As a young man, Edmond Meany tried and failed at a couple of business ventures in Seattle before he found his niche as a promoter, specifically of Washington's participation in the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. He parlayed this success into a seat in the state legislature, and became one of the prime movers of Seattle's first world's fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909.

Many of the buildings from that fair later became incorporated into Meany's beloved second home, the campus of the University of Washington, where he taught history for nearly four decades. Two buildings on the UW campus have been named for him.

In addition to his teaching, Meany wrote the first scholarly work on Washington's past, a volume that served students and the public for half a century. More important for future scholarship, Meany edited and published the Washington Historical Quarterly from 1906 to 1935, providing a forum for regional historians to circulate ideas and themes.

In his role as teacher, editor, author, and collector of pioneer reminiscences, Meany became the state's most important early historian, one whose influence is still felt.