About HistoryLink.org

History Link Board and Staff Listings

Welcome to the first and largest encyclopedia of community history created expressly for the Internet. HistoryLink.org is an evolving online encyclopedia of state and local history in Washington state.

HistoryLink.org provides a free, authoritative, and easily accessible history reference for the benefit of students, teachers, journalists, scholars, researchers, and the general public. With a few noted exceptions, all essays and features on this site are original works prepared exclusively for HistoryLink.org by staff, contract writers, volunteers, and consulting experts. The encyclopedia contains more than 5,000 essays as of September 2008. It is constantly expanding, with new essays added every week.

The site debuted with demonstration content on May 1, 1998, and its original Seattle-King County database became functional on January 15, 1999. HistoryLink launched a parallel Washington database with initial content on March 2, 2003, making it the nation’s first original online encyclopedia of state history. On October 14, 2004, HistoryLink.org launched a redesigned and merged database to provide easier access to its essays and Web features. On September 8, 2008, HistoryLink.org was again updated with new design and other improvements. 

Like the communities and state it chronicles, HistoryLink.org is a work in progress. We add new features and essays continuously to fill gaps and enlarge on selected subjects, and existing essays are often expanded or corrected to reflect new information. We welcome your comments and suggestions submitted via our Feedback page, and we encourage citizens to add their own stories to our "People's History" archive.

HistoryLink.org is produced by History Ink, a Washington non-profit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. It was established in 1997 to undertake innovative approaches to historical research, education, and publishing. In addition to producing the HistoryLink.org encyclopedia, History Ink engages in other research and publishing. We welcome queries from other communities and states that would like to develop HistoryLink sites to present their own history. Check here for History Link Board and Staff Listings.

Local governments, institutions, businesses, foundations, and individual donors support the development of HistoryLink. See our Sponsor page for a complete list of HistoryLink supporters. To make a donation to History Ink, click here.

Fair Use and Copyright Policies

All content on HistoryLink.org is owned by History Ink and subject to its copyright. Some writing and images are also subject to additional copyrights and restrictions. HistoryLink.org is offered as a public service, and its verbal and visual content may be reproduced for personal use with proper citation and credit. Permission is also granted for reproduction of HistoryLink.org content for scholarly papers, reviews, news stories, and educational uses with proper credit to History Ink and any noted additional copyright holders (see below). Reproduction of HistoryLink.org verbal or visual content by any means for sale or commercial purposes is prohibited without advance written permission from History Ink.

Please note that images on HistoryLink.org are posted at relatively low resolution sufficient to illustrate its files and to protect second party rights. History Ink does not maintain an archive of high-resolution imagery for public use or reproduction. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the sources noted in the captions.

Citation of HistoryLink Content

With a few exceptions, HistoryLink essays are fully sourced, bylined, and dated to provide authoritative references for legal, journalistic, and scholastic use. Different stylebooks, mainly the Chicago Manual of Style, the MLA Style Manual, and the Associated Press Stylebook, have different citation styles. For most purposes, we recommend using the following format (shown with a sample essay) to cite HistoryLink.org:

HistoryLink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, "President Franklin Roosevelt tours the Olympic Peninsula on October 1, 1937" (by Kit Oldham), http://www.historylink.org/ (accessed November 3, 2004).

History Link Board and Staff Listings