Washington State Archives / Legacy Washington

Washington State Archives

Washington State Archives is charged with preserving and making available the important legal and historical public records of state and local government. The Archives is committed to increasing online access to our collections through an ongoing program to digitize our holdings. The Archives’ website provides access and preserves more than 230 million records. Researchers of all ages and experience levels, including students across Washington, have performed more than 4.5 million searches on the DA over the last year.  

Donations to the Archives during GiveBIG 2025 will go toward digitizing more records to place online, especially collections that support middle- and high-school students participating in Washington History Day.

Legacy Washington

Legacy Washington documents extraordinary stories in Washington history.  Through exhibits, innovative storytelling, books and lesson plans, Legacy Washington documents the contributions of former statewide elected officials, members of Congress the legislature and the judiciary—as well as other influential Washingtonians from all walks of life.

For GiveBig 2025, Legacy Washington asks your support for its latest oral history project: A compelling collection of stories to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrival here of Southeast Asian refugees. The work will highlight the hardships and hopes of the Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian refugees who fled their homelands in 1975 when the last Americans left Saigon. The project will feature intimate profiles of the exiles, state officials and volunteers who helped them find homes and jobs, and the diaspora generations born and raised in Washington.