Library Guides: Great Depression: Archival and Primary Source Collections

Introduction

See links below for archival resources housed at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies and other repositories.

Researchers seeking information relating to Western Washington University campus history are advised to contact staff at Western Libraries Archives & Special Collections (the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Special Collections and the WWU Archives and Records Center). Useful resources may include periodicals and other Campus School Collection holdings (Western Libraries Special Collections) as well as administrative records of the university (contact WWU Archives and Records Center).

Archives & Special Collections Holdings

Bellingham Centennial Oral History Project Records
The Bellingham Centennial Oral History Project records document the personal responses to significant experiences and events by long-time residents of Bellingham as a part of the city's centennial celebration. Both the audio and video interviews of Bellingham residents represent an economic, ethnic, and physical cross section of the Bellingham community and covers a broad range of topics including local environmental issues, healthcare, entertainment, Native American issues and other ethnic and race relations, industry and businesses, transportation, and education
Center for Pacific Northwest Studies Newspaper Collection
This is a collection of various local newspapers from around Washington State, the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. Newspapers date from 1878 to 1986. The Bellingham Herald, in particular, may be of interest.
Civilian Conservation Corps Collection (Olsen, Vic and Mae)
The collection includes photographs, newsletters, scrapbooks, oral history transcripts, publications, clippings, artifacts, and correspondence documenting the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Washington State. Much of this material was gathered by Vic and Mae Olsen, who were active in the CCC Alumni Association and in establishing a CCC interpretative center at Deception Pass State Park in Washington. Records span the period 1930 – 2001, and include some original material generated by CCC employees and pertaining to individual camps across the state. The collection also documents the activities of the CCC Alumni Association (notably the formation and work of Everett Chapter 78), and the creation of the CCC interpretive center at Deception Pass.
Skagit County Oral History Project Records
This is a collection of microfilmed copies of oral history interview transcripts. The interviews were conducted by the Skagit County Historical Society between 1962 and 1979. Topics covered include social life, historical change, politics, agriculture, fishing, and timber.
Southeast Washington Oral Histories
The Southeast Washington oral histories were conducted in the 1970s and cover regional topics including agriculture, business, crime, education, fishing, the Great Depression, homesteading, hunting, medicine, music, Native Americans, railroads, and sports.
Washington Women's Heritage Project Records
The Washington Women's Heritage Project was a state-wide grant project designed to stimulate awareness of Washington women. The collection includes National Endowment for the Humanities grant proposals, working notes, correspondence, western region budget records, travel expenses, personnel files, planning reports, research topics and sources, slide tape display records, oral history cassette tapes and transcriptions, publicity and press releases, workshop information, display photographs and Whatcom County Women's Network Newsletter.

Western Front Historical Collection (Student Newspaper) [Western Washington University]
Since its beginnings in 1899 as a "Normal School," there has been a student newspaper at Western. From the beginning as a teacher-training college to comprehensive regional university, the student paper has chronicled the social, athletic, academic, and creative life of Western.

Western Washington University's "The Great Depression and Its 50 Year Shadow" Symposium Records
The collection contains the records of a grant based project designed to document the effects of the Great Depression in Whatcom County. Includes grant applications, planning records, transcripts of symposium speakers and programs, and audio tapes and transcripts of oral history interviews with local figures on their Depression-era experiences.

Other Repositories and Online Resources

Dust Bowl Images
Fireside Chats of Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Fireside Chats were contributed by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, located in Hyde Park, New York.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library maintains over 17 million pages of documents, 150,000 audiovisual items, and 50,000 books. Among these materials are the personal papers of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as those of various individuals and organizations associated with the Roosevelts.
The Great Depression in Washington State: Pacific Northwest Labor & Civil Rights Projects, University of Washington
The Great Depression in Washington State Project is a multimedia website that explores this important decade. Here you will find detailed accounts of issues, incidents, institutions, and people, along with hundreds of photographs, documents, and news articles from the period.
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum
The Hoover Library collects manuscripts, photographs and oral histories documenting President Herbert Hoover, the only United States President to come from the state of Iowa.
Images of Labor and Justice: The Art of Richard V. Correll
Richard V. (Dick) Correll (1904-1990), was "one of the leading masters of printmaking in the West." This exhibit features selections from several core areas of Correll’s recently donated collection at the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, including images of labor, social justice, civil rights, anti-war themes, work for the Great Depression-era Federal Art Project of the Works Projects Administration, and his work for the progressive Depression-era newspaper the Voice of Action.
New Deal Document Library
The New Deal Document Library consists of speeches, advertisements, letters, articles and administrative documents.
WPA Posters
The By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 collection consists of 908 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. These striking silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters were designed to publicize health and safety programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities in seventeen states and the District of Columbia.

Archives & Special Collections

OUR MISSION

Western Libraries Archives & Special Collections provides for responsible stewardship of and access to unique and archival resources in support of teaching, learning and research at Western Washington University and beyond. The Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Special Collections, and University Archives and Records Management work together to document the culture and history of Western, the local community and Pacific Northwest region, and to promote public and scholarly access to holdings.

Images from WWU Collections

Bacon Creek, 1933 (Vic and Mae Olsen CCC collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Archives & Special Collections, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9123)

Front row left to right: Betty (Johnson), Grace (Connelly), Billy, David; Back row: Hazel (Brown), Mollie Satko, Joe, Paul, George (Galen Biery papers and photographs #2035.3, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Archives & Special Collections, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9123). According to http://satkosark.org/, the "Ark of Juneau" was built in the 1930s by Paul Satko, an unemployed machinist from Richmond, VA, who, during the Great Depression, determined to take his wife and children to Alaska. After crossing the country with boat in tow, the Satkos launched the Ark of Juneau in Tacoma in May 1940, only to run aground in Seattle. Mr. and Mrs. Satko were arrested and their children taken away on the premise that the vessel was unsafe for travel to Alaska.
After a court hearing the family did manage to embark and, under cover of darkness, eventually made it to Canadian waters where the US authorities had no jurisdiction. The Satkos arrived in Juneau on July 27, 1940, and eventually built a homestead 26 miles up the Eagle River.

See vertical file in the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies Reference Library for more information.