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: Mary Alice Cook

TITLE: First Alaska Territorial Legislature Collection

COLLECTION NUMBER: B1956.004

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Dates: 1913

Extent: 26 items; 1.3 linear feet

Language and Scripts: The collection is in English.

Name of creator(s): A.C. Mercer

Administrative/Biographical History:
In 1912, the United States Congress passed a new civil organizing act for Alaska, creating a
bicameral legislature with an eight-member Senate and a sixteen-member House of
Representatives. However, this collection contains photographs of only fifteen Representatives.
The missing man, J.J. Mullaly of Fairbanks, left the Territory before the November, 1912
elections results were in. Mullaly failed to return to Alaska to claim his legislative seat.

Territorial legislators were elected in even numbered years, and met in session for sixty days in
odd numbered years. The first session of the Territorial Legislature convened in Juneau on
March 3, 1913. Because a capitol building had not yet been built, the Legislature met in the
Elks Lodge hall. The powers of the Legislature were limited; although it never did so, the
United States Congress was empowered to override any laws passed by the Legislature. The
first act of the Legislature was unanimous approval of a bill granting women the right to vote.

The membership of the first Alaska Territorial Legislature included lawyers, businessmen,
miners, and at least one doctor and one fisherman. Legislators’ pay was $15.00 per day, and a
travel allowance of 15 cents per mile. Territorial Governor Walter Clark estimated that the
lawmakers’ average round trip to Juneau was 2,541 miles. In early January of 1913, for
example, two legislators left Nome by dog team, bound for Fairbanks. From Fairbanks, they

traveled by horse-drawn sleigh to Valdez, where they boarded a steamship for Juneau. They
arrived in the capital the day before the Legislature convened. For more information on
Alaska’s first territorial legislature, see: “Governing Alaska: The Territory of Alaska,” Alaska
History and Cultural Studies, http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=135;
“Alaska’s First Legislature, 1913: Oh, How Times Have Changed,” by June Allen,
http://www.sitnews.net/JuneAllen/Legislature/011803_ak_1st_legislature.html; and “100 Years
Ago, New Territorial Legislature Ignited a Dream,” by Steve Haycox,
http://www.adn.com/2012/04/05/2409662/100-years-ago-the-territorial.html.

Scope and Content Description:
The collection consists of one leather scrapbook, 15.5” x 11” x 1.25”, which includes
autographed photographs of Territorial Governor Walter E. Clark and senators and
representatives of the first Alaska Territorial Legislature, all taken by A.C. Mercer in 1913. The
photographs are mounted one per leaf.

Arrangement: Not applicable.

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:
First Alaska Territorial Legislature Collection, Anchorage Museum, B1956.004.


ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Acquisition and Appraisal Information
The collection was donated to the Cook Inlet Historical Society by Frank Reed Jr. in 1956.

RELATED MATERIALS

SUBJECTS
Clark, Walter Eli, 1859-1950
Ray, L.V.

Bruner, Elwood
Rhoden, Henry
Tripp, H.T.
Millard, B.F.
Freeding, Conrad
Tanner, J.M.
Sutherland, Daniel Alexander, 1869-1955
Collins, Earnest B.
Burns, William T.
Gray, Robert D.
Driscoll, Daniel
Stubbins, William
Jones, Charles Davenport
Boyle, Frank M.
Kennedy, James C.
Ingersoll, Charles E.
Aldrich, Frank A.
Ingram, H.B.
Shoup, Arthur Glendinning
Kelly, Milo
Svindseth, N.J.
Gaffney, Thomas
Legislators – Alaska
Alaska.Territorial Legislature
Alaska – Politics and government, 1867-1959

Detailed Description of the Collection
01 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Walter E. Clark, Territorial Governor of Alaska, 1913; autographed.]
 02 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Senate President L.V. Ray; Third Division, Seward; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 03 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Senator Elwood Bruner; Second Division, Nome; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 04 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Senator Henry Rhoden; Fourth Division, Iditarod; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 05 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Senator H.T. Tripp; First Division, Juneau; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 06 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Senator B.F. Millard; Third Division, Valdez; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 07 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Senator Conrad Freeding; Second Division, Nome; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 08 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Senator J.M. Tanner, First Division, Skagway; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 09 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Senator Dan A. Southerland, Second Division, Ruby; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 10 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial House of Representatives Speaker Earnest B. Collins; Fourth Division, Fox; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 11 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative William T. Burns; Fourth Division, Fairbanks; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913, autographed.]
 12 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative Robert D. Gray; Third Division, Katalla; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 13 — Copyright 1913 Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative Daniel Driscoll; Fourth Division, Fairbanks; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 14 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative William Stubbins; First Division, Douglas; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 15 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative Charles Davenport Jones; Second Division, Nome; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 16 — [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative Frank M. Boyle, M.D.; Third Division, Valdez; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 17 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative James C. Kennedy; Second Division, Candle; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 18 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative Charles. E. Ingersoll; First Division, Ketchikan; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 19 — Copyright 1913 Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative Frank A. Aldrich; Second Division, Nome; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 20 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative H.B. Ingram; Third Division, Valdez; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 21 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative Arthur Glendinning Shoup; First Division, Sitka; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 22 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative Milo Kelly; Third Division, Knik; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 23 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative N.J. Svindseth; First Division, Wrangell; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
 24 — Mercer; [Studio portrait of Territorial Representative Thomas Gaffney; Second Division, Nome; First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913; autographed.]
25 — Copyright 1913 by A.C. Mercer; [Group portrait of 1913 First Alaska Territorial House of Representatives, with staff members; seated at desks in Elks Lodge, Juneau.]
26 — Copyright 1913 by A.C. Mercer; [Group portrait of 1913 First Alaska Territorial Senate, with staff members; seated at desks in Elks Lodge, Juneau.] Guide written: June, 2012.