Oblong Folio album (ca. 26x34 cm). 26 black card stock leaves (18 blank). With 80 mounted and one loosely inserted original gelatin silver photographs, from ca. 8,5x14 cm (3 ¼ x 5 ½ in) to ca. 6x10,5 cm (2 ¼ x 4 ¼ in). With seven mounted postcards (one real photo postcard and six printed postcards), each ca. 8,5x13,5 cm (3 ¼ x 5 ¼ in), and a newspaper clipping. All photographs with manuscript white ink captions on mounts; loosely inserted photo with caption on verso. Period black pebbled cloth fastened with a string; front cover with a generic blind-stamped title “Photographs;” paper label of the “The U.L. Hanson Co. Chicago” on the rear pastedown endpaper. Binding rubbed on extremities, minor creases of front cover, first two leaves detached, but overall a very good album with interesting strong photos.

With: Two paper leaves with typewritten poem tipped in between the leaves and one mounted newspaper clipping.

Historically interesting collection of original gelatin silver photographs, offering a vivid insight into the lives of native inhabitants and settlers of Alaska after the 1918 influenza pandemic. The album mainly contains photographs taken by the compiler during his trip to St. Michael, Alaska which started in Seattle (Washington) aboard SS Victoria in 1921-1922. Several images also date to 1920, 1923, and 1925.

The collection mostly focuses on daily life at St. Michael and features over ten photographs of a local family, likely close friends of the compiler. Mr. Evans, a schoolteacher, and Mrs. Evans, a nurse, are captured in various scenes – “dressed up,” holding flowers, smiling with friends, rowing, and driving their dog team. One interesting image shows Mrs. Evans conducting a nursing class with native Alaskan students. About 25 photos include photos of "ship mates" gathered near an old Russian fort, Bill Bailey proudly displaying a "big king salmon," Mrs. Simmons posing in front of the quarters of the Northern Commercial Co (a trading company operating in Alaska from 1868 to 1922), the sewer system manager "Patty" hard at work, "boys up pole fixing aerial," and "fishing through a hole in the ice." There are also images of Eskimos carrying babies and posing in their traditional reindeer parkas & mukluks, native schoolchildren, local kids "catching tom cod," etc.

Over 15 photos show the 1922 fire at St. Michael (which “burned town laundry, bath house and cold storage plant”), Fort St. Michael (the US army fort abandoned in 1923), Northern Commercial Co warehouse & village store, US customs building, a local post office, hotel, schoolhouse, church, radio station, native houses & boats, graves, etc. Ten photos taken in Seward during a returning trip to Seattle also depict Resurrection Bay and Seward Railroad Depot (built in 1917). The rest of the images feature interesting topographical views of the SS Victoria, Unimak Pass, Bearing Sea, icebergs, native villages, etc.

The album includes a typewritten poem, “Hell of Yukon,” mocking the devilish nature of Alaska’s gold rush. It also features seven postcards (a real photo postcard and six printed postcards) of Skagway with the interesting caption: “T’was a cloudy day when we visited Skagway so bought postcards. Aug 1922.” Overall, historically interesting album of rare photos documenting life in St. Michael, Alaska in the early 1920s.