Seattle: 1900-1920 -From Boomtown, Through Urban Turbulence ...

PrefaceThe original volume of my three volume Seattle in the 20th Century (1900-1950)elicited many positive published reviews and informal critiques. Titled Seattle 1900-1920:From Boomtown, Urban Turbulence, To Restoration, the late Murray Morgan consideredit to be “by far the most informative history of the period when Seattle rose to dominance inthe Pacific Northwest.” Portland’s historian E. Kimbark MacColl wrote it “should stand asthe most definitive account of Seattle’s historic growth for many years to come.” QuintardTaylor added “The book’s other major strength is the tracing of themes usually relegatedto the fringes of urban history—labor activism, popular entertainment, the City Beautifulmovement, the university and the city.”These and other favorable comments encouraged me to consider a revised edition,one that would this time be subjected at the onset to professional editing to overcomecompositional and writing deficiencies of the original.The most obvious improvement, though, is the incorporation of historicalphotographs by Paul Dorpat, whose unique familiarity with Seattle’s history has resultedin photographs and captions placed in context that lend both illustrative depth and asense of historical transition to my somewhat lean institutional history. For a statewidecontext dealing specifically with public works readers will benefit by referring to BuildingWashington: A History of Washington State Public Works, by Dorpat and GenevieveMcCoy. As much as I had wished to revise this volume in all probability I would not haveattempted it had Paul not agreed to collaborate.What distinguishes this history is its unique exploration of archival/manuscriptholdings of the University of Washington Libraries that I and my colleague Karyl Winnaccumulated over a period of more than thirty years. That she persuaded Puget SoundPower and Light (currently Puget Sound Energy) to donate their records to the Universitymade it possible to document the public power movement more fully by having access torecords of the dominant private utility in western Washington—here already were recordsin the collection representing proponents of public power. Their records also added muchunique documentation of industrial relations. The company—at the center of much of theregion’s history – is to be congratulated for making access possible for studies such as thisand others sure to follow.Should the reader refer to the bibliography in the list of theses and dissertationstake note of the dates when they were written. A substantial number were written before1960 and thereby had practically no benefit from archival sources collected after 1959, oneyear from the formal establishment of the Manuscript Collection under administration ofa professional curator. Those written subsequently did use these source materials oftenas they were being accessioned. None, incidentally, used Puget Sound Power & LightCompany records because they were not acquired until 1972, though not explored until mystudy began in 1985.Such graduate studies, leading to masters and doctoral degrees, constitute thebuilding blocks for research by others. Many were subsequently published in articleform in periodicals; some substantially in whole. In whatever format they are inherentlyrevisionist in character by reason of their use of archival sources to which additions arebeing continuously acquired.