Suess Art Glass float for Potlatch parade, Seattle, circa 1920 (MOHAI 11206)

In this image employees of the Suess Art Glass Company, dressed for a parade, pose in front of the company building at 764 Virginia Street in downtown Seattle. The company had begun in 1901, a few months after third-generation glazer and founder John Bernard Suess (1875-1930) moved to Seattle from Chicago with his wife, Bertha (Stumpf) Suess (1876-), and daughter Edna Frances (Suess) Webb (1896-1989); his son John Walter Suess (1902-1951) was born in Seattle. John's parents, John B. Suess (1854-1927) and Marianna (Kestner) Suess (1846-1927), also moved to Seattle, along with at least one sibling, brother Frank Suess (1877-1934), who founded American Art Glass about 1925.

The Suess family likely chose Seattle because at the time the city was experiencing high levels of growth and prosperity due to the Klondike Gold Rush, and boosters were promoting the city as a center for business and trade. The parade Suess employees are readying to join in this image is part of Seattle's Golden Potlatch festival, begun in 1911 by civic groups to capitalize on the success of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909. The week-long festival included concerts, parades, aircraft and boat demonstrations. Seattle’s annual Seafair celebrations each July continue the Potlatch tradition.

The name “Potlatch” appropriates a Chinook Jargon word describing a Native ceremony of celebration and gift giving. Seattle's Golden Potlatch Festival ran from 1911 to 1914 and was revived as the Potlatch Festival from 1934 to 1941. Many organizers and participants in the Potlatch dressed in stereotyped imitations of traditional Native attire, as part of a created Potlatch myth. The appropriation of Native culture in order to market products or events was one common example of discrimination and marginalization faced by Native peoples in the United States.

Although members of the Suess family are likely in this image, the only individual identified in the image is longtime employee Joseph Auman, who is standing fifth from the left, holding the reins of the second team of horses. Joseph Jacob Auman (1885-1952) born in Wisconsin, the oldest of four children of Anton Auman (1859-1890) and Anna (Knorst) Auman Veit (1867-1935). In 1904 Joseph moved with his mother, step-father Karl Jacob Veit (1866-1946), and siblings to Seattle, where he began working for Suess Art Glass Company as a glazier. In 1911 Joseph married Sophia M. Lannon (1885-1953), and together they had two children: Evelyn Teresa (Auman) Hannon (1913-1988) and Fredrick Joseph Auman (1920-1994).

Typed on verso of mat: Potlatch parade. Joe Auman standing by 2nd team. Suess Art Glass Co. Virginia on 8th. Probably last address...There from 1910 on.

Caption information source: The Seattle Sunday Times: July 13, 1919, p. 6; and November 9, 1930, p. 7.

Caption information source: The Seattle Daily Times, June 5, 1952, p. 24.

Subjects (LCTGM): Employees--Washington (State)--Seattle; Floats (Parades)--Washington (State)--Seattle; Glass industry--Washington (State)--Seattle; Group portraits; Parades & processions--Washington (State)--Seattle

glass industry group portraits seattle museum of history and industry world fairs alaska yukon pacific exposition washington state

1920 - 1929

Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) Seattle

https://mohai.org

Public Domain