Sometimes the photos and captions from the image archive at the Tacoma Public Library just can’t be improved upon and need no additional comment. Here is a great example.
Description: On Thursday morning May 9, 1940 at 5 minutes after 9 a.m., 21 year old bookkeeper Emma Olsen foiled a daring attempt to rob the State Bank of Orting. This is a recreation of the event, with a reporter standing in for robbery suspect Kenneth Elliot Ambler. The marks on the window show where the bandit tried to hammer the shatter proof glass with his weapon. Feeling safe behind steel faced bullet proof walls and the shatter proof glass, Miss Olsen threw an electric switch locking the inner and outer doors and then covered the outlaw with a gun shoved through the steel armored “port hole” built for that purpose. She was so admired by the community for her calm actions, that she received fan mail, a marriage proposal and an honorary membership in the Tacoma Pistol Club. (T. Times 5/9/1940 p.1; 5/15/1940, pg. 3)
tacoma history 