File:Bertha Knight as a child, between 1875 and 1880 (PORTRAITS 2399).jpg

Cyanotype mounted in cardboard with ribbon trim PH Coll 1418.1a

Bertha Knight Landes (1868-1943) was elected mayor of Seattle in 1926, becoming the first woman to lead a major American city. She ran on a platform of "municipal housekeeping," vowing to clean up city government. She advocated municipal ownership of utilities such as City Light and street railways. Her single term ended in 1928, but she remained a civic leader and role model for women. She was a devoted wife to Henry Landes, a University of Washington professor of geology and mother of three children. She saw the community as an extension of the home and played leadership roles in several women's organizations. She saw her career as duty and service rather than an opportunity for fulfillment of her own ambition. She justified her political activities as being within the context of a woman's proper place. From 1933 to 1936, Dean and Bertha Landes led University of Washington-sponsored student study groups to the Far East.