Wayside Mission Hospital Photograph Collection, between 1900 and 1909

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Wayside Mission Hospital (Seattle, Wash.)
Title
Wayside Mission Hospital Photograph Collection
Dates
between 1900 and 1909 (inclusive)
Quantity
17 photographs (1 box)
Collection Number
PH1477
Summary
Photographs of the Wayside Mission Hospital which was on the decommissioned steamboat IDAHO, Seattle, Washington
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries' Digital Collections website. Permission of Visual Materials Curator is required to view originals. Contact Special Collections for more information.

Languages
English

Historical BackgroundReturn to Top

The port and waterfront was home to many of the Seattle's destitute and homeless during the turn-of-the-century. There was little emergency medical care for these people. On April 1, 1899, a group of philanthropic citizens formed the Seattle Benevolent Society, which purchased the de-commissioned side-wheel steamboat IDAHO , and refitted it as an emergency hospital for Seattle's indigent population. The IDAHO was placed on pilings alongside the Pacific Coast Steamship Co.'s, Pier C, at the foot of Jackson Street and was re-opened as the Wayside Mission Hospital. It operated as Seattle's emergency hospital, serving the drug addicted and those who could not afford medical care. In 1907, due to structural failures, the IDAHO was abandoned and hospital activities moved ashore, near 2nd Ave. and Republican St. The hospital ultimately closed, in 1909, when the city opened its own 41-bed emergency hospital in the Public Safety Building. During construction of a sea wall along Seattle's south waterfront, between 1910 to 1920, the IDAHO was moved and buried, as fill, near the foot of Washington St. In 1960, on National Maritime Day, a historical marker was placed at the location of its resting place. The marker reads, "BENEATH YOUR FEET LIES THE WRECKAGE OF THE PIONEER SIDEWHEEL STEAMER "IDAHO", WHICH SERVED FROM 1900 UNTIL 1909 AS DR. ALEXANDER DE SOTO'S FAMOUS WAYSIDE MISSION HOSPITAL. HERE DR. DE SOTO MINISTERED TO THE NEEDS OF SEAFARERS AND THE DESTITUTE, DONATING HIS TIME AND FUNDS TO THEIR CARE."

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

Includes portraits of Dr. Alexander de Soto, an orignal trustee of the Seattle Benevolent Society, and manager of the hospital from 1899 until 1904, as well as interior and exterior views of the Wayside Mission Hospital.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Alternative Forms Available

View the digital version of the collection

Restrictions on Use

Status of creator's copyrights is unknown; restrictions may exist on copying, quotation, or publication. Users are responsible for researching copyright status before use.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Custodial History

Around November, 1965, Ruth DeSoto-Herold, daughter of Dr. Alexander de Soto, donated a collection of photographs, news clippings and medical instruments, related to Dr. de Soto and the Wayside Mission Hospital, to the University of Washington Biomedical History Department, via King County Medical Society's Historical Committee.

Acquisition Information

Donor: The UW Department of Biomedical History Department, 1985.

Processing Note

Processed by John Gerhard, 2017.

Four photographs transferred from Seattle Subject File, PH1296, 2017. Thirteen photographs transferred from Charles W. Bodemer Papers, 1824-1984, Accession No. 3379-003, 2017.

Bibliography

The Commonwealth , Seattle, Wash., May 23, 1903, Vol 2, No. 11

The Seattle Sunday Times , May 15, 1955, pg 144

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer , Sun. May 22, 1960, pg 2

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

 

Portraits of Dr. Alexander de SotoReturn to Top

Container(s) Description Dates
Box/Folder item
1/1 1
Portrait of Dr. Alexander de Soto
Braas, Seattle (Photographer)
circa 1900
1/1 2 circa 1900
1/1 3 circa 1930's

Wayside Mission HospitalReturn to Top

Container(s) Description Dates
Box/Folder item
1/2 4 circa 1900
1/2 5
Entrance to Wayside Mission Hospital, housed in the steamboat IDAHO
From the periodical, The Commonwealth, Seattle, Wash., May 23, 1903, Vol 2, No. 11, pg 3: The Wayside Mission, whose habituation and hospital is the old Sound steamer “IDAHO” at the foot of Jackson street. This half tone shows the old boat raised on a “gridiron,” established at a large outlay of money and labor.
circa 1900
1/2 6
Wedding on the deck of the Wayside Mission Hospital
From the periodical, The Commonwealth, Seattle, Wash., May 23, 1903, Vol 2, No. 11, pg 3: The bride in this scene has been one of the inmates of the hospital, and latterly a nurse in its service. The groom is one of Seattle’s most industrious and most promising young citizens. Several wedding scenes of this kind have brightened the tragic life of the Wayside Mission. [ Dr. Alexander de Soto is pictured near the right of the group with his arms around two boys.]
circa 1900
1/3 7
Hospital interior with hospital staff and possibly patients in hallway with telephone
Dr. de Soto is in the back of the hallway in the doorway on the left.
circa 1900
1/3 8
Hospital operating room with Dr. de Soto holding hand of patient while administering anesthesia
Written on verso: Dr. de Soto holding hand of patient while anesthesia is administered. Note surgical blood catcher on the wall.
circa 1900
1/3 9
Dr. de Soto performing surgery on a patient with his assistants watching
From the periodical, The Commonwealth, Seattle, Wash., May 23, 1903, Vol 2, No. 11, pg 3: Surgical ward of the Wayside Mission Hospital, where almost every day the frequent accidents of the industrial waterfront are treated and where emergency cases receive quick and expert care. This is one of the special advantages of this location.
circa 1900
1/3 10
Hospital interior showing operating room with surgery table
Written on verso: Note equipment on table to catch blood.
circa 1900
1/3 11
Hospital interior showing Pharmacy, medicines, and dental extraction instruments, on table, with Dr. de Soto's quarters, in the background
From the periodical, The Commonwealth, Seattle, Wash., May 23, 1903, Vol 2, No. 11, pg 3: Section of the Wayside Mission Hospital, showing the free dispensary, where prescriptions are filled and all needed medicines supplied without prying into the deserving or undeserving character of the sick and poor.
circa 1900
1/4 12 circa 1900
1/4 13
Hospital interior showing nurse in a patient ward with patients
From the periodical, The Commonwealth, Seattle, Wash., May 23, 1903, Vol 2, No. 11, pg 3: The ward room of the Wayside Mission Hospital ship. Here the kindly humanitarianism of the founder has provided a place, enviable indeed, for the pain-racked or fever-burned unfortunate.
circa 1900
1/4 14
Hospital interior showing Dr. de Soto and nurse with patient and newborn child
From the periodical, The Commonwealth, Seattle, Wash., May 23, 1903, Vol 2, No. 11, pg 3: Mother and child, inmates of the Wayside Mission Hospital, where the child was born. The physician in the picture is Dr. de Soto, the founder of the Mission, and always in close association with its work and in sympathy with its sorrows and joys.
circa 1900
1/4 15
Hospital interior showing Dr. Alexander de Soto's quarters
Written on verso: Dr. de Soto's room aboard the Wayside Mission Hospital. Note the pencil holder (skull).
circa 1900
1/5 16
Wayside Mission Hospital at the foot of Jackson St.
Written on verso: Wayside Mission Hospital. Seattle's first established hospital built 1891 on the hull of the old steamship, Idaho, by Dr. Alexander de Soto, son of a Spanish General, and Capt. Amos O. Benjamin, pioneer shipmaster. It was moored at the foot of Jackson St. and was supported by citizens who banded together under the name of the Seattle Benevolent Society. [The text on verso is incorrect. It was not the 'first established hospital,' it was the first emergency hospital. It was not built in 1891, it was built in 1899.]
circa 1907
1/5 17 circa 1909

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Hospital ships--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs
  • Hospitals--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs
  • Physicians--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs
  • Steamboats--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs
  • Surgeons--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs

Personal Names

  • Soto, Alexander de (Doctor)--Photographs

Corporate Names

  • Wayside Mission Hospital (Seattle, Wash.)--Archives
  • Wayside Mission Hospital (Seattle, Wash.)--Photographs

Form or Genre Terms

  • Photographs

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)