Looking Back’s theme for 2025 features Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. Michael O’Connor arrived in Olympia in 1884 and established a book and stationery store that he operated until his retirement in 1915. He also promoted Olympia through photography. He is shown here in a photograph by the Rogers Studio, taken shortly after statehood.
Rogers Studio, about 1890, courtesy State Capital Museum Collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C2017.0.133
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2025