Despite Washington's notoriously long (okay, endless) rainy season, Washingtonians tend to be ambivalent about the use of umbrellas. The following is a typical conversation in a Washington workplace... Jill: "Ack, it's pouring! It wasn't pouring two minutes ago when I was packing up for lunch." Jane: "Give it two minutes, and it'll stop." Jill: "What do you think? Should I bring my umbrella?" Jane: "No." Jill: "But I don't want to ruin my suit." Jane: "Fine, then take an umbrella." Jill: "Okay...[looks for umbrella under desk]...um, I can't find my umbrella. May I borrow yours?" Jane: "I haven't used an umbrella since 1976. Check with Bob. He's from California." Jill: "Okay. Oh, look! It stopped raining!" And scene. It is no wonder that our Archives staff had a tricky time digging up historic photographs of umbrellas in our records. We did find a great picture of Sylvester Park in Olympia, circa 1900, replete with several umbrellas...on a very sunny day. This was, undeniably, not a day in March. Yet this month does serve as a good reminder that the umbrella truly is...sometimes...a useful invention...rain or shine...on occasion- even for us frontiering Washingtonians.

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Photograph courtesy of Washington State Archives