In 1986 the fledgling Pacific Northwest Historians Guild created the Pacific Northwest History’ Award to recognize individuals who had made significant contributions to understanding and relating the history of our region. Twenty-two persons have been thus honored, in recent years the selection being made by a secret vote of previous recipients.
The first was Murray Morgan. Last year our fortuitous selection was Walt Crowley who passed away a short nine months later.
And so we move to 2008.
Behold the potato! It is not pretty. It is a dirty, dusty brown. It is lumpy and punctuated with indentations we euphemistically call eyes. It spends most of its life buried deep in the soil. The potato lacks the shining red color and the symmetry of the tomato and the architectural elegance of the artichoke. Even its subterranean fellow, the carrot, sends a brilliant plume above the earth, while the potato offers only a sprawling vine.
When the potato does come above ground it is mashed, diced, or cut into thin slices, which are sometimes shaped into ruffles or into Pringle conformity. Often the potato is cut into uniform strips and thrown into vats of boiling oil, an indignity that would be recognized a: form of torture even in the highest of places.
Yes, the potato is one of God’s humblest creations – but there are those who love it!
One such person is Jackie Williams, this year’s recipient of the Pacific Northwest History Award. Jackie has a bookshelf or more of potato recipes, she specializes in potato dishes and hosts potato dinners, has potato artifacts about her home including salt and pepper shakers, ornaments, a telephone, and; of course a number of Mr. Potatoheads. She has been invited to speak before potato trade associations. But that is not the reason she is being honored tonight. It is for her long and productive work as one of our leading historians.
Jackie’s soft, Southern drawl betrays that her early years were spent in Louisville, Kentucky. She attended the University of Missouri, worked as a medical technologist, and met Walt Williams. They will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary at the end of this month.
After Walt received his Ph.D. in Indiana, the couple moved to Seattle where he joined the University of Washington faculty. Jackie completed her degree here at the UW and began writing recipes and articles especially geared to promoting a healthy diet. In 1981 she and her friend Goldie Silverman wrote a cookbook “No Salt, No Sugar, No Fat,” which has sold over half a million copies and is still in print.
Along the way, though, Jackie came to realize that her interest in the history of food and recipes was increasing. She became widely known for two books concerning the ways foods were prepared and eaten in Western pioneering days: “Wagon Wheels Kitchens : Food on the Oregon Trail,” and “The Way We Ate: Pacific Northwest Cooking: 1843- 1900.” And then she branched in other directions, producing a fine history of her local neighborhood: “Hill with a Future: Seattle’s Capitol Hill 1900-1946.” Currently she is co-authoring a book on Seattle apartment houses of the early 20th century. And she is co-author with Howard Droker, the first president of the Guild, and Molly Cone in a truly significant volume “Family of Strangers: Building a Jewish Community in Washington State.”
Jackie is a frequent contributor to historical journals, and a regular presenter of talks to groups and conferences, locally, regionally and nationally. Among other recognition, she has received awards from the American Association for State and Local History, the Washington State Library, the Washington Museum Association, and from AKCHO (the Association of King County Historical Organizations). She is active in several organizations including the Guild of which she has been a stalwart member almost since its inception, serving on its board and on conference and other committees.
Jackie may prefer to introduce family members herself; but I might suggest that they compose what is likely the most prolific family of authors in our community.
It is a real honor and a personal pleasure to present the 2008 Pacific Northwest History Award to Jacqueline B. Williams.