[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Memorializing an Excursion Through the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and Alaska]

[Various locations, mainly in Alaska, but also British Columbia and Washington State: July, 1927. Very good.. [30] leaves, illustrated with 196 photographs,1.25 x 2 to 3 x 4 inches, most photographs or pages annotated in white ink. Oblong folio. Contemporary black limp cloth, string tied, small sticker on front cover, gilt-stamped "Photographs" on front cover. Minor rubbing and edge wear to album. Internally clean. A wonderful annotated vernacular travel album documenting a group trip from the Pacific Northwest through British Columbia to several locations in Alaska. As organized, the album opens in Victoria, British Columbia with several shots of the gardens at the Empress Hotel on July 8, 1927. This is followed by several shots from a sea-bound vessel through the Seymour Narrows and then onto numerous Alaskan and Yukon Territory sites such as Wrangell, Ketchikan, the Taku Inlet, the Davidson and Mendenhall glaciers, the White Horse and Five Finger rapids, the Yukon River, Dawson, Fort Yukon, the Tanana River, Fairbanks, Curry, Spencer Glacier, Lawing, Lake Kenai, Latouche, Valdez, Columbia Glacier, and Cordova. In addition to the array of natural settings, the photographs capture a wide variety of subjects, such as the docks at Wrangell, the Kicksetti Totem & Sun House, the Raven and Kadashan totems, "Indians," a steamship stuck on a sand bar, "Indian women," "Indian men at landing," an exterior shot of the Eagle Trading Company, several buildings at Fort Yukon, an "Indian tent," "Indian graves," a large rack of salmon drying in Beaver, reindeer at Curry, a few cabins at Lawing, a cannery and a scene of salmon loading at Cordova, and a few shots focused on botanical subjects, such as "10 ft. larkspur near Robert Service's cabin." Some of the latter photographs feature several of the travelers onboard ship and identified by first name. The album ends with several pages of images from the Paradise Inn at Mt. Rainier in Washington, where the group hiked to the Paradise Glacier.

The most notable single photograph in the album pictures Nellie Neal Lawing posed with her "lead dog." Nellie Neal Lawing (1874-1956), otherwise known as Alaska Nellie, was a notable frontierswoman, hunter, roadhouse operator, and wildlife museum owner who also served as the postmistress of the Lawing post office for the first nine years of its existence. Her museum, populated with her numerous hunting trophies, became a major tourist attraction.