Our Special Collections celebrate Seattle’s history and place in the Pacific Northwest. Learn about genealogy, aviation or Seattle’s culture and history. Digging deep on a research project? Our reference librarians can help you with your genealogical or Seattle-related research. You can also access more than 30 special collections online.
The Central Library offers these collections:
The Douglass-Truth Branch houses one of the largest collections of African American literature and history on the West Coast. A building expansion in 2006 greatly expanded shelf space for the collection. The collection features more than 10,000 items, including biographies, magazines, literature, music and films.
Browse special collections items from the Seattle Room online through our digital collections. Explore the history of the city through postcards, photographs, periodicals, maps, menus and more.
The Frank Kunishige Collection showcases the Library's set of Kunishige's artistic textura tissue photographs. Kunishige was a skilled photographer and one of the founding members of the internationally recognized Seattle Camera Club. Born in Japan in 1878, Kunishige came to Seattle via San Francisco in 1917. He was well known for his use of Pictorialism, a popular painterly style of photography. Frank and his wife Gin Kunishige were forced to leave Seattle in 1942 when the United States’ began their Japanese internment policy. They were interned at the Minidoka camp in Idaho. Gin Kunishige donated the collection to the Library in 1961, a year after Frank's passing.