Images and Artifacts of the Pacific Northwest

This week’s readings focus on images and artifacts. As public historians we will use artifacts and images a great deal, whether they are photographs, objects inside a display case, landscape structures or buildings. 

The Inland Northwest contains structures that are used as evidence of the growth and development of Spokane, from large mansions to public parks and structures left from Expo ’74.  In Henry Matthews' essay Kirtland Cutter: Spokane's Architect, Cutter drafts mansions for the rich investors who relocate to the Inland Northwest from the east coast. The large houses reaffirm that Spokane is an industrial and economic player in national affairs, like larger cities in the east and they could also have, "through Cutter's imagination and professional skill, the symbols of old wealth"(169) linking the old world with the frontier.  In J. Williams T. Youngs' essay Thinking Globally, Acting Locally, he discusses the efforts of local leaders to renew urban Spokane to give the city a stronger core. This essay is a great bookend to the story of Spokane's founding, development, growth, decline and ultimately urban renewal and "federalization" through Expo '74. The focus of the expo on environmentalism was supported internationally and nationally, giving Spokane the opportunity to be  a cause of global change, instead of reacting to it.

The next couple of chapters in Thrush's book explore the next step of Seatle's transformation on the eve of the Second World War. He points out how native images are used by urban Seattle to connect them with their “place story” even though the native people no longer had an active role in the historical interpretation. Seattle became "a city that used Indian images and stories to make sense of itself, real Native people, and especially those not affiliated with totem poles, were pushed to the margins of urban society"(149-150). The retelling of Seattle’s history was taken up by two different organizations with differing viewpoints. The Pioneers wanted to remember the times before urban expansion and keep alive the connection to the Denny landing and first settlers. They used the memories of the local natives to supplement their narration of the past. The Tilikums used Indian imagery to tell their version of local imperial history and promote their social organization. The actual indigenous population had either moved outside the city or became absorbed into urban society. Their images, however distorted, remain as their representatives to the land that was once theirs.

Pictures used in the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Expedition. The top photo is the Spokane building. (courtesy of Wiki Images)

The analysis of photographs discussed in Nearby History is important for our project because we will use them to research our buildings. I thought it was interesting how Kyvig and Marty showed how photographs were edited even before Photoshop. I would have never considered looking for evidence of editing when studying older photographs. Artifacts are also important to Public Historians because we will use them to bring history to the public. I was also not aware of the newer discipline of Industrial Archaeology. The time period of most of our ghost signs will be from is the period of industrial growth in Spokane.

I enjoyed looking at the ghost signs in San Francisco. My favorite was the second slide with the letter “O.” I feel like that one would be fun and challenging to research. It almost looks like a sign for a hotel that was housed inside the building, but you never know. A couple of the ghost signs they found were in great shape. I wonder if they were redone or just preserved well?