Seattle City Wire

Seattle Historian Paul Dorpat has donated his full collection of historical documents and materials that detail the history of Seattle to the Seattle Public Library, which will be on display in the Seattle Room at the Central Library, according to "City Stream."

Ann Ferguson, curator of the Seattle Collection at Seattle Public Library, said the collection that was donated by Dorpat encompasses thousands of books, photos, maps, articles and much more.

Andrew Harbison, Seattle Public Library | LinkedIn

"I got to go down to his office on the lower level of his house, and I could not stop looking around because every square inch of that space was full of Seattle history, essentially," Ferguson said in "City Stream."

Andrew Harbison, assistant director of Collections and Access, said that Dorpat himself is an important figure in Seattle and a well-known writer. 

"Paul Dorpat is an incredibly important figure in Seattle history. He was a writer for The Seattle Times, published over 1,500 articles of the Seattle 'Now and Then' column, cofounder of the History Link website, which documents a lot of important history in Seattle and in the region, and a voluminous collector as well," Harbison told "City Stream."

Ferguson said any place would be lucky to have this kind of collection from such an important figure in the community.

"I can guarantee you that any city in the country would be thrilled to have someone like Paul Dorpat, who spent really a lifetime documenting the city and collecting material that really reveals the fabric of our city's life," Ferguson said in the video.

Dorpat, who is in his 80s, made the decision to donate his collection of more than 40 years of research because he's getting older and had to move into a senior living facility. 

"I felt that the Seattle Room at the Seattle Public Library was a wonderful place to abscond with it," Dorpat said in the interview. "Well, I live in the place. I've always been interested in history, and it gives you a depth of the experience of the thing you're studying to study it. That's what truth is, a hard study on stuff, so I want to know the truth."

As part of the collection, Harbison said Dorpat also included some of the Helix publications, an underground newspaper founded and published by Dorpat. Harbison said that once all the boxes are processed through, the full collection will be available in the Central Library of the Seattle Public Library. He went on to say what will be included is "many different examples of historic documents and photographs." 

The collection will be of great importance and provide references to anyone would like to know a little bit more about Seattle, the history of the city and all of its hidden treasures that otherwise could have been lost to time.