Before coming to Western Washington, E.M. Sammis had a business in Visalia, California, making portrait daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and carte-de-visite photographs. By 1860, he was working in Olympia, and by 1865, he had moved to Seattle. Sammis made photographs not only of local people but also of the city and various events. These images would probably have been popular not just locally, but also in larger cities like San Francisco, where people craved news of more remote locations.
Sammis is most famous for his photograph of Chief Seattle (si?al), made in 1865. Early historian Clarence Bagley, a friend of Sammis, was visiting the photographer in his studio one day when Chief Seattle happened to walk by. Sammis ran out and asked Seattle to come in and be photographed; the chief acquiesced. Bagley assisted Sammis in making a batch of prints, and before long the image was being sold all over the country.
Featured in the photographs are well-known Seattle residents and structures. Members of the Bagley family were prominent Seattle citizens during the last half of the nineteenth century. Daniel Bagley was a Methodist minister and missionary who was influential in founding Seattle's Territorial University. His son Clarence was best-known for his histories of Seattle and King County.
Seattle's Territorial University opened on November 4, 1861, with one teacher, Asa Shinn Mercer, and a student population of just 30. The campus was located at what is now 4th Avenue and University Street in downtown Seattle. In the university's early years, primary school subjects were taught as well as the college curriculum. In 1895, the campus moved to its University District location on Lake Washington.
The collection contains 27 carte-de-visite photographs made by Edward M. Sammis of various residents and localities in Seattle, Washington.
Photocopies of the original carte-de-visite photographs are available for viewing.
Entire collection (with the exception of item 2a) 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.
Restrictions exist on publication, duplication and use. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, for more information.
Processed by Shannon Lynch, 2003.
PH Coll 518, consisting of one oversize photograph, was merged with this collection in 2008.
Other early Seattle photographs copied this photograph and some marked copies with their own negative numbers. Copies exist by George Moore, Theodore Peiser (16) and Asahel Curtis (32137, 28831, and 55243). Copies by Curtis are described below under item 2a.
Subtitled: Looking North on Commercial Street (now 1st Avenue South) from Main Street.
This is a matted 24" x 30" visual guide to early Seattle, probably created by Asahel Curtis. It includes a hand-colored and enlarged print of the Sammis photograph of First Ave. South, copied by Asahel Curtis (negative number 32137). A caption underneath the hand-colored print reads: © 1915 Curtis and Miller. Beneath the hand-colored image, a copy of the Sammis photograph (Curtis 55243) is labeled with numbers that are referenced on the mount in handwritten text to identify the buildings in the photograph.