Photo Challenge
Super Challenge had Super Results
 
September's photo garnered quite the hearty response! Many aspirants tried their hands with Seattle streets, but even more entrants correctly identified Taylor Street in Port Townsend. Most who recognized the street also achieved the bonus, naming the Haller Fountain, the hidden landmark nestled at the bottom of the Terrace Steps in the center of the photo. A couple submissions also spotted the Rose Theater on the left, so some of you got double bonus points.

 
THEN:
NOW:

Archives Month Challenge
by Benjamin Helle, Olympia Branch Archivist
Click photo to enlarge.
It was tempting to go with something Halloween-oriented, but October is Archives Month after all, so we are going along with our theme, "We Love Parks." In case that wasn't enough of a hint...

Hint: signage has been 'shopped out of the photo. 

Celebrate Archives Month with us!
 
Great food, even better beer, and trivia!  
 
   
Join the Archives and the Washington State Historical Society at Three Magnets Brewing Co. ( 600 Franklin St. SE, Olympia) in celebrating Archives Month. There will be great food and beer, and trivia following the Archives Month theme, "We Love Parks." Seating is limited, so arrive early, grab a seat, and have fun!

    
Join the Experts for a Free Workshop
    

Saturday, October 29 - 10:00am to 1:00pm
at the Kitsap Regional Library
 
Cracking the Archives
Nobody Actually Knows What George Bush Looked Like - DNA attempts to tell us the story
by Dr. Jewell Lorenz Dunn, Olympia Branch Researcher
Washington's most famous pioneer, Tumwater's George Bush, was never the subject of a photo or portrait. Lore tells us he was at least half black, but the popular drawing of him (shown on the right) was rendered several years after his death, and it might have actually been a sketch of Centralia pioneer George Washington, who was verifiably African American. DNA tests can't tell us what Bush looked like, but they can give us information about ethnicity. That's why Dr. Jewell Lorenz Dunn tracked down Bush's living descendants to collect DNA swabs. Here is what she found.
    
Over 700 Attended Ancestry Day in Tacoma  
by Jamison Murphy, Archives Outreach
Secretary of State Kim Wyman (center) with the Sons of the American Revolution. SAR posted the colors to begin the day. All members of SAR are veterans who have traced their Ancestry back to soldiers in the Revolutionary War. More photos
 
On Saturday, September 24, genealogy experts and novices joined the Archives, State Library, Legacy Washington and the Washington State Historical Society for a day-long series of workshops presented by Ancestry.com in Tacoma. Everyone came away with something learned, and that even includes Steve Excell, Washington's State Archivist. One of our attendees wrote an article for The Chronicle , detailing one of the presentations.

On Friday, September 23, we held a limited-seating event at the Washington State History Museum in downtown Tacoma, where the event sold out to the tune of 255 guests who got to listen to four hours of workshops from well-known state researchers such as Archivist Tracy Rebstock. This smaller event was entirely orchestrated by the aforementioned corps of state agencies, and was so well received we would like to plan more events like this throughout the year. Information about future events will be posted in our newsletter, so keep reading!

   
Volunteers in Action
Thank you Tonna G.! You are September's Volunteer of the Month!
In September, Tonna G. indexed more than 8,700 records on Scribe. Keep up the amazing work! We appreciate every single second of precious time dedicated to volunteering. The amazing corps of volunteers we're fortunate enough to have is truly making a difference. They are making it possible for the public to easily access the wealth of information within the Archives.

If you would like to join our volunteer program and help us write history,  become a Scribe today!

Employee Spotlight
Brigid (left) with two of her children.
  
This month's Employee Spotlight takes a look at the nucleus of our Central Regional Branch in Ellensburg, Brigid Clift. 

She's witty. She loves cows. "It's rare I have a photo of my family without cattle," she once told me.

Brigid gives one of the best Employee Spotlight interviews to date. View the entire article here and read about a huge leap of faith she once took, find out what she does as an Archivist, and many other fun and funny things about Brigid.
Happy Halloween!
    
by Jamison Murphy, Archives Outreach
 
October is here, and I couldn't go a whole newsletter without a tribute to Halloween. Apparently, there are literally thousands of places in Washington purportedly haunted. This article will cover all of them. 

No it won't. 

This article will talk about three popular haunted Washington places. Surely, several famed dwellings of conjure are not on my list, but I need to have something to write about next Halloween, right? And I should preface this by saying I do not believe... continue reading

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Out of the Archives banner photo: Mount Rainier National Park, Tatoosh Range, c. 1950.
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