CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · History & Society

Washington State Historical Society

historical soociety in Washington, US

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ22137274 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Washington State Historical Society is the historical society of the U.S. state of Washington. Based in Tacoma, it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and is a trustee agency of the state. It was founded in 1891.

The board of trustees of the society includes the Governor of Washington, Secretary of State of Washington, and Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction, and four members of the Washington State Legislature.

The society owns and operates the Washington State History Museum. The society's official journal is Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History. In 2016, the publication received a Leadership in History Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History.

Editorial summary

“Washington State Historical Society” enters the record as historical soociety in Washington, US. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Washington, State and Historical can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1891, 2016—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Washington, State and Historical.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Washington State Historical Society” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Washington, State and Historical provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q22137274. VIAF identifies the subject as 155884378. The Library of Congress control number is n80066736. Authority coordinates are 47.245, -122.436. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1891 and 2016.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. 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

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Washington State Historical Society”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Washington State Historical Society primary sources, Washington State Historical Society archive and Washington 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 “Washington State Historical Society”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Washington State Historical Society” 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.