Photographs

The Photograph Collections include over 1,000,000 documentary images covering an extensive geographical area, in particular western Washington, Alaska, and the Yukon. Such topics as Native Americans, fishing and logging industries, mountaineering, the Klondike gold rush, Jewish life and history, and theatre and vaudeville are well represented in this extensive research collection. Included are the works of early notable Washington Territory and regional photographers such as Edward S. Curtis, Asahel Curtis, Eric. A. Hegg, and Clark Kinsey. Their images chronicle the events and daily lives of the people who contributed to the development and character of this region.

Examples of materials in this collection include black-and-white photographic prints and negatives, glass lantern slides, and 35mm film color slides, along with unusual and rare photographic formats, such as stereocards and daguerrotypes.

Selected images from Special Collections' Photograph Collections are available in our Digital Collections. Search Special Collection's Photograph Collections Database for information about holdings. Browse online finding aids for Photograph Collections for enhanced description of certain photographs collections. For more information about Pacific Northwest photographers, consult the Pacific Northwest Photographers Database.

Architectural Records

The University of Washington's programs in architecture, urban design and planning, landscape architecture, and art history form the basis for the acquisition of all kinds of research materials relating to the development of the built environment of the Pacific Northwest. This has included not only architectural plans, drawings, and renderings, but also such resources as photographs, construction specifications, correspondence, books and pamphlets, advertising and promotion materials, and newspaper and periodical articles.

In 1963 Special Collection received its first major acquisition of architectural records, including 104 sheets of plans and drawings for the historic Pioneer Building, designed for Seattle pioneer Henry Yesler in 1889 by Elmer Fisher. The drawings were donated by Victor Steinbrueck, civic activist and professor of architecture, and architect and teacher Paul Hayden Kirk. In the years following that gift, the architectural drawings collection has increased to more than 65,000 items representing the works of more than 190 architects and architectural practices, primarily in the Puget Sound region. These span the period from about 1884 into the 1980's. Significant recent additions include work by firms such as Richard Haag & Associates and TRA.

Search the Special Collections architectural drawings database.

Moving Image Collection

The moving image collection contains film and video of a wide variety of formats. The film collection contains films as dating back to 1914 and includes 35mm, 16mm, 8mm and Super 8mm formats. The collection has a variety of types of films including home movies, such as, a prominent Seattle family's trip through Alaska in the 1920s, a Japanese photographer's family and friends skiing and picnicking on Mt. Rainier in the 1930s, and couple's visit to the Century 21 World's Fair in Seattle in 1963. Other types of film in the collection include industrial and educational films like "Salmon: Catch To Can" or "How To Use a Slide Rule," as well as many films produced on the UW campus during the 1940s - 1970s. The films cover a wide variety of topics including travel and family life, activities and research related to the UW, industries such as plywood manufacturing, logging, fishing, whaling, and construction, political figures, civil rights and labor, and other documentation of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. There is also a large collection of video dating back to the 1950s which includes 2" Quad tapes, reel to reel, U-Matic cassettes, VHS and many other video formats. They document many aspects of life in the Northwest including the arts, UW activities, politics, health issues, ethnic groups such as Japanese, African-American and Jewish communities.

Streaming video clips from some of the films in the collection will be available for viewing on our Digital Collections site. Selected finding aids for films will be available online. The moving image collections staff is available to offer advice on film preservation issues. They have written an instruction manual for film preservation, Washington State Film Preservation Manual: Low-Cost and No-Cost Suggestions To Care For Your Film, which is available online.

Maps

Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition map, Seattle, Washington, 1909. Special Collections, UW Libraries, UW1378.