CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Roland H. Hartley

Canadian-American politician (1864-1952)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ886900 ↗
Source-derived summary

Roland Hill Hartley (June 26, 1864 – September 21, 1952) was a Canadian-American politician who served as the tenth governor of Washington from 1925 to 1933. A member of the Republican Party, he was defeated for a third term during the Great Depression and was succeeded by Democrat Clarence D. Martin in 1933.

Born in New Brunswick, Canada, he moved to Minnesota in the United States as a young man and entered the timber industry. In 1902 he moved to Everett, Washington, where he ultimately had interests in several timber companies and a tugboat company.

In 1910 he entered electoral politics, serving one term as mayor of Everett. Later he was elected to the State House, where he served one term.

Early life

Hartley, the eighth of twelve children, was born at Shogomoc in the British colony of New Brunswick on June 26, 1864. (It became the Province of New Brunswick after Canadian Confederation in 1867). He was the son of Rev. Edward Hartley and Rebecca Barker (Whitehead) Hartley.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Roland H. Hartley” as canadian-American politician (1864-1952). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1864, 1952, 1925, 1933—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1864-06-26. The account is most persuasive where Roland, Hartley and Canadian-American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as canadian-American politician (1864-1952). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q886900. VIAF identifies the subject as 2312861. The Library of Congress control number is nr89001357. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1864, 1952, 1925 and 1933.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Roland H. Hartley”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Roland H. Hartley primary sources, Roland H. Hartley archive and Roland research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Roland H. Hartley”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Roland H. Hartley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.