D. R. Judkins Oak Harbor photographs, circa 1890

The photographs in this collection are attributed to David Roby Judkins (1836-1909). A native of Maine, Judkins spent his early photographic years in Massachusetts and Indiana before settling in Seattle around 1880. He created a unique marketing tool for the quiet backwaters of Puget Sound, a floathome and studio. Constructed in Seattle, the Floating Sunbeam Gallery (ca. 1881-1884) sat on a barge and was towed from place to place throughout the Puget Sound. Between 1885 and 1893, Judkins continued to operate studios in downtown Seattle and is known for his images of the Seattle Fire of 1889. Between 1898 and 1899, Judkins followed the Yukon gold rush; during the latter part of this period, he ran his “Pullman Photographic Gallery” in Skagway, Alaska. Judkins moved to California in 1903 and lived there until his death on December 11, 1909.

Albert Weimer Bash (1848-1926) and his wife Flora Spangler Bash (1854-1933) owned a farm at Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, Washington. Bash was appointed by President Garfield as a customs collector for the District of Puget Sound and was also a friend of Benjamin Harrison who, while a U.S. Senator, visited the Bash family in Port Townsend. During Bash’s term as an inspector, Congress appropriated funds for the erection of Port Townsend’s custom house, which serves now as the post office. Bash was involved in the development of an unsuccessful plan to extend U.S. railway lines across the Pacific Ocean and on through mainland China between 1895 and 1912 and was associated with the American China Development Company and the China Investment and Construction Company. The American China Development Company only succeeded in building 30 miles of railway line by the time the company lost its concession in 1905. Bash's elder daughter, Cora Clementine Bash (1882-1941), who appears as a young girl with Bash in the majority of these images, served as an American missionary doctor with the Board of Foreign Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. She lived and worked in Shanghai and Tientsin for over 30 years. In 1941 Dr. Bash died of bacterial endocarditis in Beijing. Bash's younger daughter, Mary Iona Bash (1891-1953), was Dean of Women at Oregon State College.