EWU Archives & Special Collections Provides a Snapshot of History

Eastern Washington University’s archivist, Steve Bingo, and a group of students are preserving an important slice of regional history and making it accessible for the community. Since October is National Archives Month, this is the perfect time to shine a spotlight on the work of Eastern’s archival team.

Housed in EWU’s JFK Library, the archives includes historic university records, donated collections related to local history, and a book collection that focuses primarily on the Inland Northwest.

The range of archival materials is vast. As the 2025 World Series unfolds, for example, the archives shared news about a collection of glass-plate photographs donated by Eugene T. Hawk. Bingo and his team found that, among other fascinating depictions of regional life, the collection contained early career images of two baseball legends, George Kelly and Stan Coveleski, from the 1910s — players who went on to earn inductions into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

The photos were among those taken with the Spokane Indians. They included Kelly, who went on to play first base with the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants), and pitcher Coveleski, who eventually played for the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Nationals.

While playing for the Giants, Kelly helped the team score back-to-back World Series championships, in 1921-1922. Stan Coveleski, a right-handed pitcher who mastered the (then legal) spitball, led the Cleveland Indians to a World Series championship in 1920.

Bingo says many of the photos included in the 587-plate E.T. Hawk Collection were taken by Frank Guilbert. A number of Guilbert’s images are held by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Bingo credits John Klint, a 31-year-old graduate student from Sweden who is earning a master’s degree in library sciences from University of Alabama, with the research.

“It’s amazing to have these photographs that connect the Spokane Indians to Major League Baseball history at a time when there were no major league teams on the West Coast,” Bingo says. “Because minor league players do not stay put for very long, it’s a treasure to preserve a glimpse of their careers prior to stardom.”

The photos also preserve striking scenes of Spokane prior to Expo ’74 and the construction of I-90, which altered much of the city’s landscape. Part of that changed landscape, Bingo says, includes the former Recreation Park. Once home to the Indian’s baseball diamond, it’s now a maze of warehouses located near Spokane Community College.

Bingo regularly tracks down historical details, articles and photos for online and print stories featured by InsideEWU, Eastern magazine and university colleges and programs celebrating anniversaries, major research accomplishments and other milestones.

Bingo, for example, helped to create a memorable historic display for the EWU Alumni Association’s 100-year homecoming anniversary celebration. Working in partnership with Riley Baxter, assistant director of alumni programs, the two collected articles and memorabilia that filled display cases in the Walter and Myrtle Powers Reading Room in Hargreaves Hall.

“Steve Bingo is one of those people who makes every project better just by being part of it. His enthusiasm is contagious and his commitment to EWU is unmatched,” says Kelsey Hatch-Brecek, director of alumni relations.

Bingo also recently put together a display for Eastern’s 50^th reunion. It celebrated graduating classes from 1970-1975 and was housed within the archives office in the lower floor of JFK Library.

“Steve puts together displays that make you feel like you’re right there – in that moment, that place, that story. His work brings history to life,” says Hatch-Brecek.

This fall, Bingo and the archives team are working on projects to preserve EWU research materials and make them accessible to the public. They are also continuing to promote EWU’s history to the surrounding region — with Eastern students playing a key role in the hands-on effort.

One of these students, Cali Toliver, 25, from Bremerton, Washington, is surveying a book collection dealing extensively with polar exploration and the history of northern Canada. Among the notable volumes that Toliver, a senior English major, is working on is a signed copy of Roald Amundsen’s account of being the first person to reach the South Pole. The project will provide researchers with access a wealth of information on the history of the Canadian Northwest.

Another student, Kaelin Garcia Nares, a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in psychology, is working in a position funded by a gift from the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity to support the archives. Garcia Nares from Santa Rosa, California, meanwhile, is digitizing school journals from the 1910s that include photographs of Eastern’s graduating seniors. Earlier in the quarter, she penned descriptions for hundreds of issues of Cheney newspapers published between 1882 and 1927.

Bingo says archives work is time intensive, and that student employees play a vital role in helping to make collections accessible through digitization or processing.

Over the years, a few of those students have gone on to careers as archivists. Although others might not be destined to work as archival experts, Bingo says the applied learning from the archives will benefit them in their professional lives.

“Regardless of background, the student assistants at the EWU Archives demonstrate care and attention to their work,” he says.