By Richard Hao, Youth Director At Large
Edited by Laura Lee Bennett, Executive Vice President
On March 8th, 10:30 am at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse, the Redmond Historical Society welcomes public historian Lorraine McConaghy, author of New Land, North of the Columbia: Historic Documents That Tell the Story of Washington State from Territory to Today. She will bring “A Historical Tour of Washington State in 75 documents” to the Saturday Speaker Series
We caught up with Lorraine for a bit of Q&A.
RHS: How did you become so passionate about studying history, and what triggered that passion?
Lorraine: As a kid, I loved museums. And we lived near New York City, near Manhattan. So going to the big museums in the city was a delight. From the time I was very small, as soon as I was in high school, I began volunteering in historical societies in northern New Jersey where I lived. So it was just a natural progression. Every place I’ve gone, I've lived at the local historical society. I went to graduate school to get my master's and then my doctorate in history, because I wanted to stop being a volunteer and become a professional.
RHS: Why do you love history?
Lorraine: I love the past because it makes the present make sense. That's the utility of history. Without understanding the past, the present is chaotic and random. Just about everything has a past and a present and a future. I love history because it's infinitely interesting. I'll be able to be a historian until I'm not breathing anymore. And there's a lot of occupations that's not true. So I love, I love history and the particular topic I'll be speaking about at Redmond.
RHS: How did you pick this specific topic of your study? Was it a coincidence that you found something really interesting, like a paper, and wanted to dive deeper? Was there a topic you’ve wanted to study since you were a kid?
Lorraine: Well, when you're a museum historian, you become a generalist or you drown. You can't sit there in a meeting and say, I don't know anything about X or Y or Z. You have to be interested in everything because you're going to write one week about communism in Washington state and two weeks later about KING TV or another unique topic. Specifically, I am fascinated by archives. I'm fascinated by collections. You know what gets saved and what doesn't, and who decides?
RHS: How did you complete the research for the topic you’ll be presenting at the Redmond Historical Society, and how long did it take?
Lorraine: It took me about two and a half years to do the research for the book New Land, and it involved traveling throughout Washington state to visit dozens and dozens of historical societies, large and small. I would make an appointment and I would ask the curator or the volunteer, what are the five coolest things you have in the collection? Then I would just sit back and let him or her drag them out. What intrigued me were two-dimensional things, like photographs, correspondence, menus, photographs, and patent drawings.
RHS: Are there any personal letters, diaries, or military records from Washington residents that provide an interesting perspective into what the people in the territory were like?
Lorraine: Yes. Washington was a territory through 1889. Think of the Treaties that were signed in 1856. The first governor of Washington territory, his main job was to ram through these treaties, so that the land could be given away. The Treaties themselves are fascinating, and I included a portion of the signature page of the Treaty that created Redmond and Seattle. A very interesting document from 1889 itself, the year of Statehood.
RHS: What is your personal favorite picture from all of the ones that you've looked at? Or the collection you're sharing at this program– and why?
Lorraine: I love the territorial seal, as the patent drawing is quite recent and the territorial seal is from 1853. It's the only territorial seal in the United States that has a native word on the seal itself, the word Alki, meaning eventually. It's a contemporary scene and then a future scene. So the contemporary scene in 1853 shows a log house in the woods with a Conestoga wagon with a wagon train, the settler has just arrived, and they're in the middle of a huge, towering Douglas fir forest. Then, on the other side of the seal is the future. And it is a city that looks like Venice with all these canals, and all of the canals are navigated by steamships. At the time, to the designer of the Territorial Seal in 1853, steam engines were cutting edge. It's a rich and complicated promise that looks simply wonderful.
RHS: What would you say to a budding historian? Do you have any advice?
Lorraine: There's a fork in the road for any young person interested in history. Do you want to teach, or work in a museum? It's not determined by who hires you. It's determined by what you want to do. I loved working in a museum as a historian with a PhD. I loved designing exhibits. I loved doing research for them. I loved that kind of programming. I taught for a little while, and it just wasn't as much fun. So it’s as much a matter of personality as intellect. Just find out what part of history you love!
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