Our mission is to record, preserve, interpret, and display the history of Kingston, Washington
Week 1
The first week of working on the projects for the Kingston Historical Society was interesting. In March, I attended a monthly meeting of the society up at the Village Green in Kingston, which is attached to the library. The meeting included a good deal of storytelling by members who reminisced about days past—one story involved the origin story of the snakes that live in a certain area around the ferry dock. The members were thrilled to have me (or anyone) helping them with research as their numbers are dwindling and they are concerned for the organization’s future.
After the meeting, I met with my sponsor at the Kitsap Regional Library (KRL), Leigh Ann Winterowd, who is a vivacious, welcoming regional manager. We talked about our goals for the project and writing the learning outcomes. She also asked if I might be interested in attending the Tribal Library Summit at the Washington Library Association conference in April, and I jumped at the chance.
This first official week included a lot of setting parameters and organizing files. I have had contact with Dana Goodfellow, who oversees the 4th of July committee. She asked for a list of Grand Marshals for the 4th of July Kingston parade, which is the longest running parade west of the Mississippi River. Dee McKinnon of the Historical Society handed me a file at the meeting, which included handwritten notes and physical copies of photographs of several Grand Marshals over the years. They really, though, have not given me any other parameters. I photographed the artifacts and handed the file back to Lee Ann.
Twice this week I have traveled to the Sylvan Way branch of KRL to look through the archives on microfilm (I thought they were on microfiche, but it turns out they are on microfilm, which are on reels, rather than sheets.) I was surprised that the employee who unlocked the cabinet for me so that I could start my search simply told me I was allowed three films at a time and set me loose. It’s a good thing that I’m fairly tech-y, as they did not show me how it works. (See Fig. 1)
I chose mid-eighties years of the Bremerton Sun and figured out how to use the microfilm machine. I didn’t find anything on the first few reels and was starting to feel discouraged when I noticed there were also files of the North Kitsap County Herald, so I asked to choose films from those drawers. The first few employees who I asked to help me seemed rather annoyed that I kept coming up to change out films, but luckily, at a shift change the attitudes changed and the new employees were more than happy to help me. One even gave me some tips about how to better adjust the machine.
The Kitsap County Herald was the winner and I started finding the 4th of July parade news. I quickly realized, though, that I needed a system for recording what I was finding. Unfortunately, the first day I did not have a thumb drive with me, so I had to take photos of the articles with my phone, which are not very clear, but I wanted to have a record. I set up a Google Sheets form that tracks the names and origins of the articles and photos. (See Fig. 2) and a Google Drive that can house copies of the artifacts. (See Fig. 3)
I am hoping by giving 2 research days a week and a third to proper archiving per week, I can complete this 4th of July project within 4 weeks.
Week 2
This second week was as busy as the last, with the first part of the week spent at the Sylvan Way branch of KRL with the microfilm researching the 4th of July Grand Masters. We discovered, after I sent the tracking documents to Dana Goodfellow of the 4th of July committee, that the jpg files I had created on my first KRL visit did not save with a resolution that was sufficient for reading, so my first hours were spent going back through the reels from the 1980s and resaving those files as pdfs, which save very clearly. See Fig. 4 for an example of the clarity of files saved to PDF. It was a learning moment for me, if discouraging to have to trace back through the years I thought I had finished.
I was able to make it through half of the reels (basically the 1960-1980s) in this particular file drawer for the Kitsap County Herald (KCH) (See Fig. 5). I also did some research online and was able to find information on the Persons of the Year in the 2020s. I believe there is more information to be found online, but the KCH has a paywall after 3 articles, so I will need to find a log-in or pay for any further research.
The second part of the week, I traveled to the National Archives (NARA) in Seattle on Sandpoint Way to start researching rumrunners who were arrested in Kitsap County during prohibition. Dee from the Kingston Historical Society had given me a printout of files that I could start with that NARA had provided in 2021, from which I made my list (See Fig. 6). I corresponded with Eric Flores who informed me of the steps I would need to take to do research at the Seattle Branch. First, all researchers need to take a training regarding how to handle records. The training is online and takes about 30 minutes. When you have completed the training, you receive a certificate, which you bring with you to your first appointment. Eric pulled files for me so that they were ready when I arrived. The staff at the desk made my researcher card and set me up with my cart of boxes (See Fig. 7).
Though I was there for many hours, I was only able to look through files from 2 boxes. It is a time consuming process. I took photos of dozens of documents, though across the several hundred documents I perused, I saw only two direct mentions of Kitsap county. Given the amount of material I am tasked to go through, I quickly realized that my time at the archives would be better spent recording any document that I thought my be relevant so that I can fully read them later. If I read every document in the file, I would have to be there for months. I'm positive that I will learn how to do this more efficiently as I go on. I was able to do a little bit of research on the NARA site online as well. I am afraid there may not be very much material that mention Kitsap County, but there is plenty of material on Seattle and Vancouver, as well as some information about coastal Oregon. I will be setting up a Google drive for the photos I have taken of these documents, as well as a Google Sheets tracker, similar to the one I created for the 4th of July.
Week 3
This week I have spent a good deal of time organizing photo drives. I discovered, at the National Archives, that it’s imperative that I do not spend too much time on any one document. It is difficult not to get sucked into the stories that are unfolding as I read. For example, in Fig. 8, I began reading articles about Chinese opium dealers which mentioned Vashon Island, where I currently live. It was difficult not to want to spend time reading each of these documents out of pure interest. I learned to quickly snap photos of each artifact after scanning for mentions of rum runners or Kitsap County. Fortunately, I was able to move through the boxes a bit faster this week. I made it through 8 of the 9 boxes I had pulled before the research room closed at 4pm. Unfortunately, again, there were very few mentions of Kitsap and none of Kingston in particular, though Port Townsend and Port Angeles were noted quite a few times (See Fig. 9)
I continued researching the 4th of July Grand Masters as well on the Microfilm at Sylvan Way, making it through almost the end of the rolls—I have 3 left. There are quite a few gaps, many years where there are no articles about the 4th of July in Kingston at all. When I’ve finished with the Kitsap County Herald rolls, I may try some of the Bremerton Suns again, of which there are many many years in the filing cabinets. One of the librarians showed me where there were gigantic tomes of physical copies of the papers (See Fig. 10). I was hoping there would be copies of the years that were missing from microfilm, but, alas, they were the originals from years that are already on microfilm.
An incredible gift this past week was an invitation to join Leigh Ann at the Tribal Libraries Summit, as one of her librarians could not attend. I was honored to be included as an observer, as one of KRL’s branches is on the Port Gamble S’Kallam Reservation. There were only 6 tribal libraries represented this year, and most of them were about to lose their IMLS funding, so it was a sober gathering. The librarians who were hosting the meeting, from the State Library, had just been notified that they were losing their jobs. But everyone who attended the meeting believes in libraries and as one person said (I am paraphrasing), “We are a resilient people. We have been through much worse. We will find another way.” Each of the libraries shared stories of the programming they are working on, from teaching native arts to working on storytelling projects. I met some incredible people who are doing good work out there. Let’s hope they can continue doing so without federal funding.
Week 4