Research Guides
Timeline from 1774 – 1936
1774 – Juan Perez’s Spanish expedition arrived in the Northwest and was met by Haida people who paddled their canoes out while singing “a welcome accompanied by a kind of tambourine instrument” (Langlois).
1805 – The overland Lewis and Clark expedition finally reached the Columbia River and William Clark noted that “about 200 men” arrived at the camp “singing and beating on their drums and keeping time to the music.
1852 – Seattle appears in print for the first time on October 30, 1852.
1861 -- Territorial University (University of Washington) opens on November 4, 1861
1890 -- Musicians in Seattle organize a union on November 7, 1890.
1903 — First Seattle Symphony performance.
1909 - Music at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
1914 — Cornish College of the Arts opens.
1920 — “Jelly Roll” Morton the “inventor” of jazz and Oscar Holden play the Entertainer’s Club. Jelly Roll Morton - Listen to "Seattle Hunch".
1921 — Musical Arts Society denounces jazz as something that “tears down the moral fiber.”
1921 — Madame Mary Davenport-Engberg, first woman symphony conductor in U.S. history, becomes Seattle Symphony Conductor.
1925 – Outdoor Seattle concert by opera diva Mme. Schumann-Heink is ruined by tugboat's horn-blast.
1932 - Harry Smith compiles the Anthology of American Folk Music, a compilation of recordings of American folk and country music, commercially released as 78 rpm records. Available on CD in the Libraries.
1934 - Blue Moon Tavern opens its doors.
1936 -- Melville Jacobs records the Duwamish in Seattle.