What's Happening

This exhibit highlights historical narratives of transgender people in the West and considers how westward migration provided opportunities for self-expression and fulfillment. Traversing unfamiliar territory, these individuals crossed both physical boundaries and the perceptual boundaries of their earlier lives. Join us in learning more about the history of gender, identity, and changing cultural perceptions in the West and the connections between transgender history and the LGBTQ+ community today.

The WSHS and UW collaborated to provide a unique learning experience for students in the capstone course for the Public Health/Global Health major. This exhibition is the result of the student's work. By exploring poignant personal accounts of people in our community, you'll come away with a clearer, more diverse understanding of the reach and ramifications of this global crisis as it played out right here at home.

Looking across city blocks and quilt blocks, roadways and seams, one can see a visible kinship between quilt making and cartography. Both are built upon established systems that use color, pattern, and symbols to create whole compositions from a network of interlocked parts. Quilts and maps are also infused with history and memory—similarly living records of traditions, experiences, relationships, beliefs, and future aspirations.

See a selection of bird’s-eye view maps from the Historical Society's collections illustrating cities and towns from across Washington. Also called panoramic maps, they were drawn to give the viewer a sense of looking down at a city and its major features as if they were flying above it. Maps on view are from the late 1800s -early 1900s as well as more recently created maps inspired by the panoramic style. Also featuring historic surveying, mapmaking, and illustration tools.