UW Tacoma Digital Commons collects, preserves, and makes publicly accessible the scholarly and creative work of the UW Tacoma campus and affiliated educational partners. The goal is to enhance and share the university's rich intellectual life by gathering in a single online repository materials that support teaching, learning, and research at UW Tacoma. If you have questions about how to get invovled, please contact Justin Wadland, Head, Media and Visual Resources.
- Faculy/Staff request form: Create/Update Author Profile
- Submit New Faculty/Staff Publication to Digital Commons
- Guide to submitting work to UW Tacoma Digital Commons
Founding Stories
UW Tacoma Oral History: Founding Stories aims to present a rich and complex history of UW Tacoma, which was established with tremendous community support. Its presence in downtown Tacoma has transformed the post-industrial neighborhood and invites inquiries into urban development; historic preservation; public higher education; and the relationships between people, communities, and institutions.
Over fifty oral history projects are available from the Tacoma Community History Project. UW Tacoma students created these projects in graduate and undergraduate courses that have been offered by Professor Michael Honey since 1990 in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program. The collection now includes projects on churches, labor unions, military institutions, ethnic communities, neighborhoods, businesses, civic leaders, and prominent citizens in Tacoma and the South Puget Sound.
Tacoma Then and Again
This database contains rephotography—or what is commonly called “then and now” photography—of buildings, streets, neighborhoods, and parks in Tacoma. High quality digital scans of historic photographs of Tacoma’s urban core have been paired with contemporary digital photos shot from the same vantages.
Other Collections & Resources of Interest
- UW Libraries Digital Collections - Photographs, documents, and audiovisual resources from the UW Libraries, UW faculty and departments, and from UW collaborators.
- Tacoma Public Library Northwest Room - The Northwest Room makes materials related to Tacoma history available through extensive online collections, such as the Northwest Photography Archives, the Tacoma / Pierce County Building Index, and many others
- Washington State Historical Soci
