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Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: HistoryLink Executive Director and Cofounder, Marie McCaffrey

HistoryLink celebrated its 20th anniversary this year

By Daria Kroupoderova November 8, 2019

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This article originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of Seattle magazine.

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe.

HistoryLink, the first online encyclopedia of regional history, would have been a book if it wasn’t for executive director and cofounder Marie McCaffrey. McCaffrey founded the website covering Seattle and King County history with her late husband, Walt Crowley, in 1997 and launched it two years later. The website grew quickly, and in 2003, HistoryLink expanded coverage to all of Washington state. Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, HistoryLink continues to grow under McCaffrey’s leadership, with nearly 7,500 online articles, 30 published books, and revamped self-guided walking tours to show Washingtonians the rich history surrounding them.

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