Sophie Frye Bass Library

                              

                This post is about a library within a library.  For anyone interested in anything related to early  Seattle History through photos, maps, newspapers, and other historical material, this should be your first stop.  Below is an overview of my first visit.

                                 Repository

Sophie Frye Bass Library

Located at the MOHAI Resource Center 

                   

              5933 6th Ave South

Seattle, WA

Overview:

     The Sophie Frye Bass Library is located in the resource center for the Museum of history and industry (MOHAI).  The library provides and preserves over 3 million pieces of historic archival materials.  It covers the Seattle metro area and other parts of Washington as well as some parts of Alaska.

The MOHAI resource center also houses the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society and the Black Heritage Society of Washington.

The library is open by appointment only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 1-4pm.

You can find this information on the MOHAI website at: http://www.mohai.org/research/sophie-frye-bass-library

My Experience

     In order to get access to the library you must email ahead and set up an appointment with the archivist in charge, Carolyn Marr.  When arriving you are buzzed in and personally escorted to the actual library.  Once there the archivist will use her online catalog to find whatever the specific item is that you are looking for.  She can look by artifact ie; diary, letters, photos, or by name.  The back of the library holds the boxes and folders.  There is a standard card catalog as well.  There is also a newspaper archivist on hand that can assist with newspaper retrievals.  There is a large table in the middle of the room that can seat about 6-8 people and a box of archival gloves on hand at all times.

     The archivist assists in the computer catalog set up but then allows you to browse your topic as needed.  I decided to look under letters and the list contained a little over 200.  I browsed each one until I found some of interest.  Each item contained information about the artifact including the condition. The materials were categorized by box and folder.

     I was very impressed by the friendliness and helpfulness of the archivists. They seemed to have extensive knowledge and were also busy helping a college journalism student with old newspapers as well as helping a local writer with historic maps of the area.  When my items were chosen I gave the archivist the box and folder number and she retrieved the materials for me.  I was allowed to look through the entire box and folder contents and was asked to wear gloves on sensitive and fragile items.  My only time limit was that of the library hours. 

The Records

     Since I was working on an assignment for the Boston University Genealogical Research course I needed to look for an original, unpublished document.  This was the perfect place to find such a thing!  I found a folder of letters, photos and artifacts that  had been donated by the wife of N.A. Carle, a man who climbed Mount Rainier with Major E.S. Ingraham a well known mountaineer and first superintendent of the Seattle School District. 

                                                     

      The Letter I transcribed was thought to have been written by Ingraham, and had been labeled as such, but after reading it and doing some research on it I discovered it was not written by Ingraham at all. Instead it had been written by another climbing party member, H.E. Holmes. 

                Henry Elliot Holmes climbed with Mount Rainier with Major Ingraham's party and took his 

           15 year old daughter Helen with him.  She was 1 of 3 women climbers on this trek and 1 of 5            

           during this time period to reach the top.  I am excited to go back to this lovely library and go     

           through   the other papers in this collection!