Weekly Move Update

And the packing keeps going, guided toward the new museum like salmon are guided toward their spawning ground. (After a long weekend, I get poetic.) Enjoy!

Monday, February 13
Favorite: Portable General Electric Television, ca. 1956 (1963.3187)
MOHAI		PSMHS
114	Items	1	Items
29	Cat #	1	Cat #
9	Boxe	1	Boxes
1	Crates	0	Crates

Tuesday, February 14
Favorite: Carved Ivory Model of the Narwhal (1959.1655.454)
MOHAI		PSMHS
20	Items	0	Items
15	Cat #	0	Cat #
7	Boxes	0	Boxes
1	Crates	0	Crates

Wednesday, February 15
Favorite: Oil painting of a hiker resting in a natural setting by Richard Bennett, 1940-1948(/strong> (2006.38.1)
MOHAI		PSMHS
11	Items	0	Items
11	Cat #	0	Cat #
4	Boxe	0	Boxes
3	Crates	0	Crates

Thursday, February 16
Favorite: Seattle World’s Fair sign, Century 21 logo, 1962 (1963.3119.54R)
MOHAI		PSMHS
38	Items	0	Items
15	Cat #	0	Cat #
11	Boxe	0	Boxes
2	Crates	0	Crates

Friday, February 17
Favorite: Standing Hair Dryer and Curling Iron, 1930-1940 (2011.120.1)
MOHAI		PSMHS
3	Items	0	Items
2	Cat #	0	Cat #
10	Boxe	0	Boxes
2	Crates	0	Crates

And today was a pretty big day already! The Japanese Maple was transplanted from Japan to the A-Y-P Exposition in 1909 by Julius Bonnell  and later transplanted onto MOHAI’s grounds by his son in 1964. Today it was moved onto a truck which will take it to Lake Union Park to be transplanted again into its hopefully last resting place next to the Armory.  A video is attached below:

…a Jade Circle

Sunday Recipes

Seattle has always been a place for people from all over the earth to settle. Starting with the Salish people, after its founding in 1852, immigrant groups have colored every part of Seattle life, including its food.

The Seattle Chinese Women’s Club was formed from the University Chinese Women’s Club in 1958. It was founded in order to teach the children of the American-born children of Chinese Americans about their heritage. In 1963, the Jade Circle of the Chinese Women’s Club published the cookbook, Precious Chinese Recipes. This recipe is taken from that cookbook:

Sherry Pork (Sui Jau Juh Yook)

• 4 cup pork, sliced thin
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• ¼ cup green onion, cut in 2″ lengths
• ¼ cup ginger, fresh, crushed
• ½ cup sherry
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. monosodium glutamate (MSG)

Heat skillet, add oil. Sauté garlic and ginger. Add port and sauté 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Cook 2 minutes. Serve.

…Down Periscope!

Today was a pretty big day for MOHAI. Our first artifact was installed in the Armory in South Lake Union. Seriously, the move is happening

Photo by Julianne Kidder

As some of you may remember, the periscope, one of MOHAI’s most beloved artifacts, was removed last September to be conserved in preparation for its installation in the new museum. And today was that day!

Using a steam-powered floating crane, one of the last of its kind, representatives from MOHAI, Hansen Brothers (the moving and packing contractors), WashDOT, the Navy (who conserved and transported the historic periscope) and others helped lift the 39-foot long artifact from the ground up to the fourth floor gallery of the new museum.

Periscope above Maritime Gallery | Photo by Lauren Semet

The trip up took much less time than the the earlier de-installation of the periscope in September. Which was good because it was terribly cold and rainy this time around. While getting the periscope up to the top floor didn’t seem too difficult, getting to fit in its water-tight hole and into the base was a more difficult matter. The tenacious workers at the site were even resorting to math to get it done. The periscope needs to be precisely lined up so that visitors can enjoy the 360° view of the city, including views of Gasworks Park, Capitol Hill, Queen Anne Hill and downtown. It will be pretty spectacular.

The periscope is the first artifact to be installed in the new museum and is the beginning of the exhibit installation which isn’t too far off. The fourth floor gallery will house the Maritime Gallery, which explores Seattle’s connection to the sea and the ships which allow us to travel across it. When the building was the Naval Reserve Armory, this room was a replica of a ship’s bridge which aided Navy recruits in their training.

Periscope Being Lowered Into Place | Photo by Lauren Semet

And below is a video of the whole shebang. Enjoy!

…Patriotic Eating

Earlier this week, I showed you a recipe for spaghetti that could be made even with World War II food rationing. How did the government get people to freely give up staples they would have never thought about giving up before the war? The same way you get anyone to do anything: Posters!
Attached are a collection of posters from World War I and World War II asking for the American people on the homefront to participate in a shared sacrifice. One could argue that this shared sacrifice, knowing that the rich family next door had to deal with the same sugar shortage as your lower-middle class clan, probably had as much to do with America’s united stance during these conflicts as a shared enemy did. (Of course, there was opposition to the wars, but that’s a topic for another blog. A juicy, interesting topic if there ever was one.) Anyway, enjoy the fun posters and perhaps think of shared sacrifices we all have today.

…60 Years Old Today!

In honor of MOHAI’s 60th anniversary (today!) Here are some photos of how our Montlake location has changed through the years. First up is a “what might have been” photo.

The Seattle Historical Society, in planning for their museum in the late 1940s, had a few different locations in mind. One of which was Roanoke Park in North Capitol Hill. This park had the advantage of being across the street from the mansion where our collection was first stored in preparation for our permanent building. The Society went so far as to get Paul Thiry (the prominent architect) to do some preliminary designs. These architectural drawings are still in MOHAI’s collection. The model Paul Thiry created, though, only still exists in this photo. In the end, it might have been better that we built in Montlake, because we would have had very little space to expand at Roanoke.

This is one of the first photos of our building. In fact, it is the only photo I have found where it appears to not have the Boeing B1 plane installed. The plane was installed on the ramp portion of the building (where all the windows are) and still hangs there to this day. Soon we will be removing it to install the plane in the atrium of the new museum. This photo shows the original entrance, which opened to a circular driveway, which is where the highway is now. When 520 was built in the early 1960s, the entrance was moved to its present location.

The original entrance featured a Paul Thiry stamp. These Northwest Native American designs may not be from Coast Salish peoples of Puget Sound, (They’re from people farther north.) but Thiry chose them for the Northwest ‘flavor’ they imparted onto the building. All the original entrances have these designs above or near them. The designs still exist. Paul Thiry had a pretty substantial relationship with MOHAI. In addition to designing the first section of our building, Thiry and his wife helped curate one of MOHAI’s first exhibits on Alaska art. The experience inspired the Thirys to start collecting Native Alaskan art. They later wrote a book on their collection.

The Historical Society planned on expanding the building as soon as it was built. Some ‘wings’ that are mentioned from 1952 on include an Alaska wing, a Costume or Fashion wing, a Maritime wing, a Logging wing and many others mentioned only once. Only one of these was actually built, the first expansion of Paul Thiry’s original design. This is an architectural drawing of the Maritime Wing, built with a lot of input from the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, which continues to be strong partner for MOHAI. The upper floor houses the Green-Merrill Gallery, which right now is our staging area for the move. It housed the Maritime exhibits for many years, but more recently was the home of our temporary exhibits. It was built in 1959.

The early 1960s brought many changes to MOHAI. Brinkley donated his large collection of taxidermy animals and donated the money to build a gallery to house them. Suddenly MOHAI had a Natural History wing. To the left is an architectural drawing of the wing. Halfway through construction, MOHAI had to change the entrance to this side of the museum. It was built alongside the new wing.

The last large addition to the museum was our Auditorium wing, which was built in the late 1960s. This is another architectural drawing of the wing, which is interesting because it was done to promote people donating for the wing, but incorporated design elements that were never built (the swoopy lower level walls, primarily.) This addition also gave us the McCurdy Gallery on the second floor.

If you’ve always been curious to what MOHAI looked like in the 1950s, here’s a video tour of MOHAI’s exhibits and operations in 1956.

 

And now, in our 60th year, MOHAI is making our biggest change ever. Much like a high school graduate going on to college, the change is bittersweet. We are saying goodbye to our home, but we have so many new heights to scale. I leave you with one last photo, that of our new home. This is the new MOHAI, in Lake Union Park. (The photo is a few months old, because currently there is a lot of construction going on, and the photo isn’t too pretty.) Check out the live construction cam and see how the inside is coming along. And if you still need more to get you excited, we got a MOHAI Minute on the Armory!

Weekly Move Update

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The time has come to start packing up artifacts that were on display. Probably the most well-known of these is the Hammons House, the famous doll house which many visitors have very fond memories of.

Monday, February 6
Favorite: Figurehead from unknown ship (1950.970.469)
MOHAI		PSMHS
271	Items	0	Items
2	Cat #	0	Cat #
9	Boxe	0	Boxes
1	Crates	0	Crates

Tuesday, February 7
Favorites: Hammons House (1955.974)
MOHAI		PSMHS
306	Items	0	Items
91	Cat #	0	Cat #
12	Boxes	0	Boxes
0	Crates	0	Crates

Wednesday, February 8
Favorite: Carved ivory watch chain (1959.1655.502)
MOHAI		PSMHS
160	Items	0	Items
110	Cat #	0	Cat #
36	Boxe	0	Boxes
0	Crates	0	Crates

Thursday, February 9
Favorite: Ivory carving of a man with a sled drawn by five dogs (1959.1655.296)
MOHAI		PSMHS
64	Items	0	Items
35	Cat #	0	Cat #
13	Boxe	0	Boxes
0	Crates	0	Crates

Friday, February 10
Favorite: Model of Alaskan salmon cannery Superior Packing Company at Tenakee Inlet (1975.6066.2)
MOHAI		PSMHS
1	Items	4	Items
1	Cat #	2	Cat #
2	Boxe	1	Boxes
0	Crates	0	Crates

…Happening Now!

Obviously, here at MOHAI, we LOVE getting to be stewards of the artifacts of Seattle’s past (for proof, see: the entirety of this blog). You know what else we’re really jazzed about though? Getting to engage with you, our community members, about the events and people who are making history right now. We know that this isn’t always easy! Seattle and our region deal with a lot of complex issues, so we like to make discussing those issues as fun as possible by, say, meeting up at a bustling neighborhood coffee shop? Or perhaps having some of the city’s most engaging individuals come lead us in discussion? Check out the events listed below for a fun, fascinating, and FREE February!

History Café

Thursday, February 16th

7 to 8 PM

Roy Street Coffee & Tea, 700 Broadway Ave E

The history of labor is central to the history of Seattle and the Northwest. This History Café will feature a special presentation from Conor Casey, Labor Archivist with the Labor Archives of Washington State on the University of Washington campus.

Cost: Free

Tickets/Registration: RSVP at meetup.com

Contact: Julia Swan, julia.swan@seattlehistory.org, 206-324-1126 Ext. 66

Call to Conscience 2012 with Tony Benton

Sunday, February 26th

3 – 5 PM

McEachern Auditorium at MOHAI

Hosted and moderated by Tony Benton, a “Call to Conscience 2012″ will examine the impact of the digital divide and take a look at the history of African-American mass communication, from slavery to the present.
Speakers:
Jim Tharpe, activist and owner of Unity House
Will Jackson, part-owner of Silver Shadow Media
Bruce Harrell, Seattle City Council Member
Trish Millines Dziko, founder of the Technology Access Foundation
Cost: Free

Contact: Helen Divjak, helen.divjak@seattlehistory.org, 206-324-1126

…Spaghetti di Guerra

Sunday Recipe

Food can be used many different ways. Because it is so intensely linked to culture and identity, one of the most interesting is how people use it to express either belonging or not belonging to an identity or nationality. Take, for instance, the ways in which the U.S.’s propaganda used food as a method of suggesting solidarity during World War II.

Mobilizing the millions of soldiers for the war meant also mobilizing food and other supplies to keep them healthy and in fighting form. The government implemented rationing of the civilian population, meant to keep the bulk of needed food for the soldiers, especially products deemed to be necessary to the success of the military, such as oil (used for gasoline and synthetic rubber) and later on sugar and coffee. Many food products were less about protecting the supply for the troops, and more that there was less of that product coming from war zones. In addition, canned produce was rationed because of the need for the metal for the war effort.

Of course homemakers used to the “abundance” of pre-war America (I use quotes because  until the war, we were still in the Depression.) needed some guidance on how to cook with the products available.

Famous hotel chefs were on the job. In 1943, the Wartime Food Recipes by Famous Hotel Chefs was printed and distributed to members of the American Hotel Association. MOHAI’s copy was procured via the Orrington Hotel. Here is the famous “War Spaghetti”

War Spaghetti

• 6 slices breakfast bacon (diced)
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 can tomatoes
• 1 green pepper
• ½ can pimentos
• ½ lb. grated cheese
• 1 bay leaf
• paprika and salt to taste
• 1 lb. spaghetti

Fry bacon until crisp. Add other ingredients, except spaghetti and cheese and let simmer for ½ hour. Have 1 lb. spaghetti cooked in salt water. Pour all together in baking dish, cover with grated cheese and bake.

-THOMAS D. GREEN

American Hotel Association

…Maple Flavoring

Thursday Hidden Treasure

Last week, I mentioned Crescent Manufacturing Company. Let me give you a little background on this local flavoring and spice company.

Crescent was founded in Seattle in 1883. At first it was known as Larsen Extract Company. By the early 20th century, the company was manufacturing 75 different extracts and had expanded into importing spices, coffee and nuts.

Crescent’s most famous extract was Mapleine, a artificial maple flavoring, often used in making delicious desserts. (like the pumpkin pie we showcased last week.) This extract was first shown to the world (and tasted by the world.) at the 1908 Puyallup Fair, and soon afterward at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle’s first World’s Fair.

During the Depression, Crescent was able to retain all employees by implementing across-the-board pay cuts, from owner to employees. During World War II, spices sourced from Asia were unavailable, so Crescent worked to create and market imitation spices. After the war, competitors used Crescent’s imitation spices as a slur against them, but Crescent chose to use them as a marketing tool. In 1957, Crescent debuted the Gold Shield coffee line, but faced stiff competition from major brands. Eventually they decided to sell Gold Shield to another company. At this time, Crescent also re-packaged their nuts, selling them in cup measurements, which led them to become leaders in pre-packaged nuts for cooking.

In 1989, Crescent was sold to McCormick and Company. Mapleine is still produced in limited quantities.  You can purchase it directly from McCormick’s website.

…Smelling Like Strawberries

Many Asian immigrants in the Seattle and King County area were farmers. Before World War I, Japanese farmers were already supplying most of the region's population with vegetables, small fruits, and diary products. Starting in the 1920s, many immigrants from the Philippines worked as seasonal laborers at area farms. In this photo, taken in the Seattle area around 1919, an Asian-American strawberry picker shows off her flat of strawberries.

Bellevue Washington was until the 1950s a rural area. In fact it was mostly strawberry fields.

If you asked someone in the Puget Sound region from 1925 to 1942 what Bellevue had going for it, they wouldn’t say a high-end mall, tech jobs or suburban living with an urban flair, one quick floating-bridge ride to Seattle. No, they would say: “Strawberries!” with an exclamation, cause apparently, they were that good. Continue reading »