Describing Archives: A Content Standard

NTE2cg118.xml Guide to the Homer M. Hill Papers 1877-1934 Hill (Homer M.) Papers Finding aid prepared by Cheryl Gunselman Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections © 2016 Finding aid encoded by Suzanne James-Bacon. 2016 Finding aid written in English. English. Finding aid based on DACS 2nd Edition ( Describing Archives: A Content Standard). Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections Cage 118 Hill, Homer M., 1855-1935. Homer M. Hill Papers 1877-1934 1.5 Linear feet of shelf space 3 boxes Homer M. Hill moved to Seattle in 1884 where be began publishing the True Tone and subsequently the Daily Press (combining the Evening Call and the Evening Chronicle which he had purchased). He maintained the Press until August, 1889 when he sold it to Hunt and Bailey. His political and civic activities were numerous and varied. He was a Seattle city councilman, 1898-1900, a deputy county commissioner, executive secretary of the Rainier Heights Improvement Club and the Federated Improvement Clubs of Seattle, and in 1910 he helped organize the Taxpayers' League of Seattle and served as its executive secretary. This collection consists of papers and photographs related to Homer Hill's business, civic, and political activities. (MASC STAFF USE) The oversize item (folder 37) is in boxed oversize. Collection materials are inEnglish

Homer M. Hill was born in Senecaville, Ohio, November 28, 1855. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1882 and became a teacher in the Minneapolis Academy. The following year he entered the newspaper business as Mandan correspondent of the Bismarck Tribune and subsequently business manager of the Brainerd (MN) Tribune. In April of 1884 he purchased an interest in the Helena (MT) Independent. In May of that year he married Carrie M. Lovell of Nevada, Iowa. The following year he sold out his Helena interests and moved to Seattle where be began publishing the True Tone and subsequently the Daily Press (combining the Evening Call and the Evening Chronicle which he had purchased). He maintained the Press until August, 1889 when he sold it to Hunt and Bailey.

In 1892 he, with two partners, purchased the Morning Telegraph. It was the Telegraph which installed the first Mergenthaler typesetting machines west of the Rockies in 1893. In addition, Hill was President of the Washington State Press Association, 1893-1894.

His political and civic activities were numerous and varied. He was a Seattle city councilman, 1898-1900, a deputy county commissioner, executive secretary of the Rainier Heights Improvement Club and the Federated Improvement Clubs of Seattle, and in 1910 he helped organize the Taxpayers' League of Seattle and served as its executive secretary. Hill died in January of 1935; his obituary appeared in the Seattle Times (a successor to the Daily Press) January 23, 1935; 13:3.

This collection consists of papers and photographs related to Homer Hill's business, civic, and political activities. Sone notable items are a telegram from C. S. Voorhees announcing passage of statehood for Washington, a map of "proposed saloon limits" for the City of Seattle; correspondence and ephemera related to the Mergenthaler typesetting machine Hill acquired, membership and mailing lists for civic clubs and other organizations in Washington, and photographs of Helena, MT and Seattle, WA from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The collection is arranged in three series:

Series 1: Scrapbooks and commonplace book, 1898-1900 and undated

Series 2: Papers, 1877-1934 and undated. This series consists of correspondence, ephemera, clippings, notebooks, manuscript notes and drafts, legal documents, minute books, organization membership lists, by-laws, resolutions, reports, and miscellaneous items. The series is divided into four sequences: personal papers, newspaper records, improvement association papers, and Taxpayers' League of Seattle records.

Series 3: Photographs, circa 1880-1910

This collection is open and available for research use.

[Item Description] Homer M. Hill papers, 1877-1934

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

Mrs. Libby Hoag donated the papers of Homer M. Hill to the Washington State University Libraries in the 1940s (MS 70-1395).

This collection was processed by Terry Abraham in 1973, and additional processing was done by Cheryl Gunselman in 2010.

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Federated Improvement Clubs of Seattle (Wash.) Seattle (Wash.) -- Politics and government. Newspaper publishing -- History -- Sources. Publishers and Publishing Politics and Politicians Seattle Washington (State) Series 1: Scrapbooks and commonplace book, 1898-1900 and undated 1 1 [not used] 1 2-3 Scrapbooks: Seattle politics, 1898 1 4-8 Scrapbooks: Seattle politics, 1899 1 9-10 Scrapbook: Seattle politics, 1900 1 11 Scrapbook: Republican Party politics and the Civil War 1 12 Commonplace book Series 2: Papers, 1877-1934 and undated Personal papers 2 13 Undated 2 14 1877-1879 2 15 1880-1889 2 16 1890-1910 2 17 1911-1933 Newspaper records 2 18 Undated 2 19 1884-1889 2 20 1890-1895 2 21 1896-1930 2 22 Ledger, 1893-1896 Improvement association papers 2 23 Minute and clipping books, 1901-1916 2 24 Undated 2 25 1901-1903 2 26 1904-1906 2 27 1907-1915 Taxpayers' League of Seattle 3 28 Undated 3 29 1910-1915 3 30 1916-1934 Series 3: Photographs, circa 1880-1910 3 31 Photograph album. Photographs taken by Wilse Photo. Most images depict the installation of a water supply system for Seattle (25 prints); also ships carrying returning Volunteers in 1899, and the unveiling of the Pioneer Square totem pole, 1899-1900 3 32 Composite panorama view of Seattle, circa 1880 News photographs of men injured in Seattle during anti-Chinese riots (3 items), circa 1890 Steamships 3 33 "City of Seattle," circa 1890 3 33 "Olympian," undated 3 33 Woodland Park gate, undated 3 34 Unidentified group photograph. Includes a list of the individuals pictured, all from Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, and Silver Beach, WA, circa 1900-1910 Seattle fire (3 items). One image shows a view of the city on fire; the other two show the Seattle Daily Press, Hill's paper, temporarily operating from a tent; 1899 July 3 35 Composite of views of Seattle buildings, circa 1900-1910 Lake Washington, undated Interior view of unidentified store, undated 3 36 Helena, MT (9 items), circa 1883 Unidentified Montana railroad trestle, circa 1880s Oversize O/S 37 "Map of Seattle showing proposed saloon limits in Charter Amendment no. 11," circa 1902-1914 (note: separated from Improvement association papers, folder 24)