Seattle Room Seafair ephemera collection, circa 1951-2020
Table of Contents
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Seattle Public Library
- Title
- Seattle Room Seafair ephemera collection
- Dates
- circa 1951-2020 (inclusive)19512020
- Quantity
- .42 linear feet, (1 box and 2 oversize folders)
- Collection Number
- 2025-002
- Summary
- The collection includes materials related to Seafair events from the 1950s to 2020 including programs, brochures, stickers, pins, postcards, and magazines.
- Repository
-
Seattle Public Library, Special Collections
1000 Fourth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104-1109
Telephone: 206-386-4636
specialcollections@spl.org - Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open and available for use.
- Languages
- English
Historical Note
The Seafair Festival began in 1950. Seattle's previous summer festival, Potlatch, ran intermittently from 1911 to 1914 and from 1934 until 1941. Festival organizers were interested in reviving the tradition and hired Walter Van Camp, director of St. Paul's Winter Carnival, to create a new maritime-themed summer festival for the city. Seafair featured many events including parades, music, waterskiing and hydroplane competitions, and other festivities. In addition to the main events, neighborhood activities and parades were also held throughout the city in areas such as Lake City, the Central District (home to the East Madison-East Union Mardi Gras Parade) and the International District (home to the Bon Odori festival). In the 1950s and 1960s, the Aqua Theatre on Green Lake also hosted music and comedy events as well as swim and high dive performances by the Aqua Follies. In the festival's first year, the downtown parade alone drew crowds of 150,000. In 2022, the festival celebrated its 73rd year with events reaching an estimated two million people.
Content Description
The collection includes materials related to Seafair events from the 1950s to 2020 including programs, brochures, stickers, pins, postcards, and magazines. These materials cover topics including general Seafair celebrations, Aqua Follies performances at the Aqua Theatre on Green Lake, the Bon Odori festival in the International District, the Gold Cup regatta on Lake Washington, parades and the Seafair pirates.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Use
Copyright restrictions apply.
Preferred Citation
[ITEM DESCRIPTION], Seattle Room Seafair ephemera collection. Seattle Public Library, Seattle, WA.
Administrative Information
Arrangement
Materials are arranged alphabetically by subject. General materials including brochures, programs and magazines discussing Seafair events at a broad level are at the front of the collection. The remaining subjects focus on materials documenting more specific topics and events.
Related Materials
Certain publications within this collection have additional issues available in the Seattle Room:
Gold Cup; Official Regatta Magazine
https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S30C365669
Seafair Magazine
https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S30C1716603
Aqua Follies programs
https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?custom_edit=false&query=anywhere%3A(aqua%20follies)%20%20%20avlocation%3A%22Central%20Library%22&searchType=bl&suppress=true
Related archival collections in the Seattle Room include:
Capitol Hill Seafair parade float collection, circa 1959-1961
https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv344527
Kurtzer Flying Service and Seafair visiting beauty queen photograph collection, circa 1930-1968
https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv981432
East Madison-East Union Mardi Gras Parade photograph collection, 1952-1957
https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv417307
Werner Lenggenhager photograph collection, 1950-1984
https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv262103
Acquisition Information
This collection was brought together by library staff from existing materials in vertical files as well as additional donations and purchases accumulated over time.
Future Additions
The library continues to add materials to this collection on a regular basis.
Processing Note
Acknowledgement of Harmful Content
The Seattle Public Library Special Collections Department is committed to creating an inclusive archive that documents the history of our diverse communities in a respectful manner. Our collections include historic materials that may contain images and outdated language which can be harmful due to issues such as racism, colonialism, sexism and homophobia. This content can provide important insight into the creator and context of the historic materials but can also reveal hurtful biases and prejudices.
We may decide to use or retain harmful language in our description when the terms have been used by the creator(s) of the materials to describe themselves or their community; when we have reused description created by the donor; when we have transcribed information directly from the materials; and when using national standards such as Library of Congress Subject Headings, which allow for standardized searching and retrieval of records. When including language from the original material in our finding aids or descriptions, we will indicate that this material comes directly from the original item by putting the language in quotes or prefacing it with a note that says the description is transcribed from the item or provided by the creator.
We will continually review our finding aids to identify harmful language and encourage you to contact us at specialcollections@spl.org if you find language that causes concern.
Detailed Description of the Collection
-
Description: GeneralDates: 1952-1971Container: Box 1, Folder 1
-
Description: GeneralDates: 1960-1963Container: Box Ephemera Oversize 1
-
Description: GeneralDates: 1999-2020Container: Box 1, Folder 2
-
Description: Aqua FolliesDates: 1952-1964Container: Box 1, Folder 3
-
Description: Bon OdoriDates: 1960-1962Container: Box 1, Folder 4
-
Description: Gold Cup RegattaDates: 1951-1958Container: Box 1, Folder 5
-
Description: Gold Cup RegattaDates: 1959Container: Box Ephemera Oversize 1
-
Description: Gold Cup RegattaDates: 1963-1965Container: Box 1, Folder 6
-
Description: ParadesDates: circa 1956-1960sContainer: Box 1, Folder 7
-
Description: Seafair PiratesDates: 1989-2019Container: Box 1, Folder 8
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Buddhist memorial rites and ceremonies--Washington (State)--Seattle
- Festivals--Washington (State)--Seattle
- Hydroplanes--Washington (State)--Seattle
- Japanese Americans--Washington (State)--Seattle--Social life and customs
- Parades--Washington (State)--Seattle
Corporate Names
- Seafair (Festival)
Geographical Names
- International District (Seattle, Wash.)
