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Topic: Women's History

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Pioneer Women of Seattle

This account of the women members of the Denny Party, founders of Seattle, was contributed by Dorothea Nordstrand (1916-2011). The five women members of the party were Mary Ann Denny, her sister, Loui...

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Pratt, Sunya (1898-1986)

Exposed to Buddhism at a young age, Reverend Sunya Gladys Pratt became an important spiritual leader for Jodo Shinshu Buddhists in the Pacific Northwest. She first joined the Tacoma Buddhist Church (l...

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Preston, Josephine Corliss (1873-1958)

Josephine Corliss Preston was the first woman elected to Washington state government after the state's women won the right to vote in 1910. She served as the sixth State Superintendent of Public Instr...

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Prohibition in Washington State

In Washington -- as in the rest of the country -- the question of who, if anyone, should control, manufacture, import, possess, and consume alcoholic intoxicants has been contentious and complicated b...

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Rat City Roller Derby

Rat City Rollergirls is a Seattle-based roller derby league of amateur female skaters, the first of its kind in the Northwest and one of five charter members of the national Women's Flat Track Derby A...

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Ray, Dixy Lee (1914-1994)

Dr. Dixy Lee Ray was a marine biologist, associate professor at the University of Washington, and director of Seattle's Pacific Science Center. In 1972 President Richard Nixon (1913-1994) appointed he...

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Reeves, Anna Belle Culp (1871-1948)

Belle Reeves was Washington's eighth Secretary of State, second woman to hold statewide elective office, and first female Secretary of State. Several times in her 10-year tenure, she was acting govern...

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Rigby and Rigby Photo Studio (1905-1915, Everett)

Clara (1873-1953) and Alice Rigby (1871-1915) owned and operated an Everett photographic studio from 1905 to 1915, successfully competing with a dozen other local firms. Calling their business the Ri...

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Riot Grrrl

Olympia found itself on the feminist map in the 1990s when it gave birth to Riot Grrrl, a cultural and political movement started by women fed up with sexism in the punk music scene. Riot Grrrl groups...

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Robinson, Lelia Josephine (1850-1891)

Lelia Robinson is a celebrated feminist pioneer in American legal history. Among her achievements, she was the first woman to earn admission to the Massachusetts State Bar. While those who know of Rob...

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Ruffner, Ginny (b. 1952)

When Ginny Ruffner moved to Seattle in the mid-1980s, she had already mastered the lampwork technique that would make her a celebrity among art-glass devotees. Her distinctive style of glass sculpture...

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Rush, Merrilee (b. 1944)

Merrilee Rush was among the most popular homegrown singing stars that the Northwest rock 'n' roll teen scene produced during the mid 1960s. Her trademark low voice and comely looks and an exciting sta...

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Ryan, John Henry (1865-1943) and Ella (1866-?)

John Henry Ryan and his wife Ella Ryan were two of the earliest African American business owners in Tacoma, where they owned and were the editors of The Forum, a weekly newspaper in the Tacoma area. A...

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Ryther, Mother Olive (1849-1934)

In 1882, Olive "Ollie" Ryther and her husband Noble Ryther, parents of four children, adopted four orphans. Ollie Ryther vowed to never turn an orphaned child away. She founded Seattle's Ryther Home a...

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Scott, Elsie (1898-1983)

The San Juan Islands are a remote, rural archipelago in the Salish Sea of the Pacific Northwest between the Washington mainland and Canada's Vancouver Island. In the late 1930s healthcare for the isla...

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Seattle Police Matrons (1894-1930)

More than a century ago, a debate about the ethics and authority of law enforcement began in Seattle as citizens, mainly women, voiced concerns about the abuses of power committed against women and gi...

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Seattle's First Female Officers on the Beat

This essay by Adam C. Eisenberg on Seattle's first female patrol officers hired and trained to be cops on the beat equal to men (nine women hired in 1976), originally appeared in the Seattle Post-Inte...

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Shackleford, Elizabeth (1895-1989)

Elizabeth Shackleford, a lifelong Tacoman, was a lawyer and judge in her hometown for 60 years. She was the second female justice of the peace in Pierce County and for several years the only female la...

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Shu, Dr. Ruby Inouye (1920-2012)

Dr. Ruby Inouye Shu was the first Japanese American woman physician in Seattle and an icon in the local Japanese community. Her general practice was in Seattle’s Nihonmachi or Japan...

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Sommers, Helen Elizabeth (1932-2017)

Helen Sommers was elected as a Democrat in November 1972 to represent Seattle's 36th District in the state House of Representatives. She won re-election 17 consecutive times over the next 36 years, wa...

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Spafford, Michael (1935-2022), and Elizabeth Sandvig (b. 1937)

Michael Spafford was a young art student at Pomona College in Claremont, California, in 1956 when a car accident put him out of commission for months. When he returned to school, he found another youn...

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Spear, Lillian S. (1897-1963)

Lillian E. Anderson Sylten Spear was an important player in Snohomish County's public-power movement. She began her career as an educator, served as president of the Snohomish County Parent-Teacher As...

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Speidel, Shirley Ross (1916-1994)

Shirley Ross Speidel, the devoted wife of Seattle Underground Tour founder Bill Speidel (1912-1988), was active in her community. She was one of the first members of the King County Landmarks Commissi...

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St. Nicholas School (Seattle)

St. Nicholas School was a private nonsectarian girls' school founded in 1910 and located in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The school was named to honor St. Nicholas, the patron saint of childr...

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