Photography & Ephemera

[KLONDIKE]. A pair of large photograph albums documenting a gold miner’s stay in the Yukon Territory during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896. Consisting of 265 original albumen prints in various size formats neatly mounted on heavy stock, many captioned below mounts in manuscript, most signed in the negative by the photographer that includes Eric A. Hegg, Larss & Duclos, W. Irvine and L.E. Robertson. Views depict numerous scenes of mining life including the famous town of Dawson City with its saloons, general stores, and hotels that the miners frequented while on their search for gold. Other images depict the mountainous areas surrounding Dawson, bird’s eye–views of the town, the El Dorado mining area, Gold Hill, cabins, social gatherings, river views, men fully dressed in furs including Sickler, Native Americans, totem poles, bear cubs, prospectors, Chilkoot Pass, dog sleds, measuring gold dust for trade, and numerous others (MOST PROBABLY UNPUBLISHED). Neatly housed in contemporary pebbled cloth albums (2 volumes, oblong 4to, 292 x 394 mm) with gilt titles reading “Alaska Views” (spine and joints worn with some separation). Provenance: Dr. William B. Sickler of New Jersey; a Klondike gold miner and original owner of these photograph albums with his Free Miner’s Certificate issued by the Dominion of Canada dated 8 March 1898, pasted to the inside cover of one of the albums that allowed Sickler to prospect. –– [Also with:] his 50pp. typed and annotated manuscript titled “My Trip to the Klondike” describing in depth Sickler’s trip to Dawson that began in Portland on 6 March 1898 with 5 other men and ending in his arrival to Dawson on 11 June 1898. In it, Sickler describes his day–to–day adventures, the numerous hazards encountered, and the many friends that he met along the way noting that “Kodak friends are here and they are more than numerous yet good photographic views are scarce…” but “Hegg and Larss, of Skagway, however, take most excellent views of all important points”. Sickler recounts himself as having been an assistant to the photographers in order to “secure proofs of all the important places” as seen in his albums. The trip then concludes along the Yukon River as Sickler and crew head to Dawson aboard a steamer ship. “The tenderfoot of the Wooly West have become the ‘Chechako’ of the icy North. Indians here giving this name to all new comers and we are 20,000 strong.” AN INCREDIBLE AND ORIGINAL ACCOUNT OF GOLD MINING LIFE IN THE KLONDIKE.