By Spencer Bowman, Northwest Room Librarian, and the Northwest Room Staff
October is Archives Awareness Month and the Northwest Room at Tacoma Public Library invites you to explore the materials that preserve the history of the Pacific Northwest, Tacoma, and the South Puget Sound region. The Northwest Room’s collections and material document the people, places, businesses, organizations, and events that have shaped our community. Our holdings include photographs, manuscripts, books, maps, newspapers, clipping files, oral histories, audiovisual recordings, genealogy resources, and other historical records. Archives are more than the storage of old documents, they connect us directly to the past and give us the needed context to better understand why things are the way they are today. They can help us discover how neighborhoods have changed, learn about the work of local organizations, trace family histories, and they preserve the irreplaceable original materials that make these discoveries possible.
This month, we’ve each picked and curated a selection of our favorite, obscure, and sometimes overlooked material from our collections
Gena: I enjoy examining the photo collections at the NWR. I love this photo because of the composition and pure charm of the scene, and as a visual record that ignites memory and thought. The children are preparing hot chocolate for each other demonstrating care and detail in their efforts. The crisp writing on the blackboard behind them outlines the recipe to follow. Seeing this evoked a few memories. I remember how putting on a smock or an apron could be transformative in school. It meant we're about to do something special, and a little bit messy. I can see me as a kid stirring brownie mix in this exact bowl at my gram's. So while it's an 83 year old image, it makes me feel nostalgic. Upon reflection, I find additional meaning. In 1943, these children were living through a war that had direct impacts on their lives. With many mothers working, these types of initiatives were intended to help people cope with the impacts of rationing and health disparity among other goals. I imagine this day was a treat not only for the kids, but maybe even the teachers, the photographer, and the reader of the paper for which this was produced. A moment of sweetness. However, this image was not included in the article, but was retained in the photographer's collection of commercial work. Of the approximate 80000 images available in the ORCA catalogue, many contain informational detail such as links to articles and published information. There's also a great deal of unidentified images for which we can search for meaning and appreciate through our own lens.
Heather: One of the first items I’m drawn to in an archival collection, as a researcher and an archivist, are the letters. A letter’s paper and penmanship seem like magical portals into our humanity. They are evidence of people and events through the often-uncensored expression of the writer’s voice. Margaret Tilley’s correspondence in the Northwest Room’s Erna Spannagel Tilley Papers is a recent discovery for me. Her letters to her mother tell a 40-year story of her travels around the world with the Red Cross, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. State Department. They recount historical events like the declaration of martial law by Chiang Kai-shek in 1948 and her work to assist with the Army’s evacuation to Japan, but they also reveal the humor and grit, the vulnerability and the bias of a single woman making her way in the world.
Jim: I love printing and the art of book construction, so I selected the electrotype printing plates, opens a new window from the Thomas Handforth Collection for his children’s book Faraway Meadow, opens a new window (1939). A native of Tacoma, Thomas Handforth, opens a new window won international acclaim as an artist, author, and illustrator. Faraway Meadow is a short, illustrated children's book about a pony’s journey into a strange, buffalo‑invaded kingdom written and illustrated by Handforth. It was printed in the 1930s using the electrotype printing process, which uses full-page sized electroplates to create a durable, exact copper duplicate of an original letterpress setup. The first step is to make an impression of the hand-set type or artwork by pressing it into a mold made of wax or plastic, which is then coated with conductive graphite powder. This mold is placed into an electrical chemical bath where low voltage current causes copper particles to deposit onto the mold, forming a thin, incredibly detailed metal shell. In the last step the fragile copper shell is peeled away, backed with a sturdy layer of molten lead alloy for strength, and mounted onto a block so it can withstand long printing press runs at high speed without wearing down.
My pick is the Gearld Davis Papers. Davis worked for the Tacoma Heidelberg brewery in the 1950s. Gerald was the son of Norman Davis who purchased and ran the brewery from 1941-1957. Gerald worked primarily in the marketing and advertisement department in the brewery from 1949-1958. This collection documents Davis’ career with Tacoma's Heidelberg and Carling brewing companies through reports, correspondence, financial records, slide photographs, and advertising mockups. Also included are marketing campaign materials, studies on European breweries, and market research on the Tacoma and Seattle beer industries. These materials help form a picture of not just the marketing of a local beer brand, but a window into the inner workings of the local consumer brewing industry at that time.
You can celebrate Archives Awareness Month by:
- Scheduling a research appointment to look into some of the material we mentioned or any other archival material.
- Coming in and visiting the Northwest Room
- Exploring Northwest ORCA and searching for a Tacoma place, person, or an organization.
- Coming in and doing genealogy research to learn more about your family and past relatives.
Whether you are a longtime researcher or simply curious about the history around you, the Northwest Room is here to help you get started. Explore the Northwest Room’s collections through Northwest ORCA or contact staff at nwr@tacomalibrary.org, opens a new window or 253-280-2814, opens a new window.
The Northwest Room's hours are:
Tuesday - Open 4:00-8:00
Wednesday - Appointment only from 5:00-7:00
Thursday - Open 10:00-6:00
Friday - Appointment only from 2:00-5:00
Saturday - Open 10:00-6:00
Visit this link to book a research appointment: https://www.tacomalibrary.org/visit-northwest-room/
