Guide to the Alaska Photograph Collection

Preliminary arrangement and description by D. Tambo
Department of Special Collections
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Fax: (805) 893-5749
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
© 2011
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Guide to the Alaska Photograph Collection, ca. 1880s-1950s [bulk dates 1887-1920]

Collection number: Wyles Mss 150

Department of Special Collections

Davidson Library

University of California, Santa Barbara
Processed by:
Preliminary arrangement and description by D. Tambo
Date Completed:
Dec. 3, 2007
Encoded by:
A. Demeter
© 2011 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Descriptive Summary

Title: Alaska Photograph Collection
Dates: ca. 1880s-1950s
Bulk Dates: 1887-1920
Collection number: Wyles Mss 150
Creator: White, Stephen
Collection Size: 2.5 linear feet (4 document boxes, 3 oversize boxes, 1 map folder).
Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Abstract: About 800 photographs, loose and in three albums, captions in English, including photographers Eric A. Hegg, P. S. Hunt, H. G. Kaiser, P. Edward Larss and J. E. N. Duclos, Lomen Brothers, and Miles Brothers. Subjects include: boats, children, churches, coastline, countryside, dogsleds, Eskimos (Tlingit / Haidu - portraits, daily activities, dances, hunting, schools, villages, and other), glaciers, gold mining and milling, harbors, houses, icebergs, Klondikers, mountains, parades, railroads, reindeer, rivers and river steamers, settlers and homesteads, ships and shipwrecks (incl. Thetis), school classes, skiing, totem poles, towns and villages (Anchorage, Circle City, Cordova, Dawson, Eagle City, Fairbanks, Fort Wrangell, Howkan, Juneau, Kennicott, Ketchikan, Metlakahtla, Nome, Port Simpson, St. Michael, Seward, Sitka, Treadwell, Valdez, White Horse), and winter scenes.
Physical location: Boxes 1-4 (Del Sur); Boxes 5-7 (Del Sur Oversize); Map Folder (Map Cabinet 1/7).
Languages: English

Access Restrictions

None.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

Preferred Citation

Alaska Photograph Collection. Wyles Mss 150. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Acquisition Information

Purchase and donation from Stephen White, 2006.

Scope and Content of Collection

The collection contains about 800 photographs, representing the work of numerous Alaska photographers, including Becker Photo, Neal D. Benedict, Brickley, Case & Draper, Beverly Bennett Dobbs, Griffin's, Edward de Groff, F. Jay Haynes & Bro., Hazo, Eric A. Hegg, Huey, P. S. Hunt, H. G. Kaiser, Kennedy, Albert B. Kinne, P. Edward Larss and J. E. N. Duclos, Merl La Voy, Logemann, Lomen Brothers, Meyer, Miles Brothers, F. H. Nowell, Schallerer's Photo, Sitka View & Portrait Co., Sydney Laurence Co., I. W. Taber, Welden, Wilse & Kirk Photo, Lloyd Winter and Percy Pond. Loose photographs comprise the bulk of the collection, but there also are three related albums. In addition, several Alaska monographs, describing or containing the work of Alaskan photographers have been cataloged separately. The contents of the collection were assembled by Stephen White from multiple sources over several decades.
Subjects in the collection include: boats, children, churches, coastline, countryside, dogsleds, Eskimos (Tlingit / Haidu - portraits, daily activities, dances, hunting, schools, villages, and other), glaciers, gold mining and milling, harbors, houses, icebergs, Klondikers, mountains, parades, railroads, reindeer, rivers and river steamers, settlers and homesteads, ships and shipwrecks (incl. Thetis), school classes, skiing, totem poles, towns and villages (Anchorage, Circle City, Cordova, Dawson, Eagle City, Fairbanks, Fort Wrangell, Howkan, Juneau, Kennicott, Ketchikan, Metlakahtla, Nome, Port Simpson, St. Michael, Seward, Sitka, Treadwell, Valdez, White Horse), and winter scenes.
Numbers in parentheses in the container list indicate number of images, i.e. (22) = 22 images.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Alaska
Alaska--Pictorial works.

Related Materials

Other collections with similar materials at UCSB Special Collections include:
  • Alaska and Canada Photograph Collection, ca. early-mid 1900s. (Wyles Mss 147).
  • Alaska / Klondike Magic Lantern Slides, 1898-1912. 52 slides, including images of indigenous population, as well as miners and seal-fur company employees, reindeer wrangling, steamers in ice, and eruption of Mt. Katmai in 1912. Locations include Nome, St. Michaels, Fort Wrangle, Kodiak, and Port Clarence. (Wyles Ms 143).
  • "Alaska Scenery." Six b/w 4 1/2" x 6" ambrotype prints, tied together in a booklet, of Sitka harbor, Muir and Davidson glaciers, and other scenes, taken by McAlpin and Lamb Photo, ca. 1890s. (Wyles SC 629).
  • Alaska Scenes Photograph Collection, ca. 1900-1920. Approx. 50 b/w loose photos, many of Eskimos, sleds and dogs, settlements and scenes around Nome. (Wyles Mss 155).
  • Arctic Scenes Photograph Album, ca. 1899-1903. 64 black/white photographs, mainly of the Eskimo population and environs of Alaska. (Wyles Mss 136).
  • Ewald, Henry L. One letter (TLS) from S. Halvorsen and accompanying b/w photographs of whales and Akutan Whaling Station, Alaska, 7 Sept. 1937. (SC 103).
  • Smith [Ben] Alaska Yukon Gold Rush Collection, ca. 1882-1915 [bulk 1898-1901]. Papers of Ben Smith, from Redwood City, California, who went to the Alaska Yukon goldfields ca. 1899-1900, and then apparently returned to California. Includes correspondence, diaries/journals, documents, financial records, maps, and other ephemera, much of it relating to Smith's stay in Alaska. (Wyles Mss 1).
  • Swineford [Alfred P.] Papers, 1885-1889. Biographical sketch of Alfred P. Swineford, copies of correspondence from him, to his daughter, Nelly Flower Stafford (Mrs. E. O. Stafford), a manuscript entitled "A Cruise of Ten Thousand Miles in Alaskan Waters," and a description of Ketchikan. The often lengthy letters describe in detail Swineford's impressions of Alaska and its inhabitants in the era immediately preceding the Gold Rush there. (Wyles Mss 14).
Collections of photographs by Alaskan photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries also can be found on websites such as the Alaska Digital Archives, at http://vilda.alaska.edu/index.php  and at other repositories such as:
  • Alaska State Library
  • Glenbow Museum Archives (Calgary)
  • University of Alaska (Fairbanks)
  • University of California, Berkeley (Bancroft Library)
  • University of Washington Libraries

 

Photographers

Box 1: 1

Becker Photo - Sun from Eagle Summit (1), 1936

Box 1: 2

Benedict [Neal D.] - Valdes and Copper River Trail (22), 1898-1899

Box 1: 3

Brickley - Childen and sled, Kotzebue, Alaska (1), n.d.

Box 1: 4

Case & Draper - Juneau, Alaska (1), 1895

Box 1: 5

Dobbs [Beverly Bennett] - views of harbors; ships and shipwrecks; railroad; Nome streets in aftermath of storm; Inuit woman and children; beach mining at Nome (18), ca. 1900-1905

Box 1: 6

Griffin's - photo postcard of bank temperature display, 91 high and -49 low (1), ca. 1950s

Box 1: 7

de Groff [Edward] - "Picturesque Views of Alaska Scenery," incl. Treadwell Mill, group shot with James Treadwell, Douglas Island, home interiors (15 mounted), ca. 1880s

Box 1: 8

Haynes [F. Jay] & Bro. - glacier (1 mounted), ca. 1900

Box 1: 9

Hazo (Nome, Alaska) - beach view of Nome; school class photos, indoors and on dogsleds, Eskimo woman portrait (7), ca. 1913

 

Hegg [Eric A.] (Skagway, Alaska)

Box 1: 10

Klondikers ascending Chilkoot and White Passes (5 mounted), 1898

Box 1: 11

Klondikers at Chilkoot Pass and Summit, Lake Bennett, gold shipment from Dawson City, exhausted Klondiker (5), 1898

Box 1: 12

Gold mining, Dawson, Circle City, Eagle City, Bering Sea, Nome Beach, reindeer, icebergs, Foster Glacier, Juneau, Cordova, Copper River Railway, Kaspan (?), White Horse, Sitka, Eskimo and kayak, Copper River Indians, Klondiker (27), 1899-1906, n.d.

Box 1: 13

Huey (Nome, Alaska) - hydraulic gold mining, including panoramic view (5), ca. 1906

Box 1: 14

Hunt [P. S.] - dog sleds with gold dust, Valdez glacier, destroying liquor in Anchorage, Valdez-Fairbanks stage, dogsled and snowslide at Keystone Canyon, Childs Glacier, railway snow sheds and switchbacks, Mount Blackburn, tram at Bonanza mine (Kennicott), flat bottom boat race (Valdez) (20), ca. 1905-1917

Box 1: 15

Kaiser [H. G.] - freighting from ships, with dog teams; mining; dredging for gold; Nome streets, events, and Eskimo portrait; ships trapped in ice; homestead, Anchorage; view over Bridge 49-3 (26), ca. 1907-1921

Box 1: 16

Kennedy [?] - steamboats, frozen at Mile 80 (1), 1910

Box 1: 17

Kinne [Albert B.] - Sphinx of Ophir rock formation; Ophir Creek (2), ca. 1903

Box 1: 18

Larss [P. Edward] and Duclos [J. E. N.] (Dawson) - Yukon gold mining, sluices, pumps and other equipment, prospectors, settlements and homesteads, families, Upper and Lower Dominion, Gay Gulch, Gold Run, Eldorado (37), ca. 1901

Box 2: 1

La Voy [Merl] (Seattle) - building with stacks of firewood; Hinkleys dairy farm (2), n.d.

Box 2: 2

Logemann - Anchorage Woman's Club (1), 1920

 

Lomen Brothers (Nome), ca. 1900-1920

Box 2: 3

Dogs - sleds, racing (7)

Box 2: 4

Eskimo studio portraits - men, women, and children (30)

Box 2: 5

Eskimos - daily activities, dances, fish caches, hunting, funerals/graves, reindeer transportation, 'eni' (living quarters), villages (20)

Box 2: 6

Gold Mining - dredging, hydraulics, 'long toms' on the beach, big ditch on Ophir Creek (16)

Box 2: 7

Nome (29)

Box 2: 8

Reindeer (5)

Box 2: 9

Ships, sea, ice - Bering Sea, ships beached and frozen in ice pack, Child's Glacier (17)

Box 2: 10

Views (10)

Box 2: 11

"Yuit boy from Eastern Siberia" (1)

Box 2: 12

Miscellany (9)

Box 2: 13

Meyer (Seattle) - Russian fort and cannon, St. Michaels; Indian houses (3), 1903

 

Miles Brothers, ca. 1902-1903

Box 2: 14

General - settlers, homesteads, vegetable gardening [short season], clearing forests, surveying, on horseback on the trail, copper smelter panorama, railroad bridge (23)

Box 2: 15

Tlingit men, women, children, and settlements (22)

Box 3: 1

Nowell [F. H.] (Nome) - gold mining sluice, machine to drill in frozen ground, Denver visitors to Peninsular Hydraulic Co. (3), 1906-1907

Box 3: 2

Schallerer's Photo (Seward) - "The Loop," showing railroad line with several bridges (1), ca. 1900

Box 3: 3

Sitka View & Portrait Co. (R. Albertstone and L. Moosbauer) - Russian School/Orphanage for Sitka Tlingit Indians [?] Uniformed men and boys in front of building, with wood stacked for bonfire (1), n.d.

Box 3: 4

Sydney Laurence Co. - Anchorage parade featuring Alaska Labor Union (1), n.d.

Box 3: 5

Taber [I. W.] - Muir Glacier (1), 1889

Box 3: 6

Welden - View of Fairbanks at -58 degrees (1), Jan. 24, 1911

Box 3: 7

Wilse & Kirk Photo - "The Klondike Fever," ship Australia leaving Seattle (1), n.d.

Box 3: 8

Winter [Lloyd] & Pond [Percy] (Juneau) - Indian women; ship Princess Sophia after striking Vanderbilt Reef; drawing of Takon Indian doctor (3), 1918, n.d.

 

Miscellany - unknown photographers, arranged by subject/place

Box 3: 9

Anchorage - 1915 opening of Anchorage (4); wooden bungalows (2), n.d.

Box 3: 10

Banner Station - three buildings and people by railroad tracks, with sign "Banner Station" on one building (3), n.d.

Box 3: 11

Baseball - Indian baseball team (1), n.d.; State Hospital semi-pro champs (1), 1938

Box 3: 12

Bering Island - cyanotype of men, some in uniform [Russian?], skinning fur seals, (1), 1892

Box 3: 13

Boats - rowboats with passengers, coming to/leaving shore; line of boats, some with sails, locations unknown (4), n.d.

Box 3: 14

Children - girl sitting on tree stump, with female doll lumberjack; baby in stroller, near dog standing on hind legs; others; locations unknown (4), n.d.

Box 3: 15

Chilkoot Pass - colored postcard showing line of Klondikers ascending the Pass (1) [postcard stamped 1913]

Box 3: 16

Coast - coastline; piers (4), n.d.

Box 3: 17

Dog Sleds - images of what appears to be more recreational sledding, (4), n.d.

Box 3: 18

Eskimos - "Eskimo Cache, Kings Island" (1), n.d.

Box 3: 19

Ft. Seward - views of town, including wharf connected by road and rail; dog cultivating garden (4), ca. 1900s-1910s

Box 3: 20

Gold Mining - washing gold by hand with a 'grissely' (sluice); mining with heavy equipment (2), n.d.

Box 3: 21

Horse-Drawn Sleigh - White Pass & Yukon Route, Royal No. 5 Mail (1), n.d.

Box 3: 22

House Interior (1), n.d.

Box 3: 23

Howkan (Haidu village, Dall Islands, west coast Prince of Wales Island) - mainly images of Haidu Indian village and totem poles (17), ca. 1890s-1900s

Box 3: 24

Icebergs (1), n.d.

Box 3: 25

Indian carvings [Haidu?] (2), ca. 1905; man seated (1), n.d.

Box 3: 26

Juneau - view of the town; main street; house; man crouching (4), n.d.

Box 3: 27

Ketchikan - views of the town; street scenes; boats and docks; school groups; church interior; parade; calendar with Indian man and woman (17), ca. 1903-1913

Box 3: 28

Men - man in study with books and papers; four men (2), n.d.

Box 3: 29

Metlakahtla - view of town (1), n.d.

Box 3: 30

Northern Lights - shimmering above snowbound settlement (1), n.d.

Box 3: 31

Railroad - tracks in winter, with snow covered hills in distance (1), n.d.

Box 3: 32

Reindeer - herd at water's edge and group of mostly Indian men in background, including photographer with camera (1), n.d.

Box 3: 33

Rivers - rapids (2), n.d.

Box 3: 34

Settlements - unidentified settlements at water's edge, with dogs, and snowbound, with reindeer (6), n.d.

Box 3: 34

Ships - St. Croix disabled in ice jam (1), 1909; Minnesotans on board ship in San Franncisco, bound for Mantanuska Valley (1), 1935; various other unidentified ships, some sunk or grounded (10), n.d.

Box 4: 1

Sitka - view of town and harbor (1), n.d.

Box 4: 2-5

Thetis - views of the U.S. Navy ship Thetis, its crew, at Navy Yard in New York, trip up west coast and cruises around Alaskan waters, with images of Port Townsend (WA); Esquimalt (BC); Departure Bay (BC); coaling at Point Bay; wharf at Unalaska; whaling ship and whalers; Sitka harbor and town; Juneau town and harbor; St Michael's - town, dog teams, and graveyard; Seymour Narrows; Unga Island; Cape York near Port Clarence; Cape Prince of Wales - Bering Strait and Indian population; Belkovski - settlement; Kodiak - village and Indians in boats; floating drift ice (63), 1887-1888

Box 4: 6

Skiing - groups [school?] of skiers (2), n.d.

Box 4: 7

Smelting - views of Brown Alaska Co. smelting plant at Hadley, Prince of Wales Island, and other (3), n.d.

Box 4: 8

Towns - buildings and streets of unidentified towns (3), n.d.

Box 4: 9

Treadwell - view of the town (1), n.d.

Box 4: 10

Women - in front of houses, on front porch rockers (incl. cyanotype), laughing in the countryside (6), n.d.

Box 4: 11

Wrangle - settlement, harbor, and Indian boats (1), n.d.

Box 4: 12

Miscellany - lake and camping gear; storm clouds and trees; group of men, women, and children sitting on log; other (5), n.d.

 

Oversize - Boxed

 

Loose and Mounted Photographs

Box 5: 1

Barley [Harry C.] (Skagway) - "Skaguay" view (1), n.d.

Box 5: 2

Bradley and Rulofson (San Francisco) - photograph of 1865 Frederick Whymper painting of Sitka Alaska (1), n.d.

Box 5: 3

Gilbo & Co. - Harriman Alaska Expedition, proof gravures of sea, ice, seals, Juneau, Eskimo children (13), 1891

Box 5: 4

Hegg [Eric A.] - Childs Glacier and Mills Glacier panoramas (2), n.d.

Box 5: 5

Hunt [P. S.] - Miles Glacier panorama (1), n.d.

Box 5: 6

Winter & Pond (Juneau) - Matt Laughlan machine shop (1), ca. 1896-1897

Box 5: 7

Unknown photographer - panorama of glacier at Katchewak Bay, forest back of Departure Bay, Vancouver Island; settlement [Pribylov Islands] with Russian church (6), n.d.

 

Albums

Box 6

St. Michael [town] - mainly snapshots, but some commercial photos (incl. at least one Lomen), including photos of schoolchildren (most Alaska natives) and other groups; local houses; reindeer; river steamers; winter scenes; dogsleds; baskets and other crafts (85), ca. 1904

Box 6

H.N.T. [initials of photographer] - large (ca. 7 3/4" x 9") mounted albumen photographs, with captions, of Port Simpson (Main Street, Indian Christian band, Indian children, orphans), Indians drying halibut, Cape Spencer, Blake Passage, Wrangell Narrows, Wrangell Peak, Wrangell (Main Street, old fort, Chief Shake's house, totem poles), Wand's Cove, Woronkofski Island, Grillon Glacier, Alert Bay, Indian boys at Metlakatla, Frederick Sound, Dundas Bay, Douglas Island Alaska-Treadwell Mine, mill, and wharf), Gastineau Channel, Glacier Bay, Davidson Glacier) (42), 1894

Box 7

Yellowstone / Grand Canyon / Alaska Tour - most large (ca. 7 1/4" x 9 1/2") mounted photographs, many with printed captions on the images, of Yellowstone and Grand Canyon scenes, followed by Alaska, incl. Fort Wrangell (streets, Indian cemetery, totem poles, salmon cannery, the narrows), Treadwell mines, Sitka (birdseye view, Indian Avenue, harbor, Greek church), Juneau (birdseye view, Indians selling curios), floating icebergs, potlatch dance, Taku Glacier, Davidson Glacier, Muir Glacier, Irving Falls (60), ca. 1890

 

Oversize - Map Folder

Map Cabinet 1/7

Canadian Pacific Mining Co. photographs (4 items), ca. 1905