John E. Thwaites Photographs
John Edward Thwaites was employed in Alaska by the federal government as a clerk for the Railway Mail Service during the early part of the 20th century. From 1905 to 1912 he settled into life onboard the wood hulled mailboat S.S. DORA owned by the
Northwestern Steamship Company and traveled the route from Valdez to Unalaska delivering mail to the coastal communities. He was also an amateur photographer, who by using a Kodak camera, documented his experiences in Southeastern Alaska. Although not trained as a professional photographer, he quickly took advantage of the burgeoning postcard market selling thousands of photographic postcards depicting Alaska scenes. This collection includes his images of: the aftermath of Aleutian chain volcanic eruptions; maritime disasters including the famous Farallon shipwreck in 1910; Aleutian Natives and Eskimos, including an Aglegmiut shaman in costume depicting what is believed to be the only images of an actual shaman wearing these ceremonial costumes; Alaska industries including fox farming, whaling, codfish salteries, copper mining; glaciers and scenic wonders; and small towns and daily life encountered en route.
About the Database
The information for the John E. Thwaites Photographs Collection was researched and prepared by the UW Libraries Special Collections Division and Cataloging staff in 2003. Not all the photographs from the collection were included in this database: the database consists of 396 digital images chosen from a group of approximately 1300 photographic prints. The images were scanned from photographic prints in grayscale using a Microtek Scanmaker 9600L and saved in .jpg format. Some manipulation of the images was done to present the clearest possible digital image. The scanned images were then linked with descriptive data using the Contentdm software suite. The original collection resides in the UW Libraries Special Collections Division as the John E. Thwaites Photographs Collection no. 247.
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