The core holdings relate to the development of maritime life and commerce in Puget Sound between 1850 and 1970, an era that shaped the lives, cities and industries of the Pacific Northwest. Other significant research materials document the Seattle-Alaska shipping trade during and after the Gold Rush of 1897; steamboat operations on Alaskan rivers; the Alaskan fishing industry whose vessels were largely Puget Sound-built, owned and operated; twentieth century naval history in and beyond Puget Sound, and information on other significant port cities in Alaska, Oregon and California. Documents include thousands of press clippings in re maritime events and personalities; legal, financial and operating records of various commercial tug, ferry, and freight companies operating on Puget Sound and the Alaska and Far East trades; detailed records (including photographs and physical descriptions) of ships’ movements in and out of regional ports (Seattle, Port Townsend, Everett) during the first half of the twentieth century; the growth of major Puget Sound shipbuilding firms such as Moran Brothers, Todd Shipyards, and a large collection of ships’ plans created by Puget Sound marine architects.

The late Lloyd Stadum gave the Society his unique accumulation of advertising and operational materials obtained from over one hundred international ferryboat companies plying local sea lanes from the Baltic and English Channel to South and East Asian waters, the Pacific and North America during the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. Housed in fifty eight boxes, they include pamphlets, broadsides and schedules together with a multitude of ship’s deck and hull plans. The Society has also acquired for research use the extensive collection of longtime Seattle waterfront photographer Joe Williamson which forms the basis of our image collection. It includes thousands of images of sailing, steam and motor vessels of all sorts, both government and privately owned that entered/departed or operated on Puget Sound during the early and middle decades of the twentieth century.

The Library contains 4,500 volumes on maritime subjects and over 100 different maritime periodicals. The Library has many volumes on the American, British and German Navies, whaling, northwest explorers, seamen's narratives, log books, various steamship lines, ship building, sea chanteys, knot tying, model making, Lloyds' Directories on ships, Merchant Vessels of the U.S., and many sea adventure stories. ** A text listing of the library resources can be found HERE. **

The photographic collection housed here is known as the Williamson Collection and it consists of more than 15,000 individual ship photos and 40,000 negatives. All images have been catalogued by ship's name.