On May 18th Anna Trammell and Spencer Bowman, of the Northwest Room, had the honor of being guests on TV Tacoma's CityLine television program. Anna and Spencer sat down with the one and only Amanda Westbrooke to chat about what the Northwest Room does, how we serve the public, and our new directions. We also shared a few items from our collections!
The first item that Anna shared was a concept drawing of a proposed Tacoma international exhibition center from the Mayor Mike Parker Papers. This civic center was to be built for the 1989 World's Fair and Washington State Bicentennial. If it was built it would have roughly been where the Tacoma Dome stands today. If you look closely at these illustrations from Mayor Parker's papers you can see they even tried to incorporate some sort of monorail transit system and a space needle like structure on the grounds!
We encourage you to take a closer look at what may have been by clicking here! Remember, click on the thumbnail to see the image in full size.
The second item we shared were 3D slides taken by Tacoma's Richards
Photography Studio in the mid 1950s. These photographic slides were a specialty item that Richards used for only a short time, however, they give us a completely unique visual historic record of the past! Many of these 3D slides in our collection were taken for either promotional business-related purposes or weddings.
Click here to see these slides for yourself. The 3D effect has been recreated online by transitioning between both the left and the right side in an animated GIF file. You can read more about this project here!
The last item we shared was a photo album put together by the Tacoma chapter of the Mountaineers. This album, dated 1912, includes photos of group outings, gatherings, flora and fauna, among other activities. As Spencer pointed out to Amanda, what makes this and the rest of the Tacoma Mountaineers Records so intriguing is how they illustrate how influential women were in this organization from its earliest days.
Click here to browse pages from the photo album we shared!
We had a wonderful time being a guest and we hope you enjoy our segment. If you are interested in learning more about any of the items we shared, or have any questions about the Northwest Room, we encourage you to contact us!
(253) 280-2814 ● nwr@tacomalibrary.org ● https://www.tacomalibrary.org/northwest-room
