Introducing “Pacific Northwest Features”

We are pleased to reintroduce the PNW blog with a new name and broader focus. Pacific Northwest Features is a blog about PNW history, culture, and people, featuring collections from all around the University of Washington Libraries.

The Pacific Northwest Collection documents the historic and contemporary life and culture of the region. We actively collect rare books, maps, ephemera and other published materials, as well as personal papers, digital records, and organizational archives, photographs, architectural drawings, recorded sound, and moving images.  Major primary source collections include Labor Archives of Washington and the Washington State Jewish Archives.  The PNW Collection began in 1905 as the Northwest Collection.  Today it is part of Special Collections located on the UW Seattle campus in the lower level of Suzzallo/Allen Library.

There are dozens of other Pacific Northwest resources in the UW Libraries, found in departments in all branches and on all three campuses. We now invite librarians from all areas to share and promote Pacific Northwest titles and collections by becoming contributing authors to the blog.

Pacific Northwest Features shares stories about collections, events, exhibits, and our connections with other regional history collections and programs. Follow the blog by subscribing to email list to the left.  Browse through earlier posts in the Collections Featured category, and visit Special Collections to explore our fascinating collections.

Anne Jenner
Pacifc Northwest Curator, blog editor

Courage in Action – Day of Remembrance Symposium on Gordon Hirabayashi

Join us for the 2014 Day of Remembrance, Saturday, February 22, 2014 to honor the life and legacy of civil rights icon Gordon K. Hirabayashi.  The symposium (free and open to the public) from 1:00 to 5:00 in Kane Hall on the UW campus will feature lectures, performances and remembrances by the Hirabayashi family, and the presentation of Hirabayashi’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded posthumously to Hirabayashi by President Obama in 2012.

The medal will be part of the Gordon K. Hirabayashi papers in Special Collections.  His journals, photographs, letters and legal papers were donated last year by his family and many items are on display in the Allen Library North Lobby in an exhibit titled “Civil Disobedience!”  The exhibit ends February 28.

There also will be book-signing in Kane Hall’s Walker Ames Room from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. by Lane Hirabayashi, co-author of the 2013 University of Washington Press book “A Principled Stand: The Story of Gordon Hirabayashi.”

In a related event, a play by about Hirabayashi titled “Hold These Truths,” by Jeanne Sakata, featuring actor Greg Watanabe, will be given a staged reading at Theater Off Jackson, Feb. 22 and 23.

Exhibit on Gordon Hirabayashi

Civil Disobedience!
The Life and Legacy of Gordon K. Hirabayashi

Exhibit from University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, Pacific Northwest Collection

Date: February 3 through 28, 2014

Allen Library North Lobby

       

During World War II, 24 year-old University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi defied the United States order for Americans of Japanese ancestry to leave the West Coast for concentration camps.  He turned himself in to the FBI and was tried and convicted in the Federal District Court of Seattle. The case ultimately went to the Supreme Court where it was upheld.  After the war, Hirabayashi completed a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Washington, and went on to teach at American University in Beirut, American University in Cairo, and at the University of Alberta in Canada.

It was some 40 years later that Gordon Hirabayashi’s wartime conviction was overturned in an extraordinary case that exposed the suppression and alteration of evidence by the government.  Gordon’s principled stand to uphold the Constitution for all Americans is a legacy to be preserved. The story has  been documented in dozens of academic publications, documentaries, and theater productions.  Gordon dedicated his life to keeping the story of the injustice of Japanese American incarceration alive.  In May of 2012, five months after his death, he posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 2013, the personal papers of Gordon Hirabayashi were donated to the Pacific Northwest Collection of the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.  They join a growing collection of papers, oral histories, and photographs that help document the Japanese American experience in the Pacific Northwest.  This exhibit features items from his papers, including his prison diaries and photographs documenting his life.   The Gordon K. Hirabayashi Papers will be open for research  on February 24, 2014 in Special Collections.

Items from other collections featured in the exhibit are:

The Ring Family Papers, Acc. 4241, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.  Many letters from this collection are digitized and available online.

The S. Frank Miyamoto Collection, Acc. 2485, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections

Other Events:

The exhibit is in coordination with the upcoming symposium entitled Courage in Action:  A Symposium on the Life and Legacy of Gordon K. Hirabayashi,  for 2014 Day of Remembrance, February 22, 2014.  More information online here.

Hold These Truths, a play by Jeanne Sakata. Solo staged reading at Theatre off Jackson, concurrent with the SPF 8 Solo Performance Festival. Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. $15 general admission/$10 seniors and students.
Tickets and information available here.

Richard Wagener Lecture and Related Exhibits in Special Collections

The Book Arts Guild and University of Washington Libraries present

An Afternoon at Mithras Bookstore and a Sierra Journey, a lecture by Richard Wagener.  This talk will trace his development as a wood engraver and his involvement in the world of fine press books.

Thursday April 11, 2013, 7-9pm (doors open at 6:45)
Maps/Special Collections Classroom
Suzzallo Library Basement Room B69

Richard Wagener grew up in southern California spending a lot of time with his grandfather in remote parts of the desert and up in the Sierra. Early art classes introduced him to Maynard Dixon and Edgar Payne. After school activities included selling the evening newspapers at the Disney studios where he met many of the illustrators and animators. Richard has an undergraduate degree from the University of San Diego and a graduate degree from Art Center College of Design. He has been engraving wood for over thirty years and his work has been in a number of fine press editions. He currently lives and works in northern California.

There are two related exhibitions that feature relief printing which are on display in Special Collections.  This will be an opportunity to view them.  Both Conor Casey, curator of Images of Labor and Social Justice: The Art of Richard V. Correll and Sandra Kroupa curator of Lasting Impressions: Relief Prints Over 500 Years, will speak briefly and will provide access to the exhibitions.

Cheers to MOHAI

Aerial view of MOHAI, October 10, 2012

Just a very quick announcement before the holiday weekend descend to serve as a reminder that tomorrow is the official grand opening of the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) at its brand new location in South Lake Union. Housed in a former naval training station (often referred to as “the Armory”), this old/new facility offers increased exhibit space of over 50,000 square feet.

Look for “reviews” in the fullness of time. For now, heartiest congratulations!

For the sentimentalists among us, here are some eerie and wistful pictures of the “new” MOHAI under construction in 1937 (from the Seattle Municipal Archives):

Lake Union Naval Training Station under construction, 1937

and the Paul Thiry-designed original MOHAI building in the Montlake neighborhood still under construction in 1951;  this image is  from the Calvin F. Todd photograph collection (PH Coll 232) in Special Collections:

Exterior of MOHAI under construction, 1951

 

New Exhibit-Images of Labor and Social Justice: The Art of Richard V. Correll

Images of Labor and Social Justice: The Art of Richard V. Correll

New Additions to the Collection of the Labor Archives of Washington State, UW Special Collections

December 6, 2012 – April 19, 2013
Special Collections Basement Lobby
Allen Library North First Floor Balcony

Richard V. (Dick) Correll (1904-1990), was “one of the leading masters of printmaking in the West.” Best known for his powerful black and white linoleum cuts, etchings and woodblock prints, for most of his life he earned a living as a commercial artist in the book publishing and advertising fields while producing a large body of fine art in his own time.
Correll’s themes ranged from landscapes, animals and agricultural scenes, harbors and ships, and music and dance to those which reflected his lifelong concern with political and social issues. This exhibit features selections from several core areas of Correll’s recently donated collection at the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections: Images of labor, social justice, civil rights, anti-war themes, work for the Great Depression-era Federal Art Project of the Works Projects Administration, and his work for the progressive Depression-era newspaper the Voice of Action.

The World of Tomorrow Continues

Image of the Space Needle at night taken during the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair by an unknown photographer

As the long weekend approaches and the end of the season draws ever closer, why not try to prolong that summertime feeling for at least a little while longer by planning a visit to The World of Tomorrow: Looking Back at the Seattle Worlds Fair next week? The exhibit, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Century 21 exposition, has been extended through September 14, 2012.

You will find the exhibit installed in cases on the Allen Library North balcony and the Special Collections lobby. Both areas are accessible to the public whenever the building is open. Please check the current hours of opening as the library is operating on an interim break schedule.

Get the Party Started at SPL!

To kick off the citywide 1962 Seattle World’s Fair 50th anniversary celebrations, the Seattle Public Library will host an afternoon of events this Friday, November 19, 2011, at the Central Library in downtown Seattle. These include an author reading by Paula Becker and Alan Stein, as well as a chance to take a test drive of SPL’s new Century 21 Digital Collection.

Complete information about Friday’s programs is available here.

New Special Collections Web site Sneak Peek

Screen shot of new Special Collections homepage

At last Wednesday’s Division meeting, the redesigned Special Collections Web site was unveiled to staff.  Feel free to send in your comments or other feedback during this testing period.  The new site is scheduled to go live on October 19, 2011.

 

Free Ephemera Event in Tacoma

Crowd gathered for a speech in the Stadium Bowl, Tacoma, circa 1911

A special behind-the-scenes tour of the Washington State Historical Society’s extensive ephemera collection will be held at the WSHS Research Center in Tacoma on Saturday, May 14th from 12:00-4:00 pm.

Ed Nolan of the Washington State Historical Society will lead this introductory tour of the WSHS Ephemera Collection, discussing the steps in acquiring, cataloging and storing ephemera, and the many uses to which it is put.

Following the tour, Mr. Nolan will give a talk on a particular interest of his — Northern Pacific Railroad land and tourism promotional material from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

This free event, which forms part of the Northwest Regional meeting of the Ephemera Society of America, will be the first in what the organizers hope will be an on-going series of get-togethers of those interested in ephemera. The formal tour begins at 12:30 pm, but attendees are asked to have their lunch before the tour and to arrive around noon.

Numbers for the tour are limited! To reserve your spot, e-mail imprints@oldimprints.com or call Elisabeth Burdon at 503-234-3538.

The WSHS Research Center is located at 315 North Stadium Way, Tacoma, Washington. Full directions can be found here.

Image credit:  University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections, Order No.  WAS1048