New Releases
Greenscapes
Olmsted's Pacific
Northwest
Joan Hockaday
“Seattle possesses extraordinary landscape advantages in having a great abundance and variety of water views and views of wooded hills and distant mountains and snow-capped peaks. I do not know of any place where the natural advantages for parks are better than here. They can be made very attractive and will be, in time, one of the things that will make Seattle known all over the world.”—John Charles Olmsted, 1903
Like his famous stepfather and mentor Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed New York’s Central Park, landscape architect John Charles Olmsted believed that pastoral spaces were integral to a healthy urban life. The success of Central Park brought attention to the company and sparked a nationwide movement to beautify cities. By 1884, John Charles Olmsted had become a full partner in the Olmsted firm. In 1903, he traveled to Portland and Seattle, submitting master plans for park systems in both. He produced designs for several of the region’s university campuses and smaller cities, as well as Spokane’s premier Riverside Park System. Yet success was jeopardized by political and practical mine fields such as changing park boards, escalating land costs, and dwindling funds. John Charles Olmsted’s finesse with members of the societal elite influenced property purchases, political appointments, and municipal funding levels.
Careful attention to natural vistas, topography, and native plants allowed his verdant havens to provide a renewing connection to the outdoors. Each green retreat was unique, compatible with surroundings and intended uses, and skillfully crafted to take full advantage of a specific site. Some had playgrounds, ball fields, and expansive lawns. Others provided leafy passageways for travel by foot, horse, or car. Hilly woodlands were often layered to offer a lush, textural backdrop with dappled areas of light and shade. Meticulous, intensely observant, industrious, and visionary, he left a legacy that is still enjoyed daily by people across the Pacific Northwest.
“One hundred years later, when we enter an Olmsted-designed park, despite more traffic and development than even those visionaries could probably imagine, we feel submerged in solitude, shelter and a dose of peace sufficient to refresh even the 21st-century human spirit.”—Valerie Easton, Pacific Northwest Magazine
.jpg)
Making the Grade
Plucky Schoolmarms of Kittitas
Country
Barb Owen
In 1914, a student completing two years of high school could enter the Ellensburg Normal School for one academic year, pass an examination, and earn a teaching certificate. Elsie Hodgson did just that. In response to her application at the remote Tarpsican School, the clerk replied, “You can teach our school…Sharpen up your six shooter, we got some ornery kids in these parts.” Ready for adventure, she accepted and unexpectedly met kind, hospitable people, who treated her with respect and affection.
In Making the Grade, thirteen former Kittitas country schoolmarms fondly reflect on teaching in rural locales between 1914 and 1942. The classes were usually small, but frequently included pupils of all grade levels in a single room. A new schoolmarm also served as janitor, fire builder, water hauler, nurse, and lunchtime cook. The schools were social hubs of their communities—popular activities included holiday programs, plays, spelling bees, box socials, picnics, and dances.
Being away from home and friends for the first time, the young women confronted numerous challenges. For several from the towns, the experience was an introduction to country life. Elsie Hodgson learned to ride horseback. Nell Donald's students showed her how to gather wild onions among rattlesnake infested rocks behind the school. Emma Darter rejected the idea of a field trip-coyotes and cougars prowled too near the schoolhouse. Others contended with fierce weather, mischievous pet monkeys, swarms of bees, unruly older boys, and smallpox, measles, and flu. Facing these ordeals with creativity, dedication, and pluck, they enhanced the lives of their pupils and earned the adoration of rural populations.
Crossroads and Connections
Central Washington University Art Alumni Exhibition
Central Washington University Art Department
“My favorite kind of work is whatever I’m doing, and my best piece is the next one. The process of creating has been central to my life since I was a child.”—Ann Marta Bowker
In April, 2007, fifty-eight acclaimed artists participated in a remarkable exhibition held simultaneously at the Sarah Spurgeon Gallery on the campus of Central Washington University, and in downtown Ellensburg, Washington, at the Gallery One Visual Arts Center. United by a common history as CWU art students between 1954 and 1979, they represented diverse vocations, media, and influences.
Sculptors, painters, photographers, graphic designers, fiber and ceramic artists, metal smiths, professors, and teachers, these graduates have shown their work locally, nationally, and internationally. Among many honors, they are recipients of the Washington State Governor’s Arts Award, Northwest Addy and Clio gold awards, and a Humanities Washington Award.
Now Washington State University Press has released a beautiful new art catalog based on that inaugural event. Crossroads and Connections: Central Washington University Alumni Exhibition features one selection from each participant. Exquisite full-color photographs of the chosen piece alongside enlightening biographies, quotes, and career highlights, celebrate their collective success, an alliance whose shared creativity, passion, and dedication to art education and organizations have left an undeniable impact on the fine arts community, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
Finding Chief Kamiakin
The Life and Legacy of a Northwest Patriot
Richard D. Scheuerman &
Michael O. Finley
John Clement,
Photography
Albert Redstar Andrews,
Introduction
Robert H. Ruby, Foreword
Born to a champion horse racer and the daughter of a chief, Kamiakin from an early age helped relatives tend his family’s expanding herds. He shared in communal spring root gathering, summertime salmon fishing, and autumn berry-picking and hunting, wintering with relatives in tule mat lodges in the Kittitas and Ahtanum valleys.
Kamiakin adhered to ancestral tradition. Alone as an adolescent on Mount Rainier’s icy heights, he dreamt of the Buffalo’s power, completing his quest for a guardian spirit. Muscular and sinewy, he became a skilled equestrian and competitor in feats of agility. He married and established a camp on Ahtanum Creek, raising potatoes, squash, pumpkins, and corn in irrigated gardens.
As Kamiakin matured, he rose in prominence among the Yakamas; leaders of both Sahaptin and Salish bands sought his counsel. Through personal aptitude as well as family bonds, he emerged as one of the Plateau region’s most influential chiefs. He cautiously welcomed White newcomers and sought to learn beneficial aspects of their culture. His dignified manner impressed the Whites he knew—traders, missionaries, and soldiers.
In the 1840s, the arrival of numerous Oregon Trail immigrants stirred a cataclysmic upheaval jeopardizing indigenous inhabitants’ retention of lands and their ancient customs. On May 29, 1855, Isaac I. Stevens convened the Walla Walla Treaty Council. Two weeks later, Kamiakin signed the Yakima Treaty of 1855 with great reluctance; but he also resolved to resist threats to his people’s freedoms and transgressions on their lifeways. Finding Chief Kamiakin is his saga.
America's Nuclear Wastelands
Politics, Accountability, and Power
Max S. Power
By the end of the Cold War, 45 years of weapons production and nuclear research had generated a sobering legacy: an astounding 1.7 trillion gallons of contaminated groundwater; 40 million cubic meters of tainted soil and debris; over 2,000 tons of intensely radioactive spent nuclear fuel; more than 160,000 cubic meters of radioactive and hazardous waste; and over 100 million gallons of liquid, high-level radioactive waste.
In America’s Nuclear Wastelands, Max S. Power uses non-technical language to present to a general audience a brief overview of nuclear weapons history and contamination issues. He describes the institutional and political environment, provides a background for understanding the major value conflicts and associated political dynamics, and makes long-term stewardship recommendations. However, his key purpose is to demonstrate the critical role of public participation, and in so doing, encourage citizens to take action regarding local and national policies related to nuclear production and waste disposal.
Author Dr. Max S. Power is a government consultant with a long career in Pacific Northwest nuclear waste issues. He is a former Rhodes Scholar, Yale University Fellow, and Danforth Fellow.
Praise for America's Nuclear Wastelands
“Max Power provides the facts in an objective and non‐judgmental manner without diminishing the terrifying aspects of the crisis that faces this nation and future generations."—Tom Carpenter, Executive Director, Hanford Challenge
"The information Max Power provides in this book will be very insightful in resolving technical and social aspects of nuclear waste in the future.”—John E. Till, Ph.D., President, Risk Assessment Corporation
Forthcoming Titles
Fall 2009
Horse
Camping [Revised Edition]
George Hatley
Photographs by Lewis Portnoy
Introduction by Juli S. Thorson
Horse camping has long been part of Pacific Northwest
lore. The Nez Perce used horses as transportation, and
frontier fur trappers also loaded and rode the animals.
The journals of these mountain men often contain glowing
accounts of their nomadic lifestyle and exhibit a
profound appreciation of their surroundings. Today,
people still long to experience pristine wilderness and
enjoy the simple pleasures nature offers. Pack trips
allow individuals of many ages and physical abilities to
reach glorious backcountry they would never see
otherwise.
George Hatley has a deep connection to the region and its
early pioneers. As a boy, he learned that his great uncle
had been involved in the Misery Hill scrimmage of the Nez
Perce war, and that the Native Americans were riding
Appaloosas. He listened to his grandfather recount his
Palouse country arrival by wagon train in 1877,
describing a beautiful expanse with stirrup-high grass
waving in the wind like ocean surf. But the grand prairie
sea became farmland, and so during harvest season, young
George was fascinated by teams of 33 horses pulling
combines. He eventually became a cattle rancher and trail
guide, indulging both his adventurous spirit and his
passion for horses by leading numerous camping trips amid
the Northwest's magnificent
mountains and canyons.
Originally released in 1981 and again in 1992, George
Hatley's common-sense manual is considered a classic. In
his amiable, practical voice, he shares both successes
and oversights, and reveals observations and experiences
from years as an outfitter. He covers trip planning,
horses, tack, gear, food, and other aspects of advanced
preparation. He discusses horse hauling and packing for
the journey. Finally, he provides information about
setting out on the trail, establishing a site, and life
in camp. This new WSU Press edition has been skillfully
updated by Juli S. Thorson, Editor and Associate
Publisher of Horse & Rider magazine.
Women's Votes, Women's Voices
The Campaign for Equal Rights in
Washington
Shanna Stevenson
The right of citizens to vote is a pillar of democracy—a mainstay denied to Washington women until they united in a campaign to enact change. Suffragettes briefly achieved the right to vote through an 1883 legislative act, only to have a Territorial Supreme Court decision declare it invalid. Once again, women formed clubs and embarked on a grassroots crusade. They canvassed neighborhoods, circulated petitions, published a newspaper, conducted debates, sold a cookbook, participated in fairs, and more. Finally, in 1910, suffragettes persuaded Washington men to ratify a state constitutional amendment granting permanent voting rights for women, only the fifth state to do so. Their success revitalized the national movement, inspiring activists struggling toward another pivotal goal, the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Approved in 1920, the revision secured voting rights for women across
But the story does not end there. Woman suffrage was a harbinger of social change. Females enrolled in higher education in record numbers, became more directly involved in community affairs, and increasingly joined such professions as social work, medicine, and architecture. By 1910, women dominated the office workplace, comprising 83 percent of typists and stenographers.
Since gaining the vote, female Washingtonians have
regularly exercised their voice in
government—addressing the concerns of women,
children, and families, and continuing to strive for
equal rights.
Women’s Votes, Women’s Voices provides a comprehensive summary of the Washington woman suffrage movement and presents vignettes on many of the state’s most active leaders, such as May Arkwright Hutton and Emma Smith DeVoe, along with numerous illustrations.
Author Shanna Stevenson is a historian
living in Olympia, Washington, and coordinator
of the Washington Women’s History Consortium
project.
Published by the Washington State Historical Society