James Stephen Photographs Alaska and Mexico 1898-1908
PC 15

Summary Information

Repository
Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Title
James Stephen Photographs Alaska and Mexico
ID
PC 15
Date [inclusive]
1898-1908
Extent
1 container, 0.25 linear feet, Approximate 38 items
Abstract
The collection includes 21 glass negatives of Alaska showing churches, priests, Eskimos, and scenery and 17 original prints taken on a trip to Mexico in 1908, showing various churches with a few prints of the ruins at Mitla and of people.

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Biographical Note:

James Stephen was born in Woodstock, Ontario in 1858. He was a cabinet maker, carpenter, photographer, and architect. He was architect for the Administration Building at Washington State University in 1893, Stevens Hall in 1895, and also many Seattle public schools. In 1898, the year of the Klondike Gold Rush, he left architecture and, according to his son, worked for about one year with the Moran Brothers Shipbuilders as a carpenter. While with Moran Brothers he helped to build a stern wheeler for the Yukon River; then dismantle it and ship it to Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island, and reassemble it, after which it steamed to St. Michael, the deep water port for the Yukon trade. He took a trip to Mexico in 1908. He died in Seattle in 1938.

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Scope and Content

I. 4x5 glass negatives of Alaska showing churches, priests, Eskimos, and scenery. Recent prints have been made of a few and a container list compiled. (21 items)

II. Original prints taken on a trip to Mexico in 1908, showing various churches with a few prints of the ruins at Mitla and of people. (17 items)

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections  © 2012

http://www.libraries.wsu.edu/masc/

Terrell Library

P.O. Box 645610

Pullman, WA, 99164-5610 USA

509-335-6691

mascref@wsu.edu

Acquisition Information

The James Stephen glass negatives and prints were donated to the Washington State University Library in 1973 by his son, J. Howard Stephen.

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Names and Subjects

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Detailed Description of Collection

I Glass Negatives  

1 St. Michaels Church  

2 St. Michaels Church -- interior  

3 Unalaska  

4 Unalaska Church  

5 Unalaska Church -- interior  

6 Head Land Unalaska  

7 Dutch Harbor  

8 Dutch Harbor land side  

9 Presbyterian Mission Girls  

10 Mission Boys  

11 Esquimoux Boys  

12 Doctors Family  

13 ? Family  

14 Peter and Family in Style  

15 Peter in Furs  

16 Father Jakob Corshinsky  

17 Father Orloff  

18 Crater Crest  

19 Cemetery  

20 Midnight  

21 Dogs  

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II Prints  

Mexico Trip  circa 1908 

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