Category: Reporters and Photographers

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Edward James Glave

Mr. Glave was a reporter for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Magazine in the 1880’s and 1890’s. He is famous for having crossed the Chilkoot Pass out of Dyea without Native guides in 1890.
“Upon the arrival of white traders, the Chilkats acting as middlemen between the traders and Athabascans became quite wealthy. This trade monopoly was not broken until 1890 when E. J. Glave, John (Jack) Dalton and several others were hired by Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper of New York to “explore the Interior of Alaska and discover the headwaters and tributaries of the Yukon, Copper, Alsek and Chilkat Rivers.”

Edward Glave was born in 1863 in England and died on this day, May 12, 1895 in the Congo, suddenly. He was only 32.
The picture above is of Dalton and someone else who may be Glave.

Gates, 1994; Yukon Prospectors webpage

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William Howard Case


Famous for the photographs that he and his partner Draper took of the gold rush, Case was born on this day, April 19, 1868 in Marshalltown, Iowa. He came to Skagway in February 1898 and stayed until September 1907.Case and Draper photography studios opened in 1898, in a small tent in Skagway, Alaska. The partners later moved their business to a two-story building on Broadway near 4th Avenue, where they also sold curios, photographic supplies, Alaska Native handicrafts and game specimens. By 1907, the partnership between Case and Draper had been mutually dissolved; Draper kept the Skagway shop while Case opened a new store in Juneau.

Case and Draper were best known for their portraits and photographs of the Tlingit Indians, early Skagway and the Gold Rush of 1898. Their views were reproduced in a variety of Alaskan books, including THE SOAPY SMITH TRAGEDY, and on postcards and White Pass & Yukon Railway souvenir playing cards.

Case was a member of the Arctic Brotherhood, the Masons and later a Shriner. He married Alice J. Lindahl in 1898 in Skagway and had three children here. They all moved to Juneau in 1907 where Mr. Case passed away suddenly in 1920 at the age of 52.

Seen above is a typical staged photo taken in the gallery.

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Henry Belfield LeFevre

Henry was one of the town’s leading men. He came to Skagway from Milwaukee Wisconsin where he was born in 1857. He was a member of the Arctic Brotherhood, a deputy clerk for the court in Skagway from 1908 and a U.S. Commissioner from 1905-1909 and published the Daily Morning Alaskan from 1899-1904. He was also a poet. He died on this day, April 2, 1942 in Juneau and is buried there in the Evergreen Cemetery. In the photo above, of the U.S. Commissioners, of those sitting on the steps, he is the third from the left with moustache and light hat.

1902,1905, and 1909 directories; Skagway Museum Record; Report of Secretary of the Interior 1908.

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George T. Ulmer


George established the first printing plant in Skagway in 1898. He then moved to Dyea and published the “Dyea Trail” on January 12, 1898 for a few months. It was a weekly paper until his death on this day, March 1, 1899 in Juneau. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery there. Ho-hum.

Evergreen Records; obituary of brother Charles in Olympic, WA.

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Per Edward Larss


Mr. Larss, or Larson as he later was known, was a famous photographer of the Gold Rush. He was born on this day, February 16, 1863 in Sweden. He worked with another photographer, Joseph E. N. Duclos here in the north from 1899 until 1904. Duclos continued working in Alaska and died in Alaska of pneumonia after surgery in 1917. Their many photos are seen at the Alaska Archives under “Larss and Duclos” or incorrectly as “Larss and Duglos.” Above is a cute one of naughty ladies on a ladder in Dawson.
Larss left Alaska and the Yukon in 1904 and eventually went back to California where he died in 1941 in San Pedro. Below is a family portrait of P.E., his son Edward and wife Hilda taken around 1905.

His biography is captured in the book “Frozen in Silver.”

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Floyd William Sheelor


Happy Birthday to Mr. Sheelor born on this day in 1878 in Nebraska. He came to Skagway about 1915 and produced the most amazing panoramic photos of town that can purchased from the Library of Congress. He registered for the draft for World War One and was here for the 1920 census. There was a Mrs. Sheelor who left the Yukon with him in 1916.

Before he came here he worked in California producing the largest photo ever made in 1913:
“From June 24 1913 Tonopah Bonanza:

LARGEST PHOTOGRAPH IN WORLD IS TAKEN IN TONOPAH BY CAMERA MANUFACTURED IN THIS CAMP

After laboring for 6 months and incurring an expense of $3000 F. W. Sheelor of Tonopah has constructed the largest panorama camera in the world, and the first picture, which also has the distinction of being the largest ever taken is now on exhibition. The picture is 12 feet 3 inches in length and 25 inches in width and shows a panoramic view of Tonopah district with over 2 miles of territory being clearly defined.

Sheelor is originally from Sisson Calif., and about six months ago started work upon the construction of what he declares to be the largest camera in the world. For a number of years he offered manufacturing firms a fancy price to make such a picture taking machine but the offer was refused. Every piece of the camera was made in Tonopah, except the lens, which was imported from Germany. The progress was necessarily slow, and it was not until a short time ago that the work was completed.

Last Thursday Sheelor carried the camera to the top of mount Brougher. The outfit was conveyed to the mountain top in sections and late in the afternon it was set up and the picture was taken. The sweep of the machine includes views starting below the Extension mine and ending with the old high school building. Practically every mining company in the district is included in the view while every building in the city stands out in prominence. The picture is clear in detail and shows people walking about the streets in every part of town. Two pedestrians are to be observed walking along the railroad track near the Montana mine practically a mile from the point where the view was taken, showint the clear manner in which objects were brought out.

One of the views has been purchased by H H Bacon and is now attracting attention at his place of business. It was inspected by a large number of people yesterday and declared to be a work of art.

Sheelor will leave shortly for Montana where he is under contract to take photographs for several of the leading railroads crossing that state and will probably use his new camera during the trip. The films used in the machine are of special manufacture and are imported from France.

The machine can take a picture 36 feet in length, which means a complete circle. The width will be the same in all pictures, or 25 inches. The mechanism is so adjusted that any fraction of the 36 feet of film can be exposed.”

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Daniel Lopez


Daniel Lopez was born in San Luis Obispo in 1870 or 1871. His father Leonardo came to California from Mexico to farm and married Raphaela.

Daniel was a barber and a reporter who was sent to the Klondike to report on all the activity here. Unfortunately he only made it as far as the Chilkoot Pass because on December 13, 1898 he died there of exposure. The winter of 1898-1899 was the most severe winter for decades. Today in Skagway it is a balmy 27 degrees F. with no wind and a light dusting of snow.

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Hyslop Hazel Marie Barley


Happy Birthday to little Hazel born in Skagway on October 18, 1899 to the famous White Pass & Yukon Route photographer Harry C. Barley and his wife Dora.
Barley was a late-comer to the gold rush and established an office in Skagway in 1899. He became the official photographer for WP during and after construction of the railway from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon. Barley died, shortly after the Klondike Gold Rush, in San Francisco of consumption. The Yukon Archives has the most complete collection of Barley’s professional prints, including 500-700 prints of life in Skagway, WP&YR construction and various Yukon and Alaska communities.

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Governor John Franklin Alexander Strong


The Guv got his start here in Skagway in 1898 as editor of the newspaper and participant in the famous “Committee of 101” who stood up to the Soapy Gang. He moved to Juneau after that and remained there for many years, succeeding Governor Clark who resigned in 1913.

He was born on October 15, 1856 in New Brunswick Canada and married in 1896 in Salt Lake City. His wife, Annie Hall, was 20 years his junior and worked as his reporter for Skagway Newspaper. He died in 1923 at the age of 73 in Seattle of a heart attack.

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Elmer John White


“Stroller” White was perhaps the most famous of the reporters that Skagway has had. He was here in the goldrush and was called the “Mark Twain of the North”.

He was born in 1859 in Cambridge Ohio and died in Juneau on October 3, 1930. Mr. DeArmond wrote a book about Stroller some years ago called “Klondike Newsman: Stroller White”.