March “Library jewels” contestant #1: congressman’s scrapbooks

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Spring has sprung (at least according to the calendar), baseball season is here, and it’s time for the March edition of “State Library jewels.” Leading off this month’s online contest are the 1913-1915 scrapbooks of Grays Harbor’s Albert Johnson, whose influential career ranged from being a newspaper editor to a powerful member of Congress. The monthly blog series spotlights three of the many interesting, historical or downright cool items found in the State Library. We’ll feature two other contenders for this month’s online contest in the next few days. Then we’ll launch the online poll to let you and others choose which jewel you like best. From the Johnson scrapbooks:

“Albert Johnson rose from his position as editor of the Daily Washingtonian, based in Hoquiam, Washington, to become one of the most powerful congressional leaders in the United States. In 1913 he was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican and served in nine succeeding congresses (March 4, 1913-March 3, 1933) until his defeat in the 1932 election when Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democrats were swept into power. Johnson's congressional career spanned 20 years, climaxing in 1924 with the passage of the Johnson-Reed Act, which applied a stringent quota system to American immigration policies, and is widely regarded as the most important piece of immigration legislation in United States history. The growth of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, often called "Wobblies") in Grays Harbor proved portentous for the editor, for it gave him a popular plank on which to both launch his political career and expand his publishing empire.”