How have Seattle area land and waters been shaped by humans? Often telling this history relies on documentation from European and American settlers, minimizing and mythologizing the contributions of indigenous peoples. Building on research for her book The River That Made Seattle: A Human and Natural History of the Duwamish, author BJ Cummings used new primary sources to shed light on seven generations of Native family histories long obscured by colonial narratives.

The federal Bracero railroad track program brought Mexican workers to the Pacific Northwest during World War II to work on the railroads by promising jobs, adequate wages, and improved living conditions. To the dismay of the Braceros and their families in Mexico, these promises by the U.S. and Mexican governments, and companies such as the Great Northern, were largely unfulfilled. In Dr. Gamboa’s special presentation of his new research, he gave voice to the unique and personal stories of the individuals who helped to keep vital northwest war trains rolling.

With record breaking temperatures, rising sea levels, and melting ice caps, the 1970 call for an Earth Day of environmental action has never been more relevant. From science to policy to activism, how has our state grappled with these issues over the past 50 years and what do we do next?

Local climate activist and community organizer Derek Hoshiko explored what we can learn from the history of environmentalism, and how we can face the present climate crisis. He explored movement moments from the first Earth Day in 1970 to the WTO “Battle in Seattle” in 1999, from Occupy Wall Street to the Thin Green Line, and from the youth ClimateStrike and FridaysForFuture to the COVID-19 pandemic.

American tech companies promote the free flow of data worldwide, while relying on foreign, temporary IT workers to build, deliver, and support their products. In this talk based on her recently published book, High-Tech Housewives: Indian IT Workers, Gendered Labor and Transmigration, Dr. Amy Bhatt shined a spotlight on Indian IT migrants and their struggles to navigate family obligations, career paths, citizenship, and belonging as they move between South Asia and the United States.

In 1999, the Makah Tribal Nation successfully hunted a gray whale. This action drew the ire of animal rights activists who often rooted their criticism in racism and stereotypes of indigenous authenticity. Drawing from the tribal nation’s relationship with the sea, this talk focused on Makah statements and actions from the eighteenth century onward that illustrate how they have made and continue to maintain the surrounding marine waters as their own.

A member of the Snohomish Indian Nation, Dr. Reid is associate professor of History and American Indian Studies at the University of Washington and author of The Sea is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs (Yale University Press), recipient of four major book awards.

Dr. Frederick L. Brown examined Seattle’s often overlooked animal history, considering how animals of all sorts, but especially domestic ones, have had a surprisingly important role in the making and remaking of the city. Animals were never far from people’s minds as they regulated urban spaces, defined neighborhoods, strove for better lives, and debated what it meant to be city-dwellers. Indeed, animals and animal categories have been crucial to struggles over power, place, and identity throughout Seattle’s history.

Frederick L. Brown received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in 2010, with a focus on the environmental history of U.S. cities. He is the author of The City is More Than Human: An Animal History of Seattle, published in 2016 by the University of Washington Press. He has worked as an historian for the National Park Service in its Western Regional Office, authoring or contributing to historical reports about National Park Service sites in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and Hawai’i.

Dr. Quintard Taylor, Jr. discussed Seattle’s African American history and how this demographic is influencing the city’s future in the 2016 Denny Lecture. On October 27, 2014 an article appeared in The Seattle Times indicating that the city was moving in the opposite direction of most major American urban areas—even suburban King County—by becoming whiter. While Taylor’s lecture did not challenge that assertion, it examined the ways in which African Americans have influenced Seattle’s culture and politics.

Specializing in African American history in the West, Dr. Taylor is the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the University of Washington, editor of the Race and Culture in the American West book series, and founder of BlackPast.org.

In 2015, historian David B. Williams presented original research from his upcoming book Too High and Too Steep, exploring how Seattle’s citizens have altered the city’s landscape with an unrivaled zeal from the settlers’ first arrival to the present day.

David B. Williams is a freelance writer focused on the intersection of people and the natural world. His books include Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology and The Seattle Street-Smart Naturalist: Field Notes from the City. Williams also works at the Burke Museum and maintains the blog GeologyWriter.com.

Seattle has been home to a remarkable number of world-changing individuals, organizations, and ideas. What is it about the city that makes it a hub of innovation? Margaret O’Mara, curator of the Bezos Center for Innovation, examined the importance of place to the process of innovation, and how Seattle’s past has shaped its inspiring present in her 2014 Denny Lecture.

Margaret O’Mara is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington, specializing in political, economic and urban history. She is the author of Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley and is a founding member of the Lake Union Lab.

Knute Berger has been writing insightful commentary on Seattle’s heritage and culture for many years. In 2012, on the 50th anniversary of Seattle’s most recognizable icon, Knute Berger shared stories about his time spent as the Space Needle’s writer-in-residence and described how he uncovered new material on the origins of the iconic landmark as he researched and wrote his book Space Needle: The Spirit of Seattle.

A Seattle native, Knute Berger is an accomplished Seattle journalist. He is a columnist for Crosscut, is the editor-at-large for Seattle magazine, and is a regular guest of Weekday with Steve Scher on Seattle’s NPR affiliate KUOW-FM (94.9). He won the Washington State Historic Preservation Officer’s Annual Media Award for his coverage of heritage issues for Crosscut in 2008. In addition to his book about the Space Needle, Knute is the author of Pugetopolis: A Mossback takes on Growth Addicts, Weather Wimps and the Myth of Seattle Nice.

The inaugural Denny Lecture featured MOHAI’s award-winning public historian, Lorraine McConaghy, PhD. McConaghy discussed her book, New Land, North of the Columbia, which is a comprehensive history Washington State from 1853 to the present day. McConaghy described her research, as well as the a fascinating array of primary materials she uncovered ranging from maps, personal correspondence, public records, patent drawings, menus, and paper dolls. Highlights included such treasures as Abraham Lincoln’s telegram to Washington Territory’s governor, the rough draft of Theodore Roethke’s The Rose, and a NASA map of Washington shot by Landsat satellites.

Dr. McConaghy is the public historian emeritus at MOHAI, and a lecturer in Museum Studies at the University of Washington. She has received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching History, the DAR National Heritage Medal for Oral History, the AKCHO Charles Payton Award, and the Annual History Award from the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild. Recently, she also received the Robert Gray Medal from the Washington State Historical Society, the highest honor available to a historian in this state.