Women's History Consortium Collections

Washington State Library

Collections

The Washington State Library scanned and created metadata for the Emma Smith DeVoe Papers under a WHC grant:

• Emma Smith DeVoe Papers
  • These papers chronicle the activities of the woman who became president of the Washington Equal Suffrage Association. Includes 5,000 pages of correspondence and 1,000 pages of scrapbooks.

Digital Publications

Classics in Washington History, a digital collection of full-text books, includes works about women who lived and worked in Washington Territory and State:

• Annals of old Angeline : "Mika Yahoos delate klosch!"
  • Bertha Piper Venen wrote a biographical poem about "Princess" Angeline, daughter of Chief Seattle's first wife.
• Army letters from an officer's wife, 1871-1888
  • This text is comprised of a collection of letters written by Frances M.A. Roe, the wife of Fayette Washington Roe (1850-1916), a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. In 1871, Lieutenant Roe was sent to Fort Lyon in Colorado Territory; this collection of letters written by Frances M.A. Roe describe their experiences while stationed at forts across the West
• Daily journal, 1865
  • This unpublished, handwritten diary of Louisa Jackson, daughter of settler John R. Jackson, is bound in calico and covers the year 1865. Brief entries document the activities of running the farm and the number of visitors and immigrants that stopped at the Jackson home.
• Daughter of Old Chief Seattle
  • Legend has it that Angeline, Chief Seattle's daughter, warned white settlers about a Native American attack on the city of Seattle. However, in this article, Henry Yesler recounts that Chief Curly learns of the planned massacre from an old woman. Consequently, Yesler relays the information to Capt. Gansevoort aboard the sloop-of-war Decatur.
• Journey across the plains in 1836
  • This journal contains three separate sets of letters from Narcissa Whitman to her friends and relatives, both back east and in the Oregon Territory. The collections include several letters from Marcus Whitman as well. The letters were published as part of the proceedings of the Oregon Pioneer Association, and the speeches and committee reports of the Association are also included, as is a separate essay on “The Schooner ‘Star.’”
• Leaves of Knowledge
  • Elma Macgibbon's reminiscences of her travels in the United States starting in 1898, which were mainly in Oregon and Washington.
• Life at Puget Sound : with sketches of travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon, and California, 1865-1881
  • After the Civil War, Caroline Leighton and her husband came to the Pacific Northwest. Here she meets pioneer families building new lives, and people who came to the frontier to leave old lives behind.
• Louisa Jackson's diary of 1865
  • An annotated transcription of the handwritten 1865 diary of Louisa Jackson, daughter of settler John R. Jackson. Brief entries document the activities of running the farm and the number of visitors and immigrants that stopped at the Jackson home.
• Memoirs of the West: the Spaldings
  • Eliza Spalding Warren, daughter of pioneer missionaries Henry Harmon Spalding and Eliza Hart Spalding, was the first white child born in the Pacific Northwest. In this memoir she recalls life at the Clearwater Settlement in Idaho and her education at the Whitman Mission. At ten years old, she was an eyewitness to the Whitman Massacre. In addition to her reminiscences, Mrs. Warren includes letters from friends, entries from her mother’s diary, and letters and excerpts of lectures by her father.
• Pioneer's search for an ideal home: a book of personal memoirs
  • Phoebe Goodell Judson reminisces about her 1853 trek from Ohio to Puget Sound, Olympia during the Indian Wars, and settling in the Nooksack Valley where she and her husband founded the town of Lynden. Published when she was 95 years old, her story provides a woman’s insight into pioneer life in the Washington Territory.
• Sealth and Angeline
  • This article gives a brief overview on the lives of Chief Seattle and his daughter Angeline.
• Ten years in Oregon
  • This work details the travels and adventures of Doctor E. White and his wife to the Oregon Territory and the incidents witnessed during their residence, with a brief history of the missions and settlement of the country, origin of the provisional government, number and customs of the Indians, and a description of the soil, production and climate. Excerpts from John Charles Frémont's Narrative Sabin are included.
• Told by the pioneers... Tales of frontier life .... vol. 1 | vol. 2 | vol. 3
  • Reminiscences of pioneer life in Washington. Many accounts by women in the form of letters, diaries or transcribed interviews.

Additional Resources

The Washington Rural Heritage website documents the early culture, industry, and community life of Washington State. Use the search term "women" to locate materials within the Washington Rural Heritage collection.

To learn more about women in the Washington State Legislature, see the WSL database at: http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/women/