REFERENCE CODE: AkAMH

REPOSITORY NAME:
Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center
Bob and Evangeline Atwood Alaska Resource Center
625 C Street
Anchorage, AK 99501
Phone: 907-929-9235
Fax: 907-929-9233
Email: resourcecenter@anchoragemuseum.org

Guide prepared by: Bruce Merrell, Museum Volunteer, and Sara Piasecki, Archivist

TITLE: Atlin Gold Rush Photograph Album

COLLECTION NUMBER: B1998.011

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Dates: 1899-1902

Extent: 1 linear foot

Language and Scripts: The collection is in English.

Name of creator(s): Muirhead Bros.

Administrative/Biographical History:
Most photos in the album are credited to the “Muirhead Bros.” Lewis Potter Muirhead, Jr.
and Charles Hope Muirhead arrived in the United States from Scotland in 1893. Charles won a
photo contest in 1900 and the brothers worked as photographers in northern British Columbia
and the Yukon, including Atlin, Dawson, and Whitehorse, until about 1906. Image .32 in this
collection shows their tent-based establishment at Junction City, near Atlin.

After the photography partnership dissolved, Charles moved to Wenatchee, Washington; he
died in Portland, Oregon in 1957. Lewis worked as a commercial marine photographer around
1908 to 1920. In 1920, the U.S. Census showed him living with wife Margaret and 9-year-old
daughter Marion in Seattle. He moved to England in 1926 and presumably died there after
1957.1

1 David Mattison, Camera Workers: the British Columbia Photographers Directory, 1858-
1900, accessed online at http://members.shaw.ca/bchistorian/cw1858-1950.html


Scope and Content Description:
The collection consists of 75 black and white photographs pasted onto black paper in an
album with laced covers, 28 x 18.5 cm (11 x 7 ¼ in.). For more information, see Detailed
Description of Collection.

Arrangement: Album is in original order.


CONDITIONS GOVERNING ACCESS AND USE

Restrictions on Access: The collection is open for research use.

Physical Access: Original items in good condition

Technical Access: No special equipment is needed to access the materials.

Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use:
The Anchorage Museum is the owner of the materials and makes available reproductions for
research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the
Anchorage Museum before any reproduction use. The Anchorage Museum does not
necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission
for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.

Preferred Citation:
Atlin Gold Rush Photograph Album, Anchorage Museum, B1998.011

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Acquisition and Appraisal Information:
Deaccessioned by Marymoor Museum in Redmond, Washington in 1996 and donated to
Anchorage Museum in April 1998. An additional page containing two images was located by
Eastside Heritage Center staff in 2014 and sent to the Anchorage Museum.

SUBJECTS
Muirhead, Lewis Potter, b. 1874
Muirhead, Charles Hope, 1872-1957
De Lamare, Emile Janne, Count
Gold mines and mining—British Columbia—Atlin
Indians of North America--British Columbia
Snowshoes and snowshoeing
Bicycles
Automobiles, Three wheel
Atlin (B.C.)



Detailed Description of the Collection
 1 —Pine City / Muirhead Bros.
 2 —Crossing Atlin Lake 1899
 3 —Dog Team. Atlin Lake
 4 —First Street Atlin B.C. / Muirhead Bros.
 5 —[three men in suits, riding in dogsled]
 6 —[two dog teams]
 7 —Indian Camp
 8 —[three men around campfire in winter; horse-drawn freight sled in background]
 9 —[men and horse-drawn freight sleds]
 10 —On the road—“good eats.” / Muirhead Bros. No. 92 [horse-drawn sleds, snow-covered mountain]
 11 —Camp for the night at 10-Mile Point / Muirhead Bros No. 96
 12 —Joy Rideing [dog team pulling women and children in sled]
 13 —[men and three-wheeled motor vehicle in front of “Hotel Dawson / Meals At All Hours / Finest Wines Liquors & Cigars”] Although unidentified in the photo, this must be the vehicle brought to Atlin in April 1900 by Count Emile Janne de Lamare of Paris, France. The vehicle was shipped to Skagway, then went by rail to Bennett, and was driven to Atlin over the melting lake ice. De Lamare was known as the “Big Frenchman” in Atlin, was a correspondent for several journals, invested in mining claims and entertained with fine champagne. 2
14 —[man standing in doorway of log building with signs: “Miners Exchange / Restaurant Bar / Wines, Liquors, _____, _____,” “Beer, Tea,” “Pabst Beer,” “Coffee & Pie,” “For Sa__.”
 15 —Lake Surprise / Muirhead Bros.
 16 —[men standing outside snow-covered buildings] Muirhead Bros. No. 75
 17 —Fremeyer’s Foot Log Across Pine Creek / Muirhead Bros. No. 65
 18 —Spruce Creek 40 to 25 Below / Muirhead Bros.
 19 —Junction City / Muirhead Bros.
 20 —[group of Native men and boys in front of frame building]
 21 —[two-dog sled and driver]
 22 —[men, horse and dogs with tent and small boat in background—on shore of Atlin Lake?]
 23 —Sunset in the Atlin Country 11pm June 28 1899
 24 —[street scene: wagon pulled by six dogs, eleven men standing or sitting in front of buildings]
 25 —[horse-drawn sleds on ice of big lake—Atlin?]
 26 —Pine Creek [bridge in middle distance] / Muirhead Bros. 2 Christine Frances Dickinson and Diane Solie Smith, Atlin: The Story of British Columbia’s Last Gold Rush (Atlin: Atlin Historical Society, 1995), and “From Ketchikan to Barrow,” Alaska Sportsman, September 1958, p. 29
 27 —[large group of men with buildings in background, badly faded]
 28 —[distant men in clearing at the base of a mountain—playing baseball?]
 29 —“Home” [men with dog, rifle, and snowshoes posing in front of snow-covered log cabin]
 30 —Getting water from the creek / Muirhead Bros. No. 74
 31 —[cutting blocks of ice on lake, loading them on horse-drawn sled; town of Atlin in background, with sternwheeler pulled up on shore] / Muirhead Bros. No. 93
32 —Junction City [summer scene of men posing in front of buildings, signs reading “Muirhead Bros. Landscape Photographers,” “M & S Store,” and “Branch of the Atlin Laundry”
 33 —[men and dog teams pulling sleds, sign on building reading “Wines, Liquors, Cigars and Beer”]
 34 —ME (?) Flats [horses feeding in meadow next to pond, corduroy road extending towards distant mountain]/ Muirhead Bros.
 35 —[horses feeding, lake with island in background]
36 —[women with shovel and pick working at sluice box]
 37 —[men, woman, and sluicing operation]
 38 —[thirteen men, one woman, posing in front of tents]
39 —[seven men posing for camera]
 40 —[waterwheels in creek—mining operation?] See image .57
 41 —Miner(?) Cabins 31, 32, 33 below on Pine [three men, log buildings]
42 —__ claim on Willow [four men at mining operation, with sluice] / Muirhead Bros.
 43 —[sluice box in use]
 44 —[flume or sluice box under construction?]
 45 —[two men with dogs]
46 —China pumps at work on Pine Creek / Muirhead Bros.
 47 —[view of flume curving along creek bed]
 48 —[log buildings]
 49 —[Natives with wall tent, snowshoes, dogs]
 50 —View on Pine [log bridge crossing creek] / Muirhead Bros.
 51 —[flume descending hillside]
 52 —Pump in the Atlin Gold Fields / Muirhead Bros. No. 54
 53 —Scene of Flume and Pumps on Pine Creek / Muirhead Bros. No. 59
 54 —[three-dog team and sled in front of log building—very little snow!]
 55 —[overview of tents and log cribs along creek, flume in distance]
 56 —Birds Eye View of Spruce Junction / Muirhead Bros.
 57 —On Upper Pine / Muirhead Bros. [see image .40]
 58 —[working on flume]
 59 —[ditch under construction]
 60 —[horses on corduroy road over marshy area]
 61 —[miners, including one woman, with waterwheel; tents in background]
 62 —[mining operation]
 63 —[early winter scene of street in a mining camp, dogs snoozing on boardwalk, men walking in street and lounging beneath lamp post; businesses include Arctic Restaurant & Hotel, The Arctic (a bar?), Palace Hotel Restaurant, and Bakery and Chop House]
 64 —[lake with floating logs, fresh snow]
 65 —[view through trees to lake]
 66 —[view across large lake to mountains]
 67 —[man smoking pipe and standing outside his home, with bicycle, table with cookware, and dead fish and game birds strung from a pole.]
 68 —[dogs pulling sled on snowless street in front of E. J. McFeely & Co. Hardware & Tinware] E. J. McFeely had a hardware store in Dawson in 1902; this photo is probably taken earlier in Atlin. 3
 69 —[mining scene]
 70 —[log building beyond trees and stumps]
 71 —[winter scene, man walking ahead of dog team and sled]
 72 —[man standing with rifle, fresh snow on his hat and coat]
 73 —[man on horse, summer street scene]
74 — A mining scene on Pine. Muirhead Bros. [men working near water pumps on creek]
 75 — [exterior of log cabin in winter, snowshoes propped up in snow in foreground] Guide updated: May 12, 2015 3 Polk Alaska-Yukon Gazetteer, 1902, p. 347