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Robbins-Mills Collection of Herbert Wendell Gleason Photographic Negatives, 1899-1937 Concord Free Public Library — Special Collections |
Series XIII – Alaska, 1901-1926
Series XIII (56 glass, 56 film) is organized into three subseries: towns, natural features, and copies from other works. Towns are listed in alphabetical order. Copies of other works are listed alphabetically by photographer or author's name. The subseries Natural Features and the sub-subseries within towns and copies from other works are arranged by date. Gleason covered nearly 5,000 miles while traveling in Alaska and most of his photographs in this series were taken during his first trip to Alaska in 1901. Scenes from his ocean voyage on board the "Queen" include glimpses of Killisnoo, Sitka, Skagway, and Wrangell.
Other subjects include the old Russian Block House and Trading Post in Sitka; and a train wreck in White Pass. Native American images include canoes, an Indian chief and totem pole, native women selling baskets, and a totem pole in a cemetery. Natural features include: Chatham Strait, Davidson Glacier, Glacier Bay, Icy Strait, Muir Glacier, Patterson Glacier, Peril Strait, icebergs, and storm clouds. More than half of the images in this series are copies photographed from various sources. Copies were made from photographs by pioneer photographers: Asahel and Edward S. Curtis, Frank La Roche, Frank H. Nowell, Winter & Pond (Lloyd Winter and E. Percy Pond); from John Muir sketches; from books about Arctic exploration; from government reports from officers on board U.S. Revenue Cutters; and from the Alaskan Railroad, and other sources. Several of Gleason's photographs were used to illustrate John Muir's Travels in Alaska (1915).