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: Sara Piasecki, Photo Archivist

TITLE: Alma T. Nelson Album

COLLECTION NUMBER: B2012.035

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Dates: 1937, 1940

Extent: 1 box; 1 linear foot

Language and Scripts: The collection is in English.

Name of creator(s): Alma T. Nelson, Photocraft, M. P. Roark, Hylen Photo Shop, Charles F.
Cann, Hewitt’s Photo Shop

Administrative/Biographical History:
No additional information about Alma T. Nelson was available at the time this guide was
prepared.

Scope and Content Description:
The collection consists of one spiral-bound album measuring 9.25 x 8.25 inches, containing 160
photographs and ephemera gathered during two trips to Alaska. The first (.1-.86) was in 1937,
leaving from Vancouver aboard the Prince Robert, with images on and from the ship, and of
stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Sitka. The second trip (.87-.160), from the summer
of 1940, seems to have started in Valdez, with a side trip to Cordova, then up the Richardson
Highway, with images of sights and lodging along the way, stops in Big Delta and Fairbanks—
then by train to McKinley and down to Anchorage. Included are photographs taken by Nelson
and her companions, photographic postcards, and ephemeral items.

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:
Alma T. Nelson Album, Anchorage Museum, B2012.035

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Acquisition and Appraisal Information
Purchased by the Museum in 2012. No provenance was available from the dealer, other than
that the album had been obtained at an estate sale.

RELATED MATERIALS
Cornelia Lincoln Martin Scrapbook, B1992.024
Trip to Alaska, B1997.008
Candy Waugaman Collection, B1998.025
Inside Passage, B2004.021
Allan Rennie Collection, B2005.032
Natalie Brother Photograph Album, B2009.004

SUBJECTS
Nelson, Alma T.
Hansen, Mary, 1905-2002
Prince Robert (Ship)
Princess Louise (Ship)
Baranof (Steamboat)
Mendenhall Glacier (Alaska)
Taku Glacier (Alaska)
Columbia Glacier (Alaska)
Worthington Glacier (Alaska)
Spencer Glacier (Alaska)
Ketchikan (Alaska)
Juneau (Alaska)
Skagway (Alaska)
Sitka (Alaska)
Cordova (Alaska)

Valdez (Alaska)
Tiekel (Alaska)
Paxson (Alaska)
Big Delta (Alaska)
Fairbanks (Alaska)
Denali National Park and Preserve (Alaska)
Richardson Highway (Alaska)
Inside Passage

Detailed Description of the Collection

“Trip to Alaska on Prince Robert leaving Vancouver B.C. with Esther Ryan”
 1 — Prince Robert [ship at dock]
 2 —.4 – At sea [scenery]
 5 —.9 – Wrangell Narrows [scenery; .8 includes a lighted marker]
 10 —.15 – [scenery of Inside Passage]
 16 — [woman standing at ship rail]
 17 — [deck of the Prince Robert, with lifeboat]
 18 — [scenery]
 19 — [view from upper deck of lower deck and bow, with passengers along rail]
 20 — [two young women with lifebuoy of the S.S. Prince Robert, Vancouver, B.C]
 21 — [passengers walking along a lower deck]
 22 — [similar to .20]
 23 — [two older women stand along ship rail]
 24 — Captain
 25 —.26 – First officer
 27 — [woman stands on dock with bow of Prince Robert behind her]
 28 — [young woman with camera case stands next to lifeboat Vancouver on deck]
 29 — [same woman as in .28, with ship’s lifebuoy]
 30 —.32 – Ketchikan [waterfront]
 33 — Juneau [Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Company]
 34 —.38 – Mendenhall Glacier
 39 —.49 – Taku Glacier [.49 taken through porthole]
 50 —.54 – Skagway [ship docking; .52 shows the Princess Louise at dock]
 55 — Skagway streetcar
 56 — [streetcar next to rock marked “The Largest Nugget in the World”]
57 — [woman and mannequin on back of streetcar, with sign “Marshal of the Day, July 4, 1898”]
 58 — [tourists at waterfall, possibly Pitchfork Falls, with footbridge in middle ground]
 59 —.64 – Mt. Edgecomb [Edgecumbe] near Sitka
 65 —.69 – Sitka [.68-.69 show St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral; others are of waterfront buildings]
 70 —.71 – Park at Sitka [totem poles at Sitka National Historical Park]
 72 — [ship at dock, possibly Prince Robert]
 73 — Blockhouse at Sitka
 74 — Mr. and Mrs. Henny [couple posed outdoors]
 75 —.82 – [four-masted sailing ship at Vancouver docks; .77 is a view of the Prince Robert bow, indicating that the sailing ship was at dock as the Prince Robert was returning; man and woman at rail in .79]
 83 — [Prince Robert at Vancouver dock]
 84 —.85 – [Passenger steamship passing the Vancouver dock]
 86 — [totem pole at unidentified location] “June 19-July 1940. Trip to Valdez, Richardson Highway – Fairbanks – train to McKinley National Park – then to Anchorage and Seward by boat to Seattle with Wilma McKenzie”
 87 —.88 – [Inside Passage scenery]
 89 —.90 – [women standing at ship’s rail; Nelson and McKenzie?]
 91 —.92 – Ketchikan [.92 of wooden boat the Ark at dock]
 93 —.96 – Monica Young, Ketchikan [toddler]
 97 —.99 – Ketchikan [mother holding young child, identified in .100, next to automobile on wooden boardwalk]
 100 — Susan, Ketchikan
 101 —.106 – Cordova [.101, ship passing in inlet; .102, downtown with pedestrians on boardwalk; .103 Baranof at dock]
107 — [Photographic postcard] Nirvana Park, Cordova, Alaska, Photocraft #167
 108 —.109 – [Nirvana Park]
 110 — [Photographic postcard] A June Mid-night, Cordova, Alaska, Roark Photo 246 [street scene including The O’Neill Co., Dyson’s, Northern Drugs, Smith’s House]
 111 — [Photographic postcard] Business District & Water Front, Valdez, Alaska, Hylen Photo
 112 — Wilma, Marian Bigelow, Betty Bean, Marguerite Riley [group stands on footbridge]
 113 —.115 – Columbia Glacier - [Adhesive stamp] See Alaska, Nature’s Greatest Masterpiece, Columbia Glacier between Seward and Valdez, Farwest Litho. & Printing Co., Seattle
 116 —.120 – Up the Richardson Highway [.116 waterfalls; .117-.118 Teikhel Road House; .119- .120 Worthington Glacier]
 121 — Our first lunch stop [Tonsina Roadhouse?]
 122 — A fish wheel [probably Copper River]
 123 — Salmon drying
 124 — [fish wheels]
 125 — At an Indian camp [woman and fish wheel]
 126 — [Photographic postcard] Salmon drying on the Yukon River, Cann
 127 — Rainbow Mts.
 128 — Where we stayed all night [Paxson Lodge]
 129 — [Richardson monument at Isabel Pass]
 130 — [Sourdough Roadhouse]
 131 — [woman standing at end of dock next to bus]
 132 — Wilma MacKenzie
 133 —.134 – at Bert and Mary’s Big Delta [.133 Wilma with dog; .134 sled dogs]
 135 — [Photographic postcard] Mary Hansen and her Siberian Husky Dog Team, Hylen Photo
 136 — A roadhouse [one-story log building with sod roof]
 137 — At the gold mine
 138 — Fairbanks [woman next to A.R.R. Engine No. 1]
 139 — At Fairbanks [woman stands near trees] - [Decal] Mt. McKinley National Park Route, The Alaska Railroad, U.S. Department of the Interior, Interior Alaska Line
 140 — [person feeding marmots]
 141 —.142 – [women hand-feeding marmot, with walled tents in background]
 143 —.144 – Caribou
 145 —.148 – At Camp Eielson, Mt. McKinley Park, Grizzly bear
 149 —.150 – A moose
 151 — From Kontoshna side [Photographic postcard] Mt. McKinley 20,300 ft. A-1, Hewitt’s Photo Shop, Anchorage
 152 — From Togasitna [Photographic postcard] Mt. McKinley 20,300, highest mountain in North America. A-2, Hewitt’s Photo Shop, Anchorage
 153 —.154 – Spencer Glacier
 155 — Henry and Inez Waspe [?] in Anchorage [with woman next to General Motors truck]
 156 —.157 – Six who made the town, Mr. and Mrs. Sevringhaus, Mrs. Anna Porter, Wilma, Ruth Dugan
 158 — [Wilma in chair]
 159 —.160 – On board ship, Wilma MacKenzie [in .159 with man; .160 same man different woman, Nelson?] Guide written: December 14, 2012