Whether you are researching your family’s roots, interested in the past lives of the house you live in or are simply curious about the history of life on the Olympic Peninsula, the Bert Kellogg Collection — a trove of historical photographs curated by the North Olympic Library System — is a splendid place to start.
Documenting everything from bridges of the late 1800s (planks laid across a frozen river, balancing on snowy banks on either side) to soggy logging camps, from family portraits to railroad accidents, the Kellogg Collection consists of over 5,000 images from around Clallam County and the Pacific Northwest.
About the collection
When Bert Kellogg moved to Port Angeles in 1940, he began making copies of photographs and negatives owned by his friends and neighbors.
After an accident left him with only 10 percent vision in one eye — and blind in the other — Kellogg developed a passion for photography, aided by a special lens.
Over the next 30 years, he carefully collected and restored images from the 1870s through the mid-1900s, documenting the places, people, native customs and landscapes of his new home. In 1970, he donated his collection to NOLS.
Thanks to grants from the Washington State Library and Institute of Museum and Library Services, most of this collection — more than 3,000 images — is now digitally available on the library’s website.
Viewing the collection
To begin exploring the images, start at www.nols.org. Select the “E-Resources” link from the top of the page and click on “Local Information.” You’ll see a link to the Kellogg Photo Collection on the right side. Once there, you can begin searching by a personal or place name, by an identifying feature or type of structure (such as “salmon” or “school”), or by any other term that strikes your fancy.
You may notice that NOLS isn’t alone in making unique historical images available: 32 additional collections, representing the combined efforts of public libraries, historical societies and archives are searchable through the Washington Rural Heritage website (www.washingtonruralheritage.org/). Visitors may browse those collections individually or search multiple collections at the same time.
Many of the people in the images are listed only as “unidentified person.” Because the images were collected from numerous sources and included boxes and trunks at rummage sales, library staff have never known the names of these individuals. If you see a family member you can identify, contact NOLS to share your information.
Trained staff and volunteers continue to scan, upload and catalog the remaining portion of the collection. If you can’t find an image you’re looking for or have questions about the library’s online resources, contact NOLS at ehelp@nols.org or call the Port Angeles Library at 417-8500.
In the meantime, happy exploring!
Sarah Morrison is a librarian at the Port Angeles Library.
