New City Archivist

Please join us in welcoming SMA's new City Archivist, Sarah Shipley! Sarah has been serving as Interim City Archivist since April of last year, and prior to that served as SMA's Digital Asset Manager since 2013. During her tenure at SMA, Sarah has been instrumental in designing and stewarding SMA's digital preservation program, revamping SMA's digital collections site, and expanding researcher access to born-digital formats such as email collections.

Sarah looks forward to continuing to work alongside SMA's talented staff to build on these efforts — deepening the Archives' digital infrastructure, strengthening partnerships across city departments, and connecting Seattle residents with the rich history in our collections. She is committed to ensuring that SMA remains a vital resource for the city it serves, both today and for generations to come.

SMA in the News

A recent article from KNKX about local jazz legend Joe Brazil is illustrated by photos from SMA's Black Academy of Music (BAM) Records. Brazil was a trailblazing musician and educator who taught at Garfield High School and the University of Washington, and established and led BAM during the 1970s. SMA’s holdings include records from BAM created during its involvement with the Seattle Model City Program in the 1970s (read more about the collection here). Under Brazil’s leadership, BAM served as a groundbreaking community arts organization that influenced and supported countless local (and beyond) musicians. Taken circa 1974, the photos show Brazil alongside other jazz artists Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Harris, and the McCoy Tyner Group.

Earlier this year, a Seattle Times article on Meadowbrook Pool featured a photo from SMA’s collections showing the pool soon after it opened in 1975. The pool, constructed as part of the Forward Thrust bond measures in the 1970s, celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2025! SMA holds records documenting the pool’s planning, construction, opening, and use over the years (including some great photos), and selected copies of these materials were on display at the pool’s anniversary celebrations in October.

And finally, we want to give a big shout-out to SMA’s Audiovisual Archivist, Libby Hopfauf, who was featured in an article in The Stranger last year (a 2025 Editor’s Pick!) for her work on the front lines against the magnetic media crisis – that is, the fight to preserve content saved on magnetic media like VHS cassettes. These tapes have a short life span and are degrading fast, and the history they hold may be lost forever without timely, careful, and skillful work to save and preserve it. Read more about SMA’s videotape holdings and the important work Libby does at our Primary Sources blog.

Find of the Month: Baseball Trash Talk

Our Find of the Month for March features an exchange of letters saved in the Fire Chief’s General Correspondence series highlighting some early trash talk between the chiefs in Tacoma and Seattle. A letter dated July 28, 1933 from Tacoma's Chief Whitaker to Seattle's Chief Corning referenced an upcoming baseball game between department staff from the two cities, to be played on Labor Day at Spanaway Park. He ended with some gentle ribbing: 

We realize that you live in a fine city and have a wonderful Fire Department, but as for your football and baseball teams we are doubtful, therefore, I would advise that you give your boys plenty of coaching and practice before Labor Day, or, you may be able to pick up some good players from either Tukwilla [sic] or Kirkland.

Corning did not take this lying down, writing back to Chief Whitaker four days later with a full page and a half elaborating on just how little they feared Tacoma's fire fighters on the field of play. Read more of this story and explore past Find of the Months (going back to 2007!) on our website.