Category Archives: History

The Pediatrician’s Lament

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Jim deMaine

Eleanor R. Menzin, M.D. in The New England Journal of Medicine “It’s your fault!” the renowned infectious disease attending told the cluster of students and residents. In the late 1990s, the varicella vaccine was relatively new, and uptake was disappointingly low. “You … Continue reading →

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Commentary on Day One

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Jim deMaine

Ed note: Somehow the Trump cartoons don’t seem funny to me anymore. They reflect the negativity that is now reality and evoke sadness rather than humor. Historian Heather Cox Richardson helps me see the present in an historical context. As … Continue reading →

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Two great presidents’ masterful inaugural speeches

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Jim deMaine

By David Adler in the Seattle Times Special to The Idaho Statesman When Donald Trump assumes office Monday, as the 47th president of the United States, he will mark the solemn occasion with an inaugural address. While not required by the … Continue reading →

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Yes, there are heroes

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Jim deMaine

Commentary by Heather Cox Richardson You hear sometimes, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, that America has no heroes left. When I was writing a book about the Wounded Knee … Continue reading →

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Dick’s Drive-In begins serving Seattle hamburgers on January 28, 1954.

Posted on January 17, 2025 by Jim deMaine

In History Link – thanks to Pam P. On January 28, 1954, Dick’s Drive-In opens to begin serving hamburgers, french fries, and milkshakes on NE 45th Street in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. Dick’s comes to represent the quintessential 1950s, a cross … Continue reading →

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Can you read cursive? It’s a superpower the National Archives is looking for.

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Jim deMaine

Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY If you can read cursive, the National Archives would like a word. Or a few million. More than 200 years worth of U.S. documents are in need of transcribing (or at least classifying) and the vast … Continue reading →

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A Tribute to Jimmy Carter

Posted on December 30, 2024 by Jim deMaine

Heather Cox Richardson Former President Jimmy Carter died today, December 29, 2024, at age 100 after a life characterized by a dedication to human rights. His wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, died on November 19, 2023; she was 96 … Continue reading →

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Masterpiece Story: Statue of Liberty

Posted on November 13, 2024 by Jim deMaine

Anastasia Manioudaki (thanks to Ann M. who notes I think the Lady must now be weeping. Please note her imagined damage (head knocked off) in the WW1 poster on display in our Art of the Month + her history below. … Continue reading →

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The history of Veteran’s Day

Posted on November 11, 2024 by Jim deMaine

notes from Heather Cox Richardson In 1918, at the end of four years of World War I’s devastation, leaders negotiated for the guns in Europe to fall silent once and for all on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day … Continue reading →

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Voting for the Light

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Jim deMaine

The religious imagineer (thanks to Mary Jane F.) Pablo Picasso, La Minotauromachie (1935). Picasso’s turbulent etching from the eve of the Spanish Civil War seems a timely image of my own country in this harrowing election season. The monstrous beast towers over … Continue reading →

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Why, why?

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Jim deMaine
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Every river has its people

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Jim deMaine

If “every river has its people,” can The People restore their river? Thanks to Ed M. Davus Burge in Post Alley Of Native Americans and their world on Puget Sound, here ar the words of John, a Swinomish elder born … Continue reading →

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Falsely justifying high tariffs – commentary by Heather Cox Richardson

Posted on October 6, 2024 by Jim deMaine

William McKinley is having a moment (which I confess is a sentence I never expected to write).  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is elevating McKinley, representative from Ohio from 1877 to 1891 and president from 1897 to 1901, to justify … Continue reading →

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The Medical Establishment Closes Ranks, and Patients Feel the Effects

Posted on September 20, 2024 by Jim deMaine

Ed note: It’s so hard to give up our established beliefs, even when hard evidence disproves them. I was taught in medical school that, “The questions don’t change, but every few years the answers do.” It’s sad and frustrating when … Continue reading →

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66 Photos From The 1960s, The Decade That Rocked The World

Posted on August 31, 2024 by Jim deMaine

By All That’s Interesting | Edited By John Kuroski Whether it’s the burning monk, the JFK assassination, or Woodstock, these images are still seared into the American consciousness 50 years later. This now iconic image of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara depicts him … Continue reading →

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Nancy Pearl interviews Tim Egan

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Jim deMaine
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47 Historical Images From Past Olympics That Are Genuinely Wild To See Now

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Jim deMaine

by Angelica Martinez in Buzzfeed (thanks to Bob P.) 1. The 100 meters sprint at “the first Olympic Games of the Modern Era” which took place in Athens, Greece in 1896: 2. And the crowd at that same 1896 Olympics: 3. The American … Continue reading →

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Remembering Charley Royer, Seattle’s only three-term mayor

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Jim deMaine

Helping the city reinvent itself after the Boeing bust, Royer pushed for a Westlake Park makeover, the Convention Center and low-income housing. by Knute Berger in Crosscut Charles “Charley” Royer during his first year as Seattle Mayor in 1978. Royer died … Continue reading →

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Honored By the Post Office, Alex Trebek Gets His Own Jeopardy Themed Stamps.

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Jim deMaine

Ryan Chilton Jul 26, 2024 Thanks to Pam P. In a fitting tribute to a television icon, the U.S. Postal Service has honored Alex Trebek with a special sheet of commemorative stamps that beautifully capture his legacy. Trebek, who was … Continue reading →

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Democracy–all at once

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Jim deMaine

by Heather Cox Richardson

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Heather Cox Richardson on PBS

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary Jane F. Click here for a great sense of hope and aid in keeping ourselves centered during all the craziness around us.

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From the floor at Pike Place Market

Posted on July 9, 2024 by Jim deMaine

From the Japanese Heian Period: 794-1185 CE (thanks to Mike C.)

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The second of July 1776

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Jim deMaine

by Heather Cox Richardson

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Treaty Justice by Charles Wilkinson

Posted on June 28, 2024 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Ed M. From Post Alley by David Brewster Fifty years ago, federal Judge George Boldt issued his landmark decision on tribal fishing rights. An admirable new book, Treaty Justice, by law professor and tribal advocate Charles Wilkinson, has just … Continue reading →

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Juneteenth

Posted on June 18, 2024 by Jim deMaine

On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation … Continue reading →

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