, a brochure for a 1932 Alaska Tour, a newsletter and memorial service program for the Alaska Elks Lodge No.420, and a program, with seating chart, for a dinner held at the Gridiron Club of Washington D.C. on December 12, 1931.

Scott C Bone papers finding aid

Submitted by Chery

Image credit: Alaska State Library – Historical Collections. Alaska Territorial Governors. Photographs. ASL-PCA-274

Book Signing Tonight

Picturing the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition dust jacket cover

If you are looking for something to do this evening, why not head over to the University Bookstore?  At 7:00 pm, the Special Collections Division’s own Nicolette Bromberg will be on hand to discuss and sign copies of her new book, Picturing the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.  This lavish volume features the Visual Materials Curator’s own selection of documentary photographs by AYPE official photographer, Frank Nowell, as well as recent photographs from a project led by John Stamets in which University of Washington students rephotographed various sites of the 1909 exposition on the current UW campus.

You also can see some of Nowell’s images for yourselves at the previously mentioned installations in the University of Washington Libraries and in glorious large-scale format at Picturing the Fair, the exhibition at the Museum of History and Industry.

New additions to the Watson C. Squire papers

Additions to the Watson C. Squire Papers, given by his granddaughter, complete his story as a Civil War veteran, Territorial Governor of Washington, U.S. Senator, and Seattle real estate developer.

The University of Washington Special Collections is delighted to announce the addition of three cubic feet to the Watson C. Squire Papers; a gift from his granddaughter, Mrs. R. Hugh “Dee” Dickinson in February 2009.

Watson C. Squire was Territorial Governor of Washington from 1884 to 1887, served as President of the Ellensburg Convention for Statehood in January 1889, and was a U.S. Senator from 1889 to 1897. Prior to his political career, Squire served in the Civil War and was later employed by the Remington Arms Company. Squire came to Seattle with his wife, Ida Remington, after purchasing lands from his father-in-law, Philo Remington.  Squire developed parcels of his land, notably, the Squire’s Opera House which became the New Brunswick Hotel.   In 1889, after the great fire swept through Seattle and burned the building, the Squire-Latimer building was built. In his political career, Squire declared martial law during the Anti-Chinese Riots in 1886, and during his Senate career, was instrumental in securing funds for the Lake Washington Ship Canal.

Dee Dickinson, daughter of Shirley and Jeanne Deny Squire, generously gave the first set of Squire Papers, over nine cubic feet, in 1989. John W. Todd, of Shorey’s Bookstore, stated in his appraisal letter that “it was one of the most important, vital research collections that I have examined in over fifty years of appraising this type of thing.”

 Highlights of the recent additions include: a journal kept by Squire while he attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut ; a photograph of the Seventh Independent Company of Ohio Sharp Shooters taken at the Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 17, 1865; a two-leaf manuscript copy on parchment of the petition to the U.S. Congress for the admission of Washington Territory as a state (Special Collections holds only one other copy of this petition in the “Washington Territory Collection” but it differs slightly);  a 13-page manuscript eyewitness account of the Anti-Chinese Riots in Seattle by Squire’s wife, Ida, written on Occidental Hotel letterhead; and correspondence and other documents regarding claims of settlers against the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.

Ravenna Creek Alliance Records, 1984-2006

The Ravenna Creek Alliance (RCA), a non-profit corporation, was officially formed in Seattle in 1993 by Kit O’Neill as the result of a community effort to bring the last mile of the creek to daylight. The creek’s waters had been diverted away from Lake Washington to sewer pipes for more than forty years, and King County Metro had planned to redirect Ravenna Creek’s flow to Union Bay via subterranean pipe. RCA recruited community members, municipal and county officials, professional landscape architects and others to support the plan to resurface the creek, from Ravenna Park through University Village and down to Union Bay. RCA’s intent was to restore salmon habitat as well as re-integrate the creek as a community asset. Between 2005 and 2006, the Ravenna Creek Daylighting Project resurfaced 650 feet of Ravenna Creek under the design of Peggy Gaynor. The remainder of the creek water was piped to Union Bay.

This collection includes correspondence, minutes, financial records, research files, plans, drawings, legal documents, newsletters, photographs, ephemera and other materials. The files document RCA’s extensive campaign to daylight and restore Ravenna Creek, and related matters, from early planning stages through their culmination. Many files were created and maintained by the president of Ravenna Creek Alliance, Kit O’Neill.

Kit donated these records in June 2007, and returned last summer to assist us in appraising them, spending over 100 hours here in the division; she described the experience as “reliving the past twenty years of [her] life.” We are extremely grateful for her help and glad to have the records officially accessioned and open to the public.  To learn more about RCA, explore the organization’s website.

Cataloged Maps: “Shelved as Size ?”

You’re probably wondering what in the world is happening in B2 with the maps. What’s up with the color-coded labels? Hopefully, the color-coded labels are starting to make sense; they designate 4 Special Collection map sizes and folders:

• Orange is Size A = 6 folders fit in a drawer (if needed)
• Green is Size B = 4 folders fit in a drawer (if needed)
• Pink is Size C = 2 folders fit in a drawer
• Blue is size D = 1 large folder fits in a drawer

Before Size Notation

Before the color-coded labels appeared, you may have encountered these “find the SC map” scenarios:

1. You’ve looked up a map in the UW catalog but were unable to retrieve from its location in Special Collections. Where is it?
2. You know we have a certain map — you’ve seen it — but, it’s not in the catalog. Where is it?
3. You’ve located the LC number of the map and it’s in the top drawer in one of the B2 map cabinets. You grab the stepping stool and attempt to pull the folder out, but it’s the 3rd folder in the drawer and the ones on top of it are heavy because they’re overstuffed. You slowly wiggle the folder while pulling it a little toward you. You place the folder on your shoulder or on your head, wiggling and pulling while trying to balance the folder. And then it happens – the Mylar map sleeves are so slippery the maps slide out of the folder and onto the floor. After all of the awkward wiggling and pulling and maneuvering, your shoulder hurts and you’ve got a paper cut on your lip because the folder snapped back at your face when the maps flew out of control. You’re standing on the stool with a large empty map folder. All the maps, big and small are splayed all over the floor.

Resolving Retrieving Issues

After considering what may be a more efficient retrieval process for SC maps, Nicole had me measure the B2 map cabinet drawers. My first task was to calculate how many maps would fit in a drawer if the maps were reorganized by size and placed in appropriately fitted folders.

Ergonomically it made sense if the smaller maps were organized in the top drawers, the mid-size maps at waist height and the larger maps in the bottom drawers, there would less chance of injury to whoever is retrieving a map and less injury (damage) to the map itself by preventing it from landing on the floor.

An added value to reorganizing the maps by size was evident by the gradual appearance of empty drawers. There is now available drawer space that can accommodate uncataloged maps once they are recorded and additional room for maps that may be added to the collection in the future.

When you search for a map in the catalog and note the map’s location, make sure you note, next to the LC call number, the “Shelved as: Size” indicator. This will guide you to the correct B2 cabinet drawer for retrieving the map.

Reorganizing the cataloged maps by size does not resolve finding a map because it has been misfiled, but hopefully once everyone becomes comfortable with this process, a misfiled map may be easier to track down.

To be continued with Uncataloged Maps . . .

Submitted by Edna

Phil Lelli papers, 1933-2004, bulk 1965-2002

Phil Lelli

If you are interested in labor history in the Pacific Northwest, then you will be delighted by the rich history of International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union  (ILWU), National and Local #23 (Tacoma), documented in Phil Lelli papers.

Lelli was president of the Local #23 for 17 years, from 1966-1969, 1971-1975, and 1977-1986. He attended his first ILWU Longshore, Shipclerk, and Walking Boss Caucus in 1966. He served on various ILWU committees, including the Coast Negotiating Committee (elected in 1989), and the Pacific Coast Safety Committee as a representative of the Washington area. He also served as an ILWU delegate to New Zealand and Australia in 1983.

The papers include nicknames from the Local #23, photographs of the Propeller Club (Port of Tacoma Chapter)  ”Chowdown,” and a wonderful drawing of the Lelli grocery in the Edgewood area of Tacoma.

The link to the finding aid is:

http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/findaids/docs/papersrecords/LelliPhil5536.xml

First Post!

This is a new blog for the Pacific Northwest Collection in the Special Collections Division, University of Washington Libraries.  Blogging here will be staff and students who work with materials from the collection.

We will be testing this blog out for a while privately before going public.