Online Research
Find below a variety of links to help you research events, people, topics, and places across Washington State. Please let us know if you have any go-to resoures that you think would be valuable to share with the Cultural Resource Management community.
Statewide
Building Materials
People
- FindAGrave
- USGenWeb Project
- AIA Historical Directory
- Society of American Registered Architects
- Black Heritage Society of Washington State
- Yale University- Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Archaeology
Military
Newspaper
Context
- HistoryLink
- Hathi Trust Digital Library
- HistoryHUB
- Seattle Public Library Special Collections
- Told By the Pioneers Volumes:
- Vol 1: https://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/sl_unitedpioneersv1/sl_unitedpioneersv1.pdf
- Vol 2: https://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/sl_unitedpioneersv2/sl_unitedpioneersv2.pdf
- Vol 3: https://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/sl_unitedpioneersv3/sl_unitedpioneersv3.pdf
- US Modernist Library
- UW Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest
- Washington State Digital Archives
- WorldCat.org: The World's Largest Library Catalog
- Washington State History Museum Digital Collections
Historic Images
- Washington State University Digital Collection
- Washington Rural Heritage
- Jones Historical Photo Collection
Maps
- USGS Earth Explorer: http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
- USGS Topo Maps (Historic): https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#4/39.98/-100.06
- Washington Coastal Atlas: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/shorephotoviewer/
- Sanborn Maps: https://www.trl.org/node/14897?topics=67
- Historic Mapworks:http://www.historicmapworks.com/Browse/Maps/
- Historic Aerials: https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer
- Kroll Map Company: http://www.krollmapcompany.com/
- Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Washington Historical Topographic Maps: http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/washington/
- Atlas of Historical County Boundaries:https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/
- Washington Department of Ecology Shoreline Photo Viewer: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/shorephotoviewer/Map/ShorelinePhotoViewer
- Bureau of Land Management Cadastral Maps and Survey Records: https://www.blm.gov/or/landrecords/survey/ySrvy1.php
- Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records: https://glorecords.blm.gov/
- Puget Sound T-Sheets: http://riverhistory.ess.washington.edu/tsheets/
- Yale University- Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog?fulltext_search=1&search_field=all_fields&fulltext_search=1&q=washington+state
Researching the History of Your House
Regional
Inland Northwest
Southwest Washington
Puget Sound Region
- Everett Public Library Digital Collections: https://www.epls.org/185/Digital-Collections
- Whidbey Island Historic Aerials: https://wacds.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b938cbecb3d94a90b59f586c8eaeeec5
- Olympia Historical Society: https://olympiahistory.org/resources-for-researching-olympias-history/
- Shelton Mason County Journal archive: http://smc.stparchive.com/
- Tacoma Public Library Building Index: http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p17061coll1
- Tacoma Public Library’s Northwest Room Collections: https://www.tacomalibrary.org/resources/local-history-genealogy/
- Tacoma Public Library Digital Collections: http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/
Central Washington
- Granite Falls Historical Society: https://www.gfhistory.org/Maps.html
- Illustrated History of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan, and Chelan Counties: https://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/publicationsviewer/?title=Illustrated%20history%20of%20Stevens%2C%20Ferry%2C%20Okanogan%20and%20Chelan&page=712&id=83
- Yakima Memory: https://archives.yvl.org/
- Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society: http://www.wags-web.org/
Southeastern Washington
- Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia, and Garfield: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t6f204r6k&view=1up&seq=9
- Up-to-the-Times Magazine: https://arminda.whitman.edu/collections/times
- Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country: https://www.sos.wa.gov/library/publications_detail.aspx?p=36
- Illustrated History of Southeastern WA: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t70v9nv0t&view=1up&seq=13
- Illustrated History of Walla Walla County: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t42r4608z&view=1up&seq=11
- Bygone Walla Walla: http://wallawalladrazanphotos.blogspot.com/
Northwest Washington
- Whatcom County Historic Aerials: https://wacds.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=071f9238f7ff42c8b70cb9e5ed08d0a5
- Snohomish County First 100 Years: https://loscho.maps.arcgis.com/apps/PublicInformation/index.html?appid=d88679dd9d04410f806546b0d7f776f2