Alaska Photograph Collection, ca. 1880s-1950s, bulk 1887-1920

Summary

Title:

Alaska Photograph Collection

Dates:

ca. 1880s-1950s, bulk 1887-1920

Creators:

White, Stephen

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.

Extent:

2.5 linear feet (4 document boxes, 3 oversize boxes, 1 map folder).

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

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

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Acquisition information:

Purchase and donation from Stephen White, 2006.

Physical location:

Boxes 1-4 (Del Sur); Boxes 5-7 (Del Sur Oversize); Map Folder (Map Cabinet 1/7).

Rules or conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Related resources

Related material:

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

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Alaska--Pictorial works.

Places:

Alaska

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:

Preliminary arrangement and description by D. Tambo

Date Prepared:

© 2011

Date Encoded:

Machine-readable finding aid created by A. Demeter. Date of source: Dec. 3, 2007.

Restrictions:

None.

Terms of access:

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.

Location of this collection:

UC Santa Barbara, Special Research Collections

UC Santa Barbara Library

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US

Contact:

(805) 893-3062

special@library.ucsb.edu

Website