In March 1965 WSU photographer James H. Barker, ASWSU President Dave Warren, and economics instructor Robert Cole joined and documented the march to Selma in support of voting rights for African Americans.Read more in “Seeing Selma.”
Photos by James H. Barker
Politics & Influence of Christian Missions in Northwest Alaska 1897–1918
Anthony Urvina ’85 with Sally Urvina
University of Alaska Press: 2016
Tucked away in cabinets and forgotten closets at the Alaska regional offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Juneau was a collection of old documents known simply as the Reindeer Files.
Anthony Urvina ’85, a natural resource manager at the BIA, began digging through them in 2003 while trying to … » More …
Apple trees were among the first food-bearing plants brought here to help make life more bearable for those who considered themselves English no matter on which side of the Atlantic they chose to live. In an age when water was suspect—as well it should have been for only shallow wells were in use—any sweet juice that could be turned into fermented liquor was considered as necessary as it was popular. And cider—drunk sweet, allowed to harden and often turned into brandy—was the most popular colonial juice of all. Drinking vessels from which to quaff the beverage were as diverse as the homes in which … » More …
Sue Olson, 94, came to Richland in 1944 and worked throughout Hanford as an executive secretary. She also worked in the labs at Hanford, calculating the numbers from radioactive samples. Eventually, she landed a job working for the assistant general manager of Hanford, Wilfred “Bill” Johnson. She says back then, “It was all business to win World War II. And afterward, during the Cold War it was that way too.” She had top-secret clearance and locked her filing cabinet each night before going home.
Olson’s story is part of the “Daughters of Hanford” multimedia project, in which radio correspondent Anna King ’00, photographer Kai-Huei … » More …
Floating, glowing letters greet a group of high school seniors as the doors slide open: “Welcome to the Hanford History Museum, Class of 2035!” Inside, some students check out relics from 95 years back, such as a long radiation detector nicknamed “Snoopy,” lead-lined glove boxes for handling radioactive material, a soundproofed phone booth with numbers still scrawled in pencil. Others read posters telling stories of people who worked on the Hanford site in World War II or the Cold War.
The entire back wall flickers to life in a giant video, beginning with a wide view of the building at the entrance to the Manhattan … » More …
Jen Corrinne Brown ’12 PhD
University of Washington Press: 2015
With help from Hollywood and even popular beer labels, the Rocky Mountain region of the American West enjoys an iconic reputation for wild and natural fishing. It’s where rugged individualists reconnect with nature through timeless traditions.
Missing from the customary narrative are the generations of human intervention, environmental manipulation, and social transformation.
Brown, who earned a history doctorate from WSU in 2012, calls … » More …
Trees of the classic apple varieties that were planted in early Pacific Northwest orchards from about 1860 to 1920 can still occasionally be found in overgrown farmyards, pastures, and even in suburban backyards where orchard sites were converted to residential areas and the old trees were left in place. This list of old varieties likely to be found in the Pacific Northwest was compiled by R.A. Norton from nursery lists in the Encyclopedia of Practical Horticulture (1914), edited by Grenville Lowther.
Source: WSU Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center. Images from the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection
A Mount Vernon high school teacher gets pulled into one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century
Dick Spink ’85 never intended to hunt for Amelia Earhart’s airplane. He specializes in boats.
He put himself through Washington State University designing and fabricating aluminum boats. He now holds on to a day job teaching at Mount Vernon High School, but he’s also a naval architect and licensed master. He sells boat kits all over the world, from Singapore to Africa, and often builds clients’ boats on site. Which is how he found himself in the north Pacific, in the Marshall Islands, and deep into … » More …
Ruth Kirk
University of Washington Press: 2015
Although the professional literature is rich and extensive, not enough had been written for the public on the extraordinary archaeological exploration at Ozette, the ancient whaling village on the Olympic coast between Neah Bay and La Push. There is Hunters of the Whale, by Northwest chronicler Ruth Kirk, written for young readers in 1974 when the expedition was barely half finished. Archaeology in Washington, coauthored by Kirk and WSU … » More …
Jean Hegland ’79
Arcade Publishing: 2015
Still Time, a new novel by Jean Hegland, explores dementia through the eyes of aging Shakespearean scholar John Wilson. Unsettled by life in a residential care facility and a surprise visit from his estranged daughter, Wilson finds solace and structure in the plays and poetry that so captivated his life.
Hegland, who shares poetry at a memory care center near her home in California, says she was inspired by … » More …