The first built-from-the-ground up digital archives in the world opened its doors ten years ago this month.

The Washington State Archives, Digital Archives grew out of a pressing need to preserve our digital heritage. By the 1990s, many local and state government agencies were producing "born digital" records, from Excel spreadsheets to emails, that needed to be preserved. At the same time, falling costs for digital storage the growing ubiquity of the internet made some begin to think that a genuine digital archive was possible. Then Secretary of State Sam Reed pushed the state to provide funding, telling anyone who would listen that "If Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address on a laptop we may not have it today."

The Digital Archives has grown quickly. What began with a modest collection of marriage licenses from a few counties has grown to a collection of nearly 150 million digital records. Visitors to the website will find everything from nineteenth-century naturalization certificates to the preserved website of former governor Gary Locke. The DA (as we call it within the agency) also has tens of thousands of historic photographs, audio recordings of oral histories and legislative hearings, property records, muster rolls for militia units from the territorial period, and hundreds of other types of records. Our website also includes unique features, including the ability to keyword search through audio files.