More museum stories

I was excited last week when the Museum of History and Industry published my new finding aid on the Northwest Digital Archives website. It was about the nicest "thank you" a volunteer could get.

Here's a direct link to the finished document:

http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv66622

I've started research now on another collection, also from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. This one is challenging, because it's mostly unidentified aerial photographs of the Seattle Center construction process.

Our kitschy Space Needle is such a part of the Seattle skyline, its hard to imagine the time when it wasn't there. It was originally called the "Space Cage," and designed to make visitors feel like they were going up into a flying saucer. The elevator operators wore shiny space age costumes, and dinner in the revolving "Eye of the Needle" restaurant was special indeed, with waits up to 6 hours for a table during the fair.

In the old aerial construction photos, you can see how the Seattle Center fairground was carved right out of the urban landscape 50 years ago. For better or worse, those were the days when things got done quickly around here. The land for the Space Needle was purchased for $75,000 in 1961, and the Needle completed the next year. In the pictures, you can also see the old Seattle Municipal Auditorium, which was transformed into an Opera House for World's Fair entertainment. In 2003, the building was completely renovated again and became the magnificent McCaw Hall. Nothing remains of the fusty old auditorium except the footprint, but I like the idea of buildings being constructed "on top" of other buildings.

So history goes...Seattle isn't exactly Rome, but it has a colorful and eventful past. Below is an aerial photo of the Seattle Center: