This list will grown with time and will cover general Washington state reference materials that may available through Inter-Library Loan at your local public library. If someone volunteers to do lookups in materials they personally own, I will make an email link. Please contact them personally, but consider copyright restrictions. Suggestions willingly accepted.
Prosser, Col. William Farrand. A History of The Puget Sound Country: Its Resources, Its Commerce, and Its People.
Volume II (Biographies). New York and Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1903. See index for this volume.
Price, Andrew, Jr. Port Blakely, the Community Captain Renton Built. Privately published, 1989. ISBN: 0-9625376-0-8. It has a good bibliography and index. Lots of boat building info, industries, families from mid 1850's to early 1900's.
Newell, Gordon, Rogues, Buffoons & Statesmen. Seattle, WA: Hangman Press (Superior Pub), 1975. Includes index, but not for illustrations. NO Bibliography. Black & white photos. ISBN: 0-87564-106-7 LCCN: 75-2686 Growth of Olympia as the state capitol and what happened in the legislature from 1845 - 1972.
Appleton, Marion B. Index of Pacific Northwest Portraits. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1972. 210p. ISBN: 0-295-95279-6 LCCN: 70-38982. List of people's names with location of published portraits in 300+ sources.
Calkins, Kenneth L., editor, Washington State Retired Teachers Association, Name on the Schoolhouse. Olympia: WSRTA, 1991. Includes index of schools by county. Arranged in alphabetical order by school name. ISBN: 0-9630702-0-7 List is "..restricted list to pre-college schools--private, parochial, and public--having distinctive names with historic connections."
Hazard, Joseph T., Pioneer Teachers of Washington. Seattle, WA: Seattle Retired Teachers Assoication, 1955. 144p. No index, but lots of great information on early teachers. No photos either. Extract: First public school teacher was Mrs. Clark Short, 1852-53, Clark co. James G. Swan was the 1st teacher in Pacific co. and held a variety of other jobs. One of earliest teachers in Thurston co. was Freeman Brown, but Elizabeth White was the 1st white teacher in this county. Mrs. Sherwood Bonney, was the 1st teacher in 1854 Pierce co. with Mrs. David Blane 1st in King co. John Wesley Maple was the 'reluctant' 1st Seattle teacher. Coupe family provided early teachers for both Island and Whatcom counties. After the Whitmans in the Walla Walla area, in 1861-62, Mrs. Sarah G. Miner, and in the Spokane H.T. Cowley was 1st. Plus-personality teachers of early statehood: Major Edward S. Ingraham; Edmond S. Meany; Sarah Elizabeth Ward; Lizzie Ordway; Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart; Julia E. Kennedy; Patrick Hough; William Denison Lyman; Orrin S. Jones; Grandma Tabith Brown; Adelaide Lowry Pollock. Other educational leaders: Edith M. Gourlay; Nellie J. Quirk; George N. Porter; J. E. Sinclair; Frank D. McIlravy; Jonathan H. Wagner; Mrs. Lydia Lovering Forsyth; Charles F. McKeehan; Mrs. Doa S. Herren; Dio Richardson; Grace Norton.
Brewster, David and David M. Buege, editors, Washingtonians: A Biographical Portrait of the State. Seattle, WA: Sasquatch Books, 1988. 520p. Includes index, list for further reading. B/W photos and portraits. Covers principal leaders and pioneers from all areas of state.
Who's Who in Washington State, 1927, 1949-50, 1963. Some photo portraits in 1963 ed.Hodson, John Milton, et al., Masonic History of the Northwest : A Graphic Recital of the Organization and Growth of Freemasonry in the North West States. San Francisco, CA: History Pub. Co. 1902. 574p. +55p. short sketches of founders and builders with index.
Sketches of Washingtonians: Containing brief histories of men of the state of Washington engaged in Professional and political life, in manufacture, commerce, finance and religion with a summary of the cities of the state containing upwards of 5,000 population. Seattle, WA: Wellington C. Wolfe & Co., 1906. See Name index.
The Evolution of Washington Counties, by Newton Carl Abbott & Fred E. Carver (revised 2000) available from the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society, Klickitat County Historical Society, Pacific County Historical Society Museum and other sources.