Maine State Archives

Formerly known as the ‘Frontier Justice Collection’, the Territorial Court Case Files for the Washington Territory (1853–1889) are not only some of the most important records held by the Washington State Archives, but also some of the most fragile. This paper describes the multi-year process of digitising these records and sharing them online.

The Washington State Archives is, in fact, the Division of Archives and Records Management. As the archives of the State of Washington, the Division is responsible for assembling, preserving, arranging, describing, and making available for public use archival records from both state and local government agencies. The Division also is responsible for coordinating the review and approval of the disposition of public records and for assisting state and local agencies with records retention scheduling, as well as for other relevant facets of public records management. The Division's overall goal is to carry out these functions so that they complement each other to make the total public records system accessible, usable, and cost-effective.