Seattle Municipal Archives celebrates Archives Month with new exhibit
“A City at Work” features more than 750 photographs covering the past 130 years
SEATTLE - In celebration of Archives Month and its upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary, The Seattle Municipal Archives presents A City at Work
, an online exhibit featuring more than 750 city photographs taken over the past 130 years. The exhibit documents the history, work and accomplishments of Seattle city government and highlights the scope, breadth and quality of the Seattle Municipal Archives’ photographic holdings.
A City at Work
illustrates Seattle’s growth as a city—from its geographic transformation through a series of regrades, landfills, and manmade waterways; to its structural development as the Northwest’s largest city; to its attitudinal development, by celebrating the city’s achievements and confronting its challenges — human and natural.
“Municipal government touches the lives of citizens more intimately than any other level of government,” said City Archivist Scott Cline. “The exhibit illustrates many of the services that Seattleites probably don’t think about or that they might simply take for granted. We believe it is important to highlight that work.”
The heart of the exhibit showcases many of the projects and services initiated or provided by Seattle city government including:
- Building a network of streets, arterials and bridges, and establishing a public transit system;
- Delivering clean-mountain drinking water to Seattle residents after building a comprehensive water supply system;
- Establishing a system of parks, public space, cultural facilities, and recreational programs;
- Protecting public health and safety by establishing the police and fire departments, public hospitals and clinics, solid waste removal, and environmental protection measures;
- Delivering human services and relief programs, libraries, community centers, neighborhood services, and arts programs contributing to Seattle’s social, cultural, and community well-being.
A City at Work
concludes by documenting the administration of city government by elected officials and civil servants.
The exhibit’s 750 images were selected from the Seattle Municipal Archives’ holdings of more than one million photographs that span 100 years and document city work and facilities. More than 135,000 of these photographs may be searched and viewed on the http://www.seattle.gov/CityArchives/.
The Seattle Municipal Archives holds over 10,000 cubic feet of records documenting the history, development and activities of the agencies and elected officials of Seattle. Archives’ records are searchable online at http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/
or you may view these records in the Archives’ research room at Seattle City Hall.
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