Alaska

1917 · List3507 — Alaska 1917. Photo album measuring 7 ¼ x 11 ½ inches containing 187 photos 2 unaffixed and five loose real photo postcards with a contemporaneous newspaper clipping. Photos approximately 3 x 4 inches with generally excellent contrast and in Near Fine condition. Overall excellent to Near Fine. A photo album belonging to brothers Ruben 1892–1984 and Daniel 1895–1969 Diener documenting their 1916–1917 journey to the Territory of Alaska. The newspaper clipping reproduces a letter from Dan Diener describing their time there:<br /> <br /> “I went with an old prospector to try and locate a lost mine. We found it but there was not enough gold to pay for mining it so in that respect our trip was a failure. . I lived in a tent with a small sheet iron stove during all this time and strange as it seems it was fairly comfortable. . One day I walked or snowshoed 30 miles for my mail when the thermometer was 58 below. . But the hardships were sweetened at times with the most beautiful scenery man can imagine.†March 1917<br /> <br /> The Dieners’ trip took them to Alaska’s southern coast to Ketchikan Cordova Valdez and Seward. There are some identifiable ships including the Admiral Farragut the Mariposa shortly before its sinking and the wreck of the James Drummond in British Columbia.<br /> <br /> Subjects include Chief Johnson’s totem pole in Ketchikan erected in 1902 in honor of Chief Gut Wain George Johnson; d. 1938 of the Gaanaxadi clan of the Tongass tribe—a real photo postcard from Kasaan shows many brightly colored totem poles along the shore with dilapidated wooden houses behind them—boats filled with fish outside the Carlisle Packing Company in Cordova and a real photo postcard of a man and dog captioned “READY FOR THE SUMMER TRAIL / SEWARD ALASKA†on the back of which Ruben Dieners has written:<br /> <br /> “Oct 9 1916. Here you are. This is Judge Hildreth of whom we have written you. Our best friend here and hereafter. We are going prospecting with him next spring. The dog in the picture carry’s fifty pounds. Brother Ruben.â€<br /> <br /> H.H. Hildreth was a district court commissioner in Seward editor of the Alaskan newspaper in Sitka and The Alaska Prospector in Valdez and secretary of the Matanuska Mining Company. <br /> <br /> The shots of towns show the development of the region: in some an area of forest has been recently cleared and stumps of trees might surround a few small wooden houses or platforms where houses are to be erected; while others show towns with telegraph lines graded dirt roads with sidewalks dense housing and railroad and tram lines. Two shots from Seward show the paved sidewalk of its main street with a hotel and bars and a dog team waiting outside the hardware store. As Dieners wrote they lived in a tent and several photos show the outside of the quarters: two semi-permanent canvas tents next to a wide wooden walkway. Others show men presumably the brothers snowshoeing hiking and riding in a canoe; and of course many are scenery shots of forests waterfalls and snowcapped mountains.<br /> <br /> Of interest to historians of post-gold rush Alaska. unknown