Washington University Press Search Results Page

Tengautuli Atkuk / The Flying Parka

The Meaning and Making of Parkas in Southwest Alaska

By Ann Fienup-Riordan, Alice Rearden, and Marie Meade

Parkas are part of a living tradition in southwest Alaska. Some are ornamented with tassels, beads, and elaborate stitching; others are simpler fur or birdskin garments. Although fewer fancy parkas are sewn today, many people...

A Will to Serve

Stories of Patience, Persistence, and Friends Made Along the Way

By Jim Ellis and Jennifer Ott. Foreword by Sally Jewell. Afterword by Gary Locke

Jim Ellis was one of the most influential and impactful civic leaders of Seattle's and Washington's recent history. Though he never sought elected office, his vision and drive were a key force behind many major...

Skidegate House Models

From Haida Gwaii to the Chicago World's Fair and Beyond

By Robin K. Wright

In 1892 seventeen Haida artists were commissioned to carve a model of HlGaagilda Llnagaay (the village of Skidegate on Haida Gwaii, British Columbia) for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The Skidegate model, featuring twenty-nine...

Heartbreak City

Seattle Sports and the Unmet Promise of Urban Progress

By Shaun Scott

To cities, sports have never been just entertainment. Progressive urbanites across the United States have used athletics to address persistent problems in city life: the fights for racial justice, workers' rights, equality for women and...

Full Light and Perfect Shadow

The Photography of Chao-Chen Yang

By David F. Martin

This is the first study of the work of Chao-Chen Yang (1909–1969), an important Seattle photographer who gained national prominence in the mid-twentieth century.

Born in Hangzhou, China, Yang received his art training at the...

Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales

Fossils of Washington State

By Elizabeth A. Nesbitt and David B. Williams

From trilobites near the Idaho border and primitive horses on the Columbia Plateau to giant bird tracks near Bellingham and curious bear-like beasts on the Olympic Peninsula, fossils across Washington State are filled with clues...

Emily Carr

Life & Work

By Lisa Baldissera

Emily Carr (1871–1945) gained prominence when female painters were not recognized internationally. Her work reveals a fascination with questions inspired by the Canadian sea, landscapes, and people, reflecting a profound commitment to the land she...

Iljuwas Bill Reid

Life & Work

By Gerald McMaster

Few twentieth-century artists were catalysts for the reclamation of a culture, but Iljuwas Bill Reid (1920–1998) was among them. The first book on Reid by an Indigenous scholar details his incredible journey to becoming one...

Biking Uphill in the Rain

The Story of Seattle from behind the Handlebars

By Tom Fucoloro

Seattle was recently named the best bike city in the United States by Bicycling magazine. How did this notoriously hilly and rainy city become so inviting to bicyclists? And what challenges lie ahead for Puget...

Edible and Medicinal Flora of the West Coast

The Pacific Northwest and British Columbia

By Collin Varner

The coastal Pacific Northwest of North America is home to a multitude of edible and medicinal plant species, edible mushrooms, and marine plants—from Black Gooseberry to Western Tea-Berry, from Golden Chanterelle to Yellow Morel Mushroom,...

The Boathouse

The Artist's Studio of Dale Chihuly

By Leslie Jackson Chihuly, David B. Williams, and William Warmus

This book features an exclusive glimpse into The Boathouse, the private working studio of artist Dale Chihuly, and into the history of its location on the shores of Lake Union in Seattle. Inhabited for thousands...

Heaven on the Half Shell

The Story of the Oyster in the Pacific Northwest

By David George Gordon, Samantha Larson, and MaryAnn Barron Wagner. Foreword by Kenneth K. Chew

Heaven on the Half Shell offers a thoroughly researched and richly illustrated history of the Pacific Northwest’s beloved bivalve, the oyster. Starting with the earliest evidence of sea gardens and clam beds from 11,500 years...

Jesintel

Living Wisdom from Coast Salish Elders

By Children of the Setting Sun Productions. Edited by Darrell Hillaire and Natasha Frey. Photographs by Fay "Beau" Garreau, Jr.. Contributions by Lynda V. Mapes and Nicole Brown. Afterword by Danita Washington

Dynamic and diverse, Coast Salish culture is bound together by shared values and relations that generate a resilient worldview. Jesintel—"to learn and grow together"—characterizes the spirit of this book, which brings the cultural teachings of...

Stomp and Shout

R&B and the Origins of Northwest Rock and Roll

By Peter Blecha

Long before the world discovered grunge, the Pacific Northwest was already home to a singular music culture. In the late 1950s, locals had codified a distinct offshoot of rockin' R&B, and a surprising number...

Skid Road

On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in Seattle

By Josephine Ensign

Affluent Seattle has one of the highest numbers of unhoused people in the United States. In 2021 an estimated 40,800 people experienced homelessness in Seattle and King County during the year, not counting the significant...

Seattle from the Margins

Exclusion, Erasure, and the Making of a Pacific Coast City

By Megan Asaka

From the origins of the city in the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of World War II, Seattle's urban workforce consisted overwhelmingly of migrant laborers who powered the seasonal, extractive economy of the Pacific Northwest....

The Art of Ceremony

Voices of Renewal from Indigenous Oregon

By Rebecca J. Dobkins

The practice of ceremony offers ways to build relationships between the land and its beings, reflecting change while drawing upon deep relationships going back millennia. Ceremony may involve intricate and spectacular regalia but may also...

Between the Tides in Washington and Oregon

Exploring Beaches and Tidepools

By Ryan P. Kelly, Terrie Klinger, and John J. Meyer

A spectacular variety of life flourishes between the ebb and flow of high and low tide. Anemones talk to each other through chemical signaling, clingfish grip rocks and resist the surging tide, and bioluminescent dinoflagellates—single-celled...

Black Lives in Alaska

A History of African Americans in the Far Northwest

By Ian C. Hartman and David Reamer. Foreword by Calvin E. Williams

The history of Black Alaskans runs deep and spans generations. Decades before statehood and earlier even than the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s, Black men and women participated in Alaska’s politics and culture. They...

Transformations

The George and Colleen Hoyt Collection of Northwest Coast Art

By Rebecca J. Dobkins and Tasia D. Riley. Foreword by John Olbrantz

Since the 1980s, Oregon-based art collectors George and Colleen Hoyt have amassed one of the finest private collections of Northwest Coast art in the United States. Transformations traces the history of contemporary Northwest Coast Native...