Beschreibung:

this horizontal string-bound folio album contains ca 700 real photographs, some of which are postcards from the early 1920's, but most are private images. Sizes vary from 8 x 10" or larger, including several panoramic images. Subjects include wonderful Tlingit and Eskimo photographs, images of steamships and stern-wheel steamers, and a fabulous selection of landscapes. Wildlife images include bears, wolves, bald eagles, whales, seals, walrus, lynx, ptarmigan, mountain big horn sheep, moose, caribou, porcupine, and fox. There are also hunting scenes, gold and coal mining scenes, dog sleds, ship wrecks, trains and railroad construction, backwoods cabins, whaling scenes, light houses, a R.R. snow shed, northern lights, drilling rigs, pack trains, and more. Prominent people include President Harding, Arthur Shanbeck and wife, who were important in developing Fairbanks, Senator Chamberlain, a 5" x 12.75" team photograph of the Washington State University Baseball team from 1921 with a second image of the coach, and a great portrait of artist Sidney Laurence with brush and palette in hand, standing in front of his massive oil painting of Mt. McKinley. There are also images of military personnel, Navy ships, and military camps. The collection also includes construction photographs of the building of the Susitna River Bridge, by the American Bridge Co. in 1921, Gold Creek, including the construction of the timber false-works, plus a wonderful group of 6" x 8" construction photos for the Miners Rescue Hospital, coal fields and associated buildings at Chickaloon, dated 1920, all signed in negatives, A.E.C., and with photographer's initials, H.G.K.. Images of towns include Anchorage, Gridwood, Fairbanks, Steward, Juneau, Cordova, Shepard's Point, Valdez, Port Ashton, Ketchican, Dowlingville, and Latouche. Besides the images, there are tipped in newspaper and periodical articles, theater thickets, club membership cards, silk ribbons, over a dozen letters with covers. One important letter from Alaska Steamship Co. dated Aug 30th 1921 describes the wreck of the company's ship Alaska and the death of Dowling's friend Capt. Hobey. The letter details the offer of the ship's purser to give Hobey his lifevest, but Hobey refused the offer and went down with his ship. Just below this letter is a full-length uniformed portrait of Capt. Hobey. This part of the collection includes several other portraits of Hobey on his ship and with the Dowlings, as well as tickets and covers from this line. This is truly an important early 1920's Alaskan album/scrap book, and the above description just skims the highlights. Captain Otto C. Dowling (1887-1946) was Commander of Navy Commission to develop a coal field in Alaska in 1920. Other service included Commander of Naval Ammunition Depot at Lake Denmark, N.J., and Naval Governor of American Samoa in 1935. Dowling is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Condition: Some loose pages, VG+.