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PC 15
James Stephen
Photographs Alaska and Mexico, 1898-1908


St Michaels Church

The James Stephen glass negatives and prints were donated to the Washington State University Library in 1973 by his son, J. Howard Stephen. They were processed by David Smestad in March, 1978.

Number of Containers: 1
Linear Feet of Shelf Space Occupied: .25
Approximate Number of Items: 38

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.

ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION

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)

CONTAINER LIST

I. Glass Negatives

    Items Descriptions

    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

    II. Prints

    Mexico Trip, ca. 1908. 17 prints