Archives West Finding Aid

Interview with Eugene Thurlow (1859-1957), a shipbuilder and the founder of the Enterprise Brass Foundry. He was a member of Seattle's Pioneer Society.

Interview with Dr. Edward Corliss (E.C.) Kilbourne (1856-1959), a dentist and the developer of Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. He was also a leading promoter of electric utilities; he built an electric trolley from Seattle to Lake Union to bring potential homeowners up to Fremont. After the Great Fire of 1889, he received the city's franchise to restore electrical power and became the majority owner of the future Union Electric Company I n1892.

Interview with Joshua Green on the Seattle Golf Club. Joshua Green was a sternwheeler captain, businessman, and banker. He started as a seaman and later became the dominant figure of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet. He sold his interests and became a banker. He was one of the city of Seattle's last fluent speakers of Chinook Jargon, the pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest.

Interview with Joshua Green on "What's the Story" on KING TV.

Interview with Amy Tullar Cooke, who was born in 1882 and moved to Seattle with her parents five weeks after the Great Fire. She lived in Ballard and graduated from Broadway High School in 1903.

Interview with Helen Tremper Lane, who was born in 1884 and moved to Seattle just prior to the Great Fire. She attended the University of Washington and later the Conservatory of Music in Stuttgart, Germany. She married J. Richard Lane in 1908; they had three daughters: Nancy, Helen, and Josephine. Mr. Lane passed away in 1921. In the early 1930s, she became involved with the Children's Orthopedic Hospital, now known as Seattle Children's Hospital. She joined the board in 1936 and later became an honorary board member in 1970.

Interview with Dave Beck (1894-1993), a labor leader and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1952 to 1957.

Interview with Joanna Eckstein (1903-1983), a prominent arts patron. She was the daughter of Seattle civic leader and longtime school board member Nathan Eckstein, for whom Eckstein Middle School is named, and Mina Schwabacher Eckstein, whose family owned the Schwabacher Brothers & Company wholesale grocery store.

Interview with Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff (1892-1994), known as "Seattle's Grand, Grand Lady" and "the most elegant woman in Seattle". She was born to one of the area's early pioneer families for whom Carkeek Park is named. She served as president of the Seattle Historical Society (now MOHAI), which had been founded by her mother in 1911, from 1938 to 1965. She also was a founding member of the Decorative Arts Council of the Seattle Art Museum, endowed the nonprofit Plestcheeff Institute for the Decorative Arts in 1987, and helped raise the funds used to establish the Museum of History & Industry.

Interview with Henry MacLeod, who was Managing Editor of the Seattle Times at the time of this interview. He spent 43 years at the publication.

Interview with Norman C. Blanchard, a third-generation mariner and boat builder. His father founded the Blanchard Boat Company in 1905. Following his father’s death in 1954, Norman became the president of Blanchard Boat Company. In the 1970s, he was appointed to the National Boating Safety Council and served as president of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.

Interview with Mrs. Harold Hartzman (Emma Schmitz) about her life in West Seattle, 1900-1910.

Interview with Thomas Jefferson (Tom) Scribner, a timber industry worker and a union organizer. He joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1914 and was a part of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union's (LWIU's) fight for an eight-hour work day. He was a member of the American Communist Party during the 1930s and founded two newspapers, Lumberjack News and Redwood Ripsaw. He later self-published the book, Lumberjack, which compiled his writings, along with pieces by Eugene Debs and other IWW members.

Evangeline Gray was Mabel Wooster's mother. Mabel Gray Wooster was married to Melvin Wooster, assessor. .1: 120 minute cassette tape, visits with Mabel Wooster, June 15, 1969 and June 21, 1969 .2: 60 minute cassette tape, visit with Mabel Wooster, August 9, 1969.