The Port of Seattle was established as the first public port district in Washington State by the voters in King County in 1911. Since its inception the Port has developed and operated marina, shipping and warehouse facilities on Elliott Bay, Salmon Bay, Shilshole Bay and the Duwamish Waterway. The Port also owns and operates Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) International Airport, which officially opened in 1947. Collections from the Port of Seattle include boxed paper files, maps, architectural drawings, photographs, motion picture film, audio and video recordings. The Port began to report on its activities and promote itself as a trade and economic development resource within a couple of years of its formation. By 1918 the Port’s annual reports had become “Yearbooks,” with color covers, articles and charts. In addition to reporting on the Port’s development and operations each year, the yearbooks featured articles, photographs, illustrations, tables and graphs promoting its facilities, Seattle, Puget Sound and Washington State to potential customers around the world.

This collection includes 34 publications documenting operations and marketing strategy of the Port of Seattle. They were gathered from the records transferred to the Puget Sound Branch Archives by the Port of Seattle.