Week 7: February 16-22
February 19, 2015
On this day, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History displayed a small selection of artifacts in an exhibit to mark the anniversary of the 1942 signing of Executive Order 9066, which forced the relocation of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast to incarceration camps.
George Hirahara, and his teenage son, Frank, took an interest in photography, ordered equipment and film from mail-order catalogs and built their own darkroom at the Heart Mountain incarceration camp, Powell, Wyoming.
The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History opened the exhibit of everyday objects used in incarceration centers as a way to examine the Japanese American experience during World War II.
February 19, 1836
On this day, one day after their wedding, missionaries Marcus Whitman and Narcissa Prentiss Whitman begin a seven-month, 3,000-mile journey from New York State to the Pacific Northwest.
After arriving, they would establish a Protestant mission on Cayuse land at Waiilatpu, near present-day Walla Walla, Washington.
February 21, 1935
On this day the Washington State Legislature passed Initiative 2, a measure sponsored by the Washington Grange, to replace the state’s primary election system.
The new system of “blanket” primaries drastically reduced the power of political parties to dictate the selection of candidates, removed the requirement that voters disclose their party affiliation, and weakened the long-standing system of patronage hiring for government jobs.
February 22, 1897
On this day, one of President Grover Cleveland’s last official acts was the proclamation of the Olympic Forest Reserve.
The reserve places 2,188,800 acres, nearly two-thirds of the Olympic Peninsula, under government control.
It was the forerunner of Olympic National Park.
This post is in partnership with HistoryLink, and Warren Seyler, former chairman Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Black Muse Resource Center, and the Living Arts Cultural Heritage.
We encourage you to engage in further research through your local historic societies, museums, archives, and community.
