Interesting Photos Documenting an Alaskan Inside Passage Cruise in 1938

[NORTH AMERICA - ALASKA - CRUISE] TEMBREULL, Christine Erma (1895-1961), attributed to

[Album with 114 Original Gelatin Silver Photos Taken During a Cruise to Alaska in 1938 and Showing Metlakatla, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Skagway, Letnikof Cove, Haines Barracks, Famous Skagway Tour Guide Martin Itjen, Indigenous People, Filipino Steerage Passengers, American Military men from Haines Barracks, Cruiseship Passengers and Captain, &c.].

1938. Oblong Quarto album ca. 17x24 cm (6 ½ x 9 ½ in). 23 black stock leaves. With 114 original gelatin silver photos, including nine large images ca. 13x17,5 cm (5x7 in); the rest of the photos are from ca. 9,5x12 cm (3 ¾ x 4 ¾ in) to ca. 6x9 cm (2 ½ x 3 ½ in). Ca. 60 photos with period ink captions on the margins. With the printed “Passenger List” of S.S. “Alaska” mounted on the first leaf; the front cover with a manuscript note “S.S. Alaska. Erma Tembreull. 527 – Malden, Seattle, Pictures of Alaska trip.” Period custom-made brown soft leather album fastened with a string; front cover with a painted scene with a Native American man in a canoe and a title “Alaska, 1938. E.T. Seattle, Wash.” Binding slightly rubbed on extremities, the first leaf with minor tears on extremities, a few photos mildly faded or with mild silvering, but overall a very good album of strong interesting photos.

Attractive collection of lively original gelatin silver photographs illustrating the Inside Passage cruise of S.S. “Alaska” (“Alaska Steamship Company”) in August-September 1938. The steamer left Seattle on August 22 and went as far north as Skagway, with the stops in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, and Haines, calling at Sitka on the way back. The album, compiled by one of the steamer’s passengers, documents the whole cruise and contains about 60 photos of Alaskan ports and sites, often portraying the compiler and her travel companions. The images include portraits of tourists in Metlakatla (posing on a pier and with native children), Ketchikan (posing on streets and in front of a shop), Wrangell (on a wharf, in front of and inside a “curio shop”), at a cannery, riding a “motor-bike” at Petersburg, in Sitka (on a wharf, next to totem poles, “kissing Blarney Stone at Sitka,” “stealing raspberries”), Hawk Inlet (next to a “Chinese grave,” on the stairs of the post office), Letnikof Cove, Skagway (“Mt. trail to Ivy Lake”), posing with American military men from Haines Barracks (Fort William H. Seward, Alaska's only military facility between 1925 and 1940), &c. There are also interesting topographical views of the Inside Passage “approaching Wrangell Narrows,” Petersburg (taken from the steamer), Taku Glacier (taken at 5 am), Haines Barracks, S.S. “Alaska” docked in different locations (including the ship entering Petersburg with Capt. O.C. Andersen on the bridge), a scene with a group of “steerage [passengers] – Filipinos, Sitka” on the ship’s deck, &c. Five photos taken in Skagway show famous Martin Itjen (1870-1942) – a pioneer local tour guide who came to Skagway as a stampeder during the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. The photos portray Itjen giving a tour “at Soapy Smith’s grave,” “panning gold,” posing to the camera with his pocket watch chain made of gold nuggets and standing with the album’s compiler next to “1st Skagway street car” (a blurry photo). Numerous photos show the tourists resting, playing and having fun on board the S.S. “Alaska,” posing with the ship’s captain, wearing a diver suit, &c. The eight-page printed “Passenger List” mounted on the first leaf contains the names of all passengers and their destinations, as well as manuscript autographs of at least thirty of them on the last two pages. The album’s compiler was identified as a Seattle resident Christine Erma Tembreull (1895-1961). Overall an attractive collection of lively photos of Alaska and its Inside Passage.

Item #545

Price: $1,250.00 USD