Carl S. Dentzel Photograph Collection of the American West
1870s-1890s
Title: Carl S. Dentzel Photograph Collection of the American West
Dates: 1870s-1890s
Collection Number: photCL 98
Creator/Collector:
Dentzel family
Extent: 84 photographs in 2 boxes; photographs 18 x 24 cm. (7 x 9 in.) and smaller. See itemized list under "Additional collection
guides."
Repository:
Huntington Library. Photo Archives
Abstract: The majority of this collection is a disbound album of photographs of Alaska taken by A. L. Broadbent. These views show Revenue
Cutter Service ships and officers; Alaskan natives; towns; scenery; the fur trade and mission schools. Other notable photographs
in this collection include portraits of John C. Frémont, Harrison Gray Otis, and John A. Sutter; a series of Lake Tahoe cartes-de-visite
(card photographs); and cartes-de-visite views of early western settlers around the time of the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889.
Language of Material: English
Access is granted to qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact the Curator of Photographs at the Huntington
Library.
All requests for permission to publish photographs must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Photographs. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of the Huntington as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or
imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Carl S. Dentzel Photograph Collection of the American West. Huntington Library. Photo Archives
Purchased from Paul and Elizabeth Dentzel, March 24, 1992.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Alaska album (items 30-84) has a title page inscribed "Mr(?) Baldwin, Dutch Harbor, Unalaska / Compliments of A. L. Broadbent."
These photographs all have manuscript captions in ink, presumably written by Broadbent. Scenes include: Alaskan natives, homes,
graves; missionaries and schools; walrus hunting; whaling ships; totem poles; portraits of officers in the U.S. Revenue Cutter
Service; Greek and Russian Orthodox churches; the first grand jury in Nome, Alaska; James Gilchrist Swan; and a portrait of
photographer A. L. Broadbent.
The other photographs in the collection are a series of Lake Tahoe card photographs; a few views of the logging industry;
Kingston, Nevada; homesteaders and miners in Oklahoma; and some portraits. Of note is a portrait of "D. S. Mitchell, Photographer"
and his camera and tent in Oklahoma.
Photographers who contributed to this collection include William C. Billington, Alfred Lee Broadbent, F. Davey, Edward De
Groff, Charles D. Kirkland, David Sedgley Mitchell, C. H. Shaffner, Julius Ulke, and Raper James Waters.
Bear (ship)
Church buildings
Grand jury--Alaska
Hotels
Indians of North America—Alaska
Logging
Missionaries
Oklahoma—History—Land Rush, 1889
Photographers--1880-1890
Reindeer
Sutro Baths (San Francisco, Calif.)
Totem poles
United States. Revenue-Cutter Service
Walrus hunting
Broadbent, A. L.
Frémont, John Charles, 1813-1890
Otis, Harrison Gray, 1837-1917
Sutter, John Augustus, 1803-1880
Swan, James Gilchrist
Alaska
Oklahoma
San Diego (Calif.)
Siberia (Russia)
Sitka (Alaska)
Tahoe, Lake (Calif. and Nev.)
Unalaska (Alaska)
Photographs
Portraits