The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum is located in the heart of downtown Winslow, three blocks from the Seattle-Bainbridge ferry terminal. A 1908 restored island schoolhouse features the main exhibit gallery containing a nationally award-winning exhibit “An Island Story”. The museum’s research library (free to the public) contains subject and biographical files, oral histories, videos, books, and historic photographs.
The history of Bainbridge Island covers a wide range of historic eras and themes, including Native American culture, early explorers, lumber and shipbuilding industries, agriculture, WWII, and the Japanese American Internment histories. Visit the museum store for books, children’s gifts and other historic souvenirs.
As you walk through the exhibits, you will hear the sounds of a steamboat underway in Puget Sound, the grinding saws of a lumber mill, or the clang of a school bell. Listen to excerpts from our oral history collection and learn how the island has changed. Watch films about the Filipino and Japanese communities on the island, as well as the town of the Port Blakely. Read a record book of the Port Madison mill store, discover what was selling at the Rotary Auction in the 1970′s, or look at photographs of days gone by in our island neighborhoods.
