Welcome to HistoryLink.org, the first and largest encyclopedia of regional history created expressly for the Internet. We are dedicated to the principle that history belongs to the entire community and that a better understanding of past events can improve public debate and decisions and enrich the lives of individuals.
HistoryLink.org is the continually evolving online encyclopedia of Washington state history. We provide a free, authoritative, and easily accessible reference for the benefit of all. With a few noted exceptions, all articles on this site are original works prepared exclusively for HistoryLink.org by staff historians, contract writers, volunteers, and consulting experts.
Our writers are Washingtonians, writing about Washington, tunneling through our state's rich archival resources, and serving up Washington's history. We are guided by a distinguished board of scholars, educators, and community leaders. HistoryLink.org is history -- events large and small; domestic, civic, and international. Things that happened in our state and then rippled out across the planet. National and global happenings that touched our corner of the great Pacific Northwest.
Our content increases almost daily, as of 2024 HistoryLink.org features more than 8,200 original articles. Like the communities and state it chronicles, HistoryLink.org is a work in progress. We continuously add new features to fill gaps and enlarge upon selected subjects, and existing articles are often expanded or corrected to reflect new information. HistoryLink.org serves an average of 4,500 visitors a day, among them teachers, students, journalists, and lifelong history lovers who use us as a resource to inform their perceptions and enhance their lives. And after more than 25 years, HistoryLink has its own history, too, which you can read about here.
We welcome your comments and suggestions – submit them the Contact page. We encourage you to inquire about adding your own voice to our People's History library.
The encyclopedia has three types of articles:
- Features are overview articles – biographical stories and snapshots of communities and historical events, all fully cited.
- Timeline Entries are events keyed to specific dates, offering readers the opportunity to scroll chronologically through Washington state history. All are fully cited.
- People’s Histories are reminiscences, documents, older historical accounts, and personal interpretations. Most are not cited.
Fair Use and Copyright Policies
Citation of HistoryLink Content
HistoryLink is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation established in 1997 to pioneer innovative approaches to historical research, education, and publishing. Its primary public service activity is production of HistoryLink.org, the free online encyclopedia of Washington state history and the nation’s first original encyclopedia of community history created expressly for the Internet.
Fair Use and Copyright Policies
The content on HistoryLink.org is owned by HistoryLink and subject to its copyright. HistoryLink.org is offered as a public service. Our written content is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction for noncommercial use, with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction.
Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. The copyrights for most images on HistoryLink.org are owned not by HistoryLink but by the individuals, institutions, and archives sourced in the image captions. HistoryLink.org does not maintain an archive of imagery for public use or reproduction. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the sources noted in the captions.
Reproduction of HistoryLink.org written or visual content by any means for sale or commercial purposes is prohibited without advance written permission from HistoryLink.org.
Citation of HistoryLink Content
Except for most People's History articles, HistoryLink.org articles are fully sourced, bylined, and dated to provide authoritative references for legal, journalistic, and scholastic use. Different stylebooks have different citation styles. For most purposes, we recommend using the following format to cite HistoryLink.org: Formal name of the encyclopedia, “Name of the essay” (author’s name), link to encyclopedia (date accessed).
Example: HistoryLink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, "President Franklin Roosevelt tours the Olympic Peninsula on October 1, 1937" (by Kit Oldham), www.historylink.org (accessed November 3, 2004).
General information gathered
Individual visits to electronic services are logged automatically by servers and software programs are used to summarize data from those visits. The data summaries do not identify individual visitors by name.
Server logs and statistical summaries are reviewed to learn how individual web pages are used in order to improve website content and troubleshoot server problems. Examples of statistics gathered include:
- Referring site or site last visited
- Time and date of user sessions or visits
- Browser types and versions in use
- Operating systems in use
- Internet Protocol (IP) addresses assigned to Internet service providers
Personal information
Individuals can choose to submit their names, email addresses, or other contact information to be added to specific mailing lists. HistoryLink does not sell, rent or otherwise distribute information to outside companies or organizations.
Cookies
A “cookie” is a string of information which assigns you a unique identifier that we store on your computer. Your browser then provides that unique identifier to use each time you submit a query to the site.
Analytics Cookies
We use Google Analytics to track user numbers and the pages users visit. Analytics cookies monitor how users reached the site, and how they interact with and move around once on the site. These cookies let us know what features on the site are working the best and what features on the site can be improved.
Children's Privacy
HistoryLink does not ask for personal information from children unless they choose to sign up for our e-newsletter.
We will remove your child's e-newsletter subscription from our mailing list at your request. Contact us by phone (206-447-8140) or email us at [email protected] to request that we remove your child's newsletter subscription.