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Seattle History
9:00 am
Wed January 30, 2013

Seattle's History In 25 Objects

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Credit Burke Museum
Thousands of years ago this skeleton was a Giant Ground Sloth. These gigantic, bear-like animals were once common all over North America. This guy was around roughly at the end of the Ice-Age.
Credit Burke Museum
The point of this native spear head is big enough that it was likely used to hunt large land mammals like deer or elk in the Seattle area. This spear point was found near the Burke-Gilman trail on the University of Washington campus.
Credit Museum of History and Industry
During the Treaty War of 1855-1856, many Seattle settlers fled for safety to Fort Decatur. This flag was sewn there by the women of Seattle and the countryside during the long, anxious days in the blockhouse, waiting for the siege to end.
Credit Wing Luke Museum
Shoes like these were imported from China only to be worn by Chinese citizens. These specific shoes were found in a warehouse in the 1960s. They became the inspiration for the Wing-Luke Museum.
Credit Museum of History and Industry
In 1889, a Swedish immigrant was melting glue in this pot and neglected to watch it carefully. The glue boiled over and ignited the wood shavings and sawdust on the floor and onto Madison Street. Twenty-nine blocks in downtown Seattle burned.
Credit Nordic Heritage Museum
This sailmaker's palm was used to push thread through thick sail material. The needle would be placed on the thimble area and pushed through the sail.
Credit Bainbridge Island Historical Museum
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, more than 7,000 Japanese Americans were moved out of the Seattle area to the Minidoka Relocation Center near Hunt, Idaho. This sign was posted on Bainbridge Island.
Credit Museum of Flight
The B-17 Flying Fortress served the Allied cause around the globe during World War II. Over 12,700 of Boeing's long-range bombers were built by men and women in US factories by the end of the war; 2,300 of those were built on Boeing Field.
Credit Dale Cotton
"The Feminine One" by David Lemon has been owned by the Steinbrueck family since the 1950s. According to Victor Steinbrueck, who helped design the Space Needle, the small wooden sculpture’s construction was a source of inspiration for the Seattle icon.
Credit Northwest African American Museum
Seattle's Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) used these signs in successful picketing and boycott against employment discrimination in October 1961. At the start only 6 out of 1,700 Safeway employees were black; three months later, there were 28.
Credit EMP Museum
Jimi Hendrix used this Fender Stratocaster to play his famous rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock in 1969. It is also the guitar he used in his final concert in 1970.
Credit Pike Place Fish Market
Fish tossed to crowds at Pike Place Market have been seen in "Sleepless in Seattle" and on MTV’s "Real World." The fish market is a tourism magnet in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, attracting crowds of more than 10,000 people per day in the summer.
Credit EMP Museum
A cardigan worn by Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. The guys in the band dressed like their audience, making them more accessible than the rock gods of the past. The music and style of dress that became known as grunge defined Seattle to the rest of the world.
Credit Museum of History and Industry
Sea turtle costumes worn in protest during the 1999 WTO conference in Seattle to protest a ruling that threatened the existence of endangered sea turtles. Those who wore them had to promise to return them and refrain from violence.
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What do a burned glue pot, a vintage cardigan and a Starbucks coffee cup share in common? In this case, each represents a chapter in Seattle's history. Inspired by the BBC's A History of the World In 100 Objects, we reached out to local museum curators, artifact owners, writers and historians to help us narrow down a list of 25 objects that tell Seattle’s story. Writer and author Knute Berger and MOHAI historian Lorraine McConaghy join us for a look into the past.

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Radio History
2:44 pm
Fri January 25, 2013

The Rise Of KUOW And Public Radio In Seattle

Credit Group Health
Volunteers from Group Health answer phones for a KUOW pledge drive.
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By Feliks Banel

KUOW recently began its seventh decade on the air in Seattle. All this week we’ve been looking back at the history of radio in the Puget Sound Region. Today, Feliks Banel explores how local public radio has evolved over that last 30 years as a result of changes in commercial radio and the rise of national programming.

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Food History
12:00 pm
Fri January 25, 2013

What's The Deal With Horse Slaughter?

Credit sheffpixie / Flickr
Welsh mountain ponies auctioned for meat at the Llanybydder horse mart, Wales, 2006.
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Today in the US there’s not much of a market for horse meat. But believe it or not, there used to be over 20 US processing plants that sold American horse meat to Asian and European markets.


Last Friday The Conversation got a call from a listener demanding that President Obama reintroduce a ban on horse slaughter. So we got a little curious. Today Ross talks to Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes about the history of horse slaughter in the US.

Radio History
12:22 pm
Thu January 24, 2013

The Early Years Of KUOW

Credit University of Washington archives
KUOW's early home back in 1955 at the Communications Building at the University of Washington.
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By Feliks Banel

KUOW recently began its seventh decade on the air in Seattle.  In the second installment of a three-part series exploring the history of KUOW, Feliks Banel takes us back to the station’s early years before pledge drives and NPR, and then on to the rise of public radio in the 1970s.

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