Washington at War: The Evergreen State in World War I

Led by historian Lorraine McConaghy, the program begins with an illustrated introduction to the war’s themes before offering a “Readers’ Theater:” a script that is read aloud together, allowing participants to speak the history they are discovering. The script includes excerpts from newspapers, diaries, writings, speeches, and correspondence, and is based on extensive research in primary source material focused on the war’s impact on Washington—and how Washington impacted the war. The reading covers the period between the successful Prohibition referendum in 1914 through Seattle’s General Strike and President Woodrow Wilson’s visit to Washington in 1919. Learn about and discuss this dramatic period of immigration, wartime industrialization, women’s rights, social change, radical labor, epidemic disease, and worldwide turmoil.

Lorraine McConaghy is a public historian who earned her PhD from the University of Washington. At the Museum of History & Industry and Washington State History Museum, her work as historian and curator has dealt with Washington at war during the Treaty War of 1855-1856, the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. She has participated in working groups concerning the opportunities of commemoration, and presented lectures and workshops on readers’ theater programs at National Council on Public History, American Association for State and Local History, and the Washington Museum Association. In 2009, her readers’ theater script, Speaking Out, won the national performance award from the Oral History Association. In 2015, AASLH honored her Voices of the Civil War with a national award of merit. McConaghy’s work has been honored by the Washington State Historical Society’s Robert Gray Medal, the annual award of the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild, and the Humanities Washington Award.