Historical Records of Washington State (1981)

Historical Records of Washington State – Records and Papers Held at Repositories - 1981

From 1978 through 1981, the Washington State Historical Records Advisory Board (WSHRAB) received grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to survey (inventory) all of the historical records in the State of Washington, as a pilot project for the entire nation. 

As a national effort only a few states conducted the projects, but in the State of Washington it was a great success.  The product of that project was a state-wide guide to all of the manuscript collections in museums, libraries, universities, historical societies, churches, etc. in the state (the Washington State Archives collections were published in a separate volume, now up to date and searchable on-line).  The data was published in a limited number of hard-copy volumes, and the data base was somehow not forgotten.  It was migrated from Spindex to Gencat to Access, and now to PDF format.

The “Guide” is about 1,000 pages long, and although dated (1981), it can still be a valuable resource, since most repositories tend to hold on to their historical collections. While it is not up to date as to the current holdings of repositories, it can still be a great help to those doing many different kinds of historical research.

The information is arranged by city, then by repository, and then the collections for each repository are listed.  Contact information for the repositories (as of 1981) is at the end of the guide.

Statewide Historical Records Guide (1981)