Junius Rochester

Junius Rochester, whose family has shaped the city for many generations, is an award-winning Northwest historian and author of numerous books about Seattle and other places.

The King of King County

In 1893 a regional historian with a penchant for hyperbole described King County as "emphatically one of the great, if not the greatest, counties of the Northwest . . ."

Seattle’s Historic Orthodox Churches

Local Orthodox churches became embroiled in Russian politics, and an ecumenical orthodoxy emerged.

Seattle’s Italian Heritage: Angelo Pellegrini

"The Unprejudiced Palate," published in 1948 and re-issued several times, places the reader at a simple kitchen table.

Coyote Stars in Origin Myths of the Northwest

Native origin myths tell of the epic battle between Coyote or the Changer and his nemesis, Wishpoosh.

Home, Home on the Grange

As the Grange grew, it pushed successfully for political reform, such as doubling legal immigration for undocumented immigrants currently in the United States, providing labor for rural areas.

Adding Some History to Seattle’s Black History Month

Black pioneers moved to Seattle – like many other groups – to work in shipping, railroading, and for those seeking gold in Alaska and Canada. 

Seattle’s Homegrown Communist Leader

In 1945, following the Second World War, and when anti-Soviet feeling in the U.S. was burgeoning, a young man from Seattle named Eugene Dennis succeeded Earl Browder as leader of the U.S. Communist Party.

Washington State’s Long Journey for Women’s Suffrage

A suffrage bill was passed in 1883, but it got mixed up in temperance crusades, so it really didn't get enacted until 1910.

Political Radical: The Northwesterner Who Fought in The Spanish Civil War

Seattleite Bob Reed and his former comrades-in-arms keep the memory alive of those bittersweet days through “VALB and Friends,” – Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

“Much Appreciated but Not a Financial Success”: A Long-Lost Opera About The Whitmans

Staged by the famous Seattle showman John Cort, the opera about Narcissa and Marcus Whitman ran for 12 Seattle performances at the Moore Theatre in 1912.

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