Each photo tells part of Snohomish County’s story

In 1955, clam diggers on a Port Gardner beach wore fedoras. In January ‘69, the Snohomish River rose so high that people escaped homes in boats. And a month later, on Feb. 9, 1969, a crowd at Paine Field watched the first takeoff of a Boeing 747.

Local historians know all this. Now, with new online access to old Herald photos and other historical pictures, we can all see our region’s past.

One photo at a time, Sno-Isle Libraries is telling the area’s story through its Digitize Our Community History Project. More than 500 images are available online, at www.sno-isle.org/catalog/photos.

They include 235 Everett Herald photos, dating from the early 1950s through 1970. Much older pictures were made available to Sno-Isle by historical societies in Snohomish, Darrington, Edmonds and Langley.

Colleen Brazil, Sno-Isle’s content access manager, said the project began when the agency received a $5,435 grant from the Washington State Library Rural Heritage Program more than a year ago. That money was used to digitize South Whidbey Historical Society pictures, with help from the Langley Library.

The Langley Collection, 195 pictures, shows Freeland settlers, the 1911 Langley High School baseball team, and a portrait of Joseph Whidbey, the first European to circumnavigate Whidbey Island.

After the Langley work, project leaders applied for a $20,000 Sno-Isle Libraries Strategic Initiatives Grant, which paid for hardware, software and computer servers to create an ongoing digital archive.

Staff at Sno-Isle branches worked with volunteers from the Darrington Historical Society, the Edmonds Historical Society, the Snohomish Historical Society and the South Whidbey Historical Society.

It was a different story with photos from The Everett Herald, as the paper was known for decades.

“We were approached by Sno-Isle to provide access,” said Josh O’Connor, publisher of The Daily Herald. The newspaper was preparing to move from downtown Everett to its new offices on 41st Street. Before the move, file cabinets filled with Herald images were taken to the Sound Publishing Inc. facility near Paine Field.

O’Connor said he and Neal Pattison, The Herald’s executive editor, had discussed ways to provide more public access to the newspaper’s work, covering more than a century of local history. The Everett Public Library has the newspaper on microfilm, back to 1901.

Brazil said O’Connor and Pattison met with Cheryl Telford, Sno-Isle Libraries strategic partnership manager, to discuss how to include Herald pictures in the archiving project. “We talked about what we had been doing with the other groups,” Brazil said. Someone was needed to do the work — scanning and providing captions — that historical society volunteers had done with their pictures.

“That type of stewardship, culling through all of this information, was a daunting task,” O’Connor said.

With The Herald pictures, that task was accomplished by Von Flake, a University of Washington student working on his master’s degree in library and information science. “It was a directed field work opportunity,” said Flake, 46, who also has a work-study job at the Lynnwood Library.

Flake spent several months on the project. He “harvested” photos at the Sound Publishing site, then did the scanning and created digital files at the Sno-Isle Libraries Service Center near Marysville. “We were limited to two or three file cabinets loaded with images,” Flake said. Pictures from the 1950s through 1970 were in the best order, and had descriptions.

O’Connor said the most organized files coincide with years when The Herald had a librarian on its staff. Nearly all the pictures in The Herald collection, which Sound Publishing still owns, were taken by Jim Leo and Ken Knudson.

At the Sno-Isle Libraries Service Center today, partners in the photo project will celebrate its first year. Organizations interested in sharing historical photos are welcome at the 1 p.m. event.

The Darrington collection shows early-day loggers and giant cedars. The Brackett residence and the Yost family are among highlights of the Edmonds photos. The Snohomish pictures show a First Street butcher shop and the old bicycle tree. And from The Herald are parades, floods, train disasters, and day-to-day life.

“They are invaluable,” Flake said. “They record moments in time.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

See the photos

View photos from Sno-Isle Libraries’ Digitize Our Community History Project at: www.sno-isle.org/catalog/photos

Along with the Everett Herald Collection, there are collections from historical societies in Darrington, Edmonds, Snohomish and Langley. Groups interested in applying to have historical photos included in Sno-Isle’s collection are invited to an information session at 1 p.m. today at the Sno-Isle Service Center, 7312 35th Ave. NE, Tulalip. Or contact Colleen Brazil, 360-651-7046 or cbrazil@sno-isle.org

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.