Books published by Documentary Media LLC

Seattle has packed a lot of history into the 150 years since its incorporation. Much of that historyΓÇöthe stories, the people, dialogue and debate, conflict and visionΓÇöis preserved in the Seattle Municipal Archives. The collectionΓÇÖs documents, maps, photographs, and ephemera bear witness to the texture, color, and voices of an ever growing and changing city. The 150 artifacts highlighted in this book illustrate a transformed geography, developed and redeveloped neighborhoods, and waves of city-defining immigration and emigration. They show us how the cityΓÇÖs psyche and its physical and social landscapeΓÇöits aspirationsΓÇöare shaped. The steady push and pull of community organizers and civic leaders, and the everyday needs of the people who call this place home, give Seattle its remarkable spirit, just as they have since its first cornerstones were pounded into place on the shores of Elliott Bay.

In the midst of galloping growth at the turn of the twentieth century, Seattle¿s city leaders seized on the confluence of a roaring economy with the City Beautiful movement to hire the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm to design a park and parkway system. Their 1903 plan led to a supplemental plan, a playground plan, numerous park and boulevard designs, changes to park system management, and a ripple effect, as the Olmsted Brothers were hired to design public and private landscapes throughout the region. The park system shaped Seattle¿s character and continues to play a key role in the city¿s livability today.

Jim Kershner is a historian for HistoryLink. He is the author of Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life.

Why does a city surrounded by water need another waterway? Find out what drove Seattle¿s civic leaders to pursue the dream of a Lake Washington Ship Canal for more than sixty years and what role it has played in the region¿s development over the past century. Historians Jennifer Ott and David B. Williams, author of Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle's Topography, explore how industry, transportation, and the very character of the city and surrounding region developed in response to the economic and environmental changes brought by Seattle's canal and locks.

Follow the history of Woodland Park Zoo from its nineteenth-century beginnings as a park originally carved from the wilderness north of downtown Seattle to promote a nearby real estate development. As Seattle grew, its zoo engendered civic pride and the animals in its growing collection became local personalities. By the 1970s, the zoo emerged as an international pioneer in zoo design. Lavishly illustrated, Woodland provides a narrative of changing ideas about the relationship between humans and animals, and a fond look at the zoös animals and the people who care for them.