Image of the Day

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The back of a 1968 photo from the New York Times archive, featured in the NYT's extremely promising new Tumblr, The Lively Morgue.

(thank you Kyle Johnson)

Happy Birthday, Joan of Arc

600 years old today.
(Photo: Paris, 2006)

Image of the Day

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The Kalakala, which operated as a ferry on Puget Sound from 1926–1967. Having been repurposed as a fish processing vessel in Alaska since its retirement, and now residing in Tacoma-WA, the Kalakala has fallen into severe disrepair. It is currently up for sale for $1 or best offer. More info here.

Image of the Day

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John Nordstrom in front of the original Wallin & Nordstrom shoe store, Seattle, 1901. A Swedish immigrant, Nordstrom went West and founded the store with money made from a gold claim in the Yukon.

Today I'm starting a new job as a Creative Director at Nordstrom! I'm proud to be working for a company with such a legendary history in the Northwest beyond, and I'm excited about Nordstrom's potential as it continues to grow. That's all I will say for now but stay tuned for updates and I'll continue posting as always.

Image of the Day

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Fragment of the original Star Spangled Banner, from Heritage Auctions' recent sale of Civil War memorabilia. The fragment was formerly in the possession of flag restorer Katherine Fowler Richey (1889-1949); her mother Amelia Fowler (1862-1923) was one of ten women who, for eight weeks, fastened the original Star Spangled Banner to a backing of linen using a stitch that Ms. Fowler patented in 1913.

I haven't bought anything from a Heritage auction yet but it's always interesting to see what they have on offer – click here to sign up for email updates.

Image of the Day

.I've been doing some research recently and ran across this cool 1901 map of the Seattle waterfront. I think at this point everyone can agree that the government pretty much sucks, but you have to love the U.S. Geological Survey.
I'm also posting this because Seattle just feels like an old map today, all windy and rainy and Monday. I like it.

Last Call

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Woody Allen outside Elaine's.

Wow, it's a black-and-white kinda week on Pacific Standard, huh? ...But the trend continues because tonight is curtains for Elaine's, the restaurant on New York's Upper East Side where for 48 years everyone who was anyone came.

Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger at Elaine's, 1978.
Photo by Ron Galella.

Gay and Nan Talese at Elaine's.

Photo by Jessica Burstein.

Frank Sinatra and Elaine ... at Elaine's.

Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and Lorne Michaels
in the kitchen at Elaine's, 1975.
Photo by Jonathan Becker.

Sean Penn and Madonna at Elaine's, 1984.
(Seeing these two together makes me feel old.)
Photo by Ron Galella.

George Plimpton, Jared Paul Stern and Cameron Richardson at Elaine's, 1999.

Photo by Larry Fink.

Interior at Elaine's.
Photo by Olivier Zahm.

Olivier Zahm.

We were not among that crowd, but it's one of those places - like the Oyster Bar, or Bemelmans, or The Central - that just feels good to have around. I'm sad to see it go.

Elaine Kaufman, who died on Dec. 3 of last year at age 81,
tossing a garbage can lid at Ron Galella.

Tom Carney, bartender at Elaine's.

Elaine's.

Find Elaine Kaufman's NY Times obit and an accompanying slide show here.

Image of the Day

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A student demonstrates at Pace College, NY, on the first Earth Day – April 22, 1970).

While we're at it, here's a trailer for the documentary Earth Days, about the founding of the modern environmental movement:


Visit PBS.org to watch the whole thing.

Young Obama

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Barack Obama in Hawaii with his grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham, from an expansive article about the President's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, by Janny Scott for this weekend's The New York Times Magazine.

(I'm pretty sure that's Donald Trump in the background.)

Image of the Day

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Derek Erdman moving to Seattle was one of the better things the city experienced in 2010. Tonight the Crocodile celebrates the 2nd anniversary of its re-opening with a new exhibition of his paintings and a party from 6–9PM. Go here for info and then go spend some quality time here.

The Past Is Never Dead. It's Not Even Past

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Matmos "Regicide" from The Civil War (2003, Matador).

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, which started the Civil War. More about that after the jump....

Boom & Bust

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Forty years ago today Congress cancelled government funding for the Boeing 2707 (aka the SST – Supersonic Transport).

The company almost immediately laid off more than 50% of its workforce, temporarily crippling the economy of the Pacific Northwest (though I know it didn't feel temporary). Real estate agents Bob McDonald and Jim Youngren erected this sign near the aiport on Highway 99 and it became a Seattle icon:

KUOW aired an interesting show on the Boeing Bust this morning – click here to listen – and click here to watch a Braniff promotional video promoting supersonic travel: "You don't have to carry a passport, because a friendly computer already knows more about you than you do."

Yellow Pages

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This week Abe Books' rare book room pulls together a collection of books produced by visionary publisher Victor Gollancz. Here's what they have to say about him:

Gollancz (1893-1967) studied the classics at Oxford University and during World War I began his life in publishing when he joined Ernest Benn’s firm … recruiting writers [such as] Edith Nesbit and H. G. Wells. In 1927, he set up his own publishing house and his career took off. [Among others,] he signed George Orwell, Ford Madox FordDaphne Du Maurier.
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Gollancz was ahead of this time. He placed full-page adverts for his books in newspapers (very rare for this period) and his designers established a recognizable style featuring powerful typography and yellow dust jackets. Gollancz was creating ‘branding’ 50 years before marketers embraced the buzzword.

In 1936, Gollancz was a co-founder of the Left Book Club with the intention of halting the growth of Fascism in Europe and promoting socialism. Every month, Gollancz recommended a left-leaning book and members received the book for a discounted price of two shillings and six pence. The first selection was France Today and the People's Front by Maurice Thorez, a French Communist. The Left Book Club had 45,000 members within 12 months and hundreds of local groups met and debated the books up and down Britain.
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The publisher was knighted in 1965.

I cut out a lot, but the point, to make a long story short, is that Victor Gollancz was quite an interesting dude. Visit abebooks.com to learn more about him and browse.

Indochine

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In the Year of the Pig, a 1968 documentary by Emile de Antonio on the origins of the Vietnam war, with music by John Cage. Heavy shit but required.

A Sense of National Purpose

.Fifty years ago this month, John F. Kennedy was elected President.
Bob Herbert looks back.

The Skid Road

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Skid Road, Murray Morgan's seminal history of Seattle, was first published on this day in 1951 – the 100th anniversary of the Denny party's landing at Alki Point*, which signifies the beginning of the city.

Murray Morgan (right) and friends in Pioneer Square.
Photo by the great Mary Randlett, via History Link.

The title Skid Road refers to Yesler Way, where logs were skidded down to the waterfront. As it somewhat is today, Yesler also represented a border between neighborhoods and all the political implications that go along with that; it's too much to go into here, but suffice it to say that it makes for an interesting story, and Skid Road tells it well. Pick it up for next to nothing at your local used book store or through abebooks.com.

*Historical side note: Alki, which means "by and by" in Chinook jargon, was originally named "New York" by its founder, Charles Terry.

Happy Birthday Everyone

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The great State of Washington turns 121 years-old today. Above, an Asahel Curtis photograph taken in 1889, the year we achieved statehood, depicting the Griffith Davies book store on 1st Avenue between Cherry and Columbia Streets just before the great Seattle fire. As everyone knows, Washington went on to become the best state in the Union, trailed closely by (in approximate order) New York, California, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, West Virginia, Vermont, Minnesota, Montana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Canada. Honorable mention but I have not been there: Alabama and Louisiana.

Happy Birthday, Washington!

Photo courtesy of the UW Digital Archives.

Dept. of Recent Acquisitions

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You might not guess this from the topics generally covered on Pacific Standard, but I don't do a lot of gun-fighting. Still, I saw this book in the window of Twice Sold Tales (Capitol Hill) and could not pass it up.

At the time of publication, Chic Gaylord was a holster maker in New York City, but, according to the introduction, "Chic's research-oriented mind has probed far beyond the holster, to the gun and gun fighting."

"He brings to combat shooting the thinking of men who live with a gun twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, month in and month out."

"Many of his customers are men who have been in gun fights with well-armed opponents seeking to kill them, and they talk to Chic."

Gaylord also profiles some of the most notorious gunfighters of the old West.


So... that's another invaluable resource for the library.

Raising the Bar

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From a slideshow of historic Seattle bars at the Seattle P-I:

The Rainbow Tavern, 1980

Bartender Arlene Smith at the 5 Point, 1980

Inside the DJ booth at Shelly's Leg, a gay bar under the Alaskan Way viaduct, 1976.

Visit seattlepi.com for many more.

Image of the Day

Dear France,
Happy Bastille Day!
We love you!
Sincerely,
Pacific Standard

[French Revolutionary Emblem, 1789, from Life Magazine archives]