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Christmas
photo challenge
This challenge isn't about who is in the photo. That's Gov. Dan Evans and Santa Claus with a crowd of Washington children.

Tell us the name of the annual tradition formerly hosted at the Capitol or Governor's Mansion, and tell us when the tradition ended.
Native American Heritage
Last month’s photo challenge celebrated Native American Heritage Month. The man featured in the portrait is Chief Spokane Garry. A handful of readers guessed Chief Seathl (Seattle), but mostly we received correct answers.
Washington State Archives has a decades-long partnership with National History Day in Washington State, a social studies program that challenges middle-and high-school students to develop their historical research skills.

Since 1983, Archivist Mike Saunders has developed and maintained a History Day topic guide called Journeys to the Past to help students and teachers do their historical research. Each topic includes a narrative, corresponding historical documents from the Archives, transcriptions and/or a summary, and questions that can be used as instructional cues.


This collection includes 162 documents that provide primary-source content for 18 topics in U.S. and Washington state history:

For more information, or to learn about related records, contact Washington State Archives at research@sos.wa.gov.
Archives receives grant to digitize cases from the Eastern Washington Territory Court era
Washington State Archives received one of 36 grants awarded by the National Historic Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the National Archives and Records Administration’s grant program. NHPRC selected the grant recipients at its November meeting.

Per NHPRC's announcement, the grant is intended "to support a project to digitize the eastern division civil, criminal, probate, admiralty, and equity cases from the Washington Territory Court era (1853-1889). Plaintiffs and defendants represent all sectors of society in Eastern Washington from prominent citizens to lesser-known residents, and include records on divorce, vigilante justice, and public petitions. After digitization and online publication, the project will make the records available for citizen archivists to transcribe via the Scribe application."

The successful proposal was written by Larry Cebula, the Assistant Digital Archivist, and Professor of History at Eastern Washington University.

Once NHPRC's fiscal-year 2021 budget reaches final appropriation, Washington State Archives' digitization project will begin.
Who said
that?
Washington State Archives, as well as nearly every repository in the Pacific Northwest, have opposed the closure and sale of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) building in Seattle since news broke in January 2020. The closure and sale would result in relocating millions of Northwest-born records to faraway sites in Kansas and Southern California. In December, "NARA Seattle" is back in the headlines. Get all the up-to-date information here.
With consideration for the safety of the public and our staff, and to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Olympia and Ellensburg branches of the State Archives are accessible in person by appointment only.

All other branches remain closed, but still allow state and local government agency staff to research records on an emergency basis.

The Tumwater Records Center continues to operate at its usual capacity.

Go here for more information.
"Vancouver is an amazing city and luckily, growing up in the Seattle area, I was able to immerse myself into the culture at a young age, traveling back and forth across the border for skating competitions as a youngster."

Who said that?

Hint: The person in the photo above has nothing to do with this quote.

Last month's quote was from Chief Seathl (Seattle).
Out of the Archives, December 2020 banner photo: Man and woman in the mountains. General Subjects Photograph Collection, 1845-2005. c. 1945.