W E S T E R N L I B R A R I E S H E R I T A G E R E S O U R C E S

Heritage Highlights Winter 2015 Volume 3, Issue 1

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Fishtown Collection 1

Speaker Series 1

Director’s Letter 2

Acknowledgments 2

Rev. Hughes Papers 3

Pickford Partnerships 3

Featured Photo 4

Newsletter content contributed by Elizabeth Joffrion, Ruth Steele, and Paul Piper. Edited by Rozlind Koester.

Contact: Heritage.Resources@wwu.edu; (360) 650-7534; http://library.wwu.edu/hr .

T h e “ T a i l ” o f F i s h t o w n :

A R i v e r f r o n t A r t i s t s ’ C o m m u n i t y

Not many people outside the Skagit Valley know

about Fishtown but, at Heritage Resources, we’re

hoping to change that. Fishtown was an artists’

community on the lower Skagit River, several miles

upstream from where it empties into the Salish Sea.

In 1968, an artist named Charles Kraft—a disciple

of Anacortes-based painter Morris Graves—rented a

deserted fisherman’s shack on the North Fork of the

river. Over the next few years, friends and fellow

artists gradually reclaimed adjacent shacks, using

materials scavenged from the surrounding wilder-

ness to create living and studio spaces.

At its apex, Fishtown had around forty residents who

taught and

co l laborated

through vari-

ous creative

e n d e a v o r s .

Fishtown resi-

dents were

described as

Renaissance

artists who delight-

ed in creating See “Fishtown,” continued on p. 4

Poster for the Morris Graves Centennial Art

Show and Séance, Seattle, WA, 2010

Fishtown Collection, Special Collections

April 7th: “The Genuine Article:

Reading Artists’ Books.” Sandra

Kroupa, Book Arts and Rare Books

Curator at the University of Washing-

ton’s Special Collections, will exam-

ine how artists' books are received

when viewed in person versus

through exhibition. Long known for

her refusal to define “books,” Krou-

pa will discuss limited editions, one-

of-a-kinds, and all manner of books

presented by artists as physical

forms.

~ 4:00-5:30pm in Special Collec-

tions (6th floor, Wilson Library).

May 5th: “The Liberal Arts on Trial in

Bellingham: The Inside Story of the

‘Red Scare’ Firing of College Presi-

dent Charles H. Fisher.” Ron Judd,

veteran Seattle Times reporter and

Western Washington University Jour-

nalism Instructor, will explore the

history behind a mid-1930s "Red

Scare" in Bellingham, and the suc-

cessful campaign to remove West-

ern Washington College of Educa-

tion President Charles H. Fisher

from office.

~ 4:00-5:30pm in the Wilson 4 Cen-

tral Reading Room.

H e r i t a g e R e s o u r c e s

S p e a k e r S e r i e s

P a g e 2 H e r i t a g e H i g h l i g h t s

Our staff also regularly partner with the Washing-

ton State Archives and other external partners to

offer community-based workshops and trainings

covering the basics of archival research

(including genealogical studies and house histo-

ries), personal digital archiving and preservation

techniques, and specialized instruction for K-12

teachers to support curriculum development and

History Day projects on local topics.

We also maintain a robust exhibition schedule

that has included two traveling exhibits from the

Burke Museum—“The Owl & the Woodpecker”

and “The Elwha: A River Reborn”. We are cur-

rently featuring local artist Steve Mayo’s mari-

time paintings which depict scenes from the ear-

ly exploration of the Northwest Coast, and during

spring quarter we will host an exhibit commemo-

rating the bicentennial of the War of 1812, on

loan to us from the Canadian Consulate.

By engaging our audiences with exciting pro-

grammatic opportunities, we build awareness

and interest in the amazing collections housed

at Heritage Resources. Community assistance is

vital to the fulfillment of our mission and we al-

ways welcome inquiries about how community

members can contribute to these efforts. Thank

you, as always, for your ongoing support and we

look forward to seeing you at a future event.

With my best regards,

Elizabeth Joffrion, Director

Collaborative partnerships are fundamental to

the development of Heritage Resources’ collec-

tions, and building relationships with the local

and regional community is one of our primary

strategic goals. As Director of Heritage Re-

sources, I especially enjoy promoting our unique

collections for purposes of research, instruction,

and public programming. Over the past several

years we have sponsored exhibits, lectures,

workshops and special events designed to reach

new and diverse audiences, highlight staff exper-

tise, and showcase themes documented in our

holdings.

For example, last fall we launched our Heritage

Resources Speaker Series which features schol-

ars who have used our collections significantly in

their research. We also hosted a recent presen-

tation by Dr. Paul Englesberg on the 1907 “anti-

Hindu riots” and subsequent expulsion of the

Punjabi population from the Bellingham commu-

nity. In addition, we invited Professor Gregory

Fields to discuss his book, A Totem Pole History,

which documents the life of noted Coast Salish

artist Joseph Hillaire. We were honored that

members of the Hillaire family, along with Lummi

Master Carver Felix Solomon and the dance

troupe Children of the Setting Sun, were able to

participate in the event. These programs have all

been very popular with students, faculty, and the

broader community, and have tended to culmi-

nate in lively and engaged discussion.

D i r e c t o r ’ s L e t t e r

A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s

We would like to thank our devoted volunteers and student employees for all they do in support of Heritage

Resources. We would also like to thank the many individuals, families, and organizations who have made gen-

erous contributions of materials and/or monetary gifts. To donate records or make a financial contribution,

please email Heritage.Resources@wwu.edu or phone 360-650-3283. Donations can also be made online or by

mail to the Western Foundation, MS-9034, Western Washington University, 516 High St, Bellingham, WA

98225-9034. Please designate your contribution to Western Libraries and identify “Heritage Resources” as the

program you wish to support.

P a g e 3 V o l u m e 3 , I s s u e 1

C i v i l R i g h t s L e a d e r R e v e r e n d R o b e r t

H u g h e s ’ P a p e r s D o n a t e d t o C P N W S

The Center for Pacific Northwest Studies (CPNWS) is

delighted to announce the recent transfer of a col-

lection of archival papers documenting the life and

career of late civil rights activist Reverend Robert

(Bob) Epperson Hughes. Bob Hughes’ remarkable

career encompassed service with the Alabama

Council on Human Relations (1954-1961), terms as

a missionary in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and work on

civil rights issues in the Pacific Northwest for the

Department of Justice’s Community Relations Ser-

vice program (circa 1968-1994).

Records of Reverend Hughes’ work in the Pacific

Northwest include rich documentation of human

rights issues and social

activism in the region,

including Native Ameri-

can fishing rights, and

efforts to combat white

supremacism and the

m i l i t i a m o v e -

ment. These materials

will be a fine comple-

ment to existing

CPNWS collections cov-

ering related subject

matter such as the Whatcom Human Rights Task

Force Records, Northwest Ethnohistory Collection,

and Al Swift Congressional Papers.

The Hughes papers were formally donated to

CPNWS in early-2015 by Bob Hughes’ wife Dorothy

Hughes, following a connection established by West-

ern Washington University History Professor Dr. Ran-

dall Jimerson (who is also Director of Western’s

graduate program in Archives & Records Manage-

ment). Jimerson, who authored the recently pub-

lished work, Shattered Glass in Birmingham: My

F a m i l y ’ s

Fight For Civ-

il Rights

1961-1964,

is presently

conduct ing

research for

a biography

of Reverend

Hughes.

W h i l e t h e

Hughes papers

have still to be formally organized and processed,

we look forward to making these materials available

in support of teaching and research in the near fu-

ture. We extend our thanks to Mrs. Hughes and her

family for their generosity and support in transfer-

ring this fine collection to Western. Questions about

the Hughes Papers may be referred to CPNWS Ar-

chivist Ruth Steele.

Poster from the Whatcom Human

Rights Task Force Records, CPNWS

CPNWS employee Sarah Bollard at work with

the Reverend Hughes papers at CPNWS

Over the past several years, Heritage Re-

sources has enjoyed collaborating with Belling-

ham’s Pickford Film Center and other regional

partners to co-sponsor screenings of documen-

tary films related to fly fishing and the environ-

ment in the Pacific Northwest. Films have in-

cluded “Kiss the Water,” “Wild Rever-

ence” (with the Native Fish Society), and

“Return of the River” (with Huxley’s College of

the Environment). These “sold out” events al-

lowed us to feature Heritage Resources’ collec-

tions through exhibitions of books, artifacts, and

streaming images on the main screen prior to

the start of the films. We look forward to future

opportunities to work with this treasured com-

munity resource in the very near future.

P a r t n e r i n g w i t h t h e P i c k f o r d

Portion of Jimmie Pickett’s drawing of a birds-eye view of Bellingham Bay

published in the Daily Reveille in 1899, Galen Biery Photograph #2812, CPNWS

sculpture, poetry, collage, and varied assemblages

of form. Robert Sund, the unofficial Washington

State poet for much of his Fishtown life, often

adorned his poetry with paintings or calligraphy. An-

other peripheral resident was the letterpress guru

Clifford Burke, who came to the Skagit from the Bay

Area and taught community members how to run a

letterpress. Fishtown books, magazines, and broad-

sides were printed on his press which resided in the

basement of the Anacortes Library.

Special Collections began collecting Fishtown mate-

rials about a year ago after learning about the com-

munity from local artisan presses, artists, and liter-

ary publishers. Thanks to generous donations from

Skagit locals Bob Rose and Bo Miller, we’ve accu-

mulated twenty-three books by or about Fishtown

artists and writers, and assembled a collection of

“ephemera” including postcards and clippings from

the community. Many of these items were printed

on handmade paper, include original letterpress text

and artwork, and/or were published in small, limited

editions. They are remarkably unique and in many

cases quite rare. We are also actively conducting

oral history interviews with core Fishtown residents.

Special Collections staff and student employees are

currently working to digitize these resources to make

them more readily available through our online digi-

tal collections. If you are aware of Fishtown and

have stories to tell or materials to donate, we would

be very interested in hearing from you.

Image from an invitation to a showing of paintings by Skagit Valley

artist Paul Hansen, Fishtown Collection, Special Collections

“Fishtown,” continued from p. 1