James Stephen Photographs Alaska and Mexico, 1898-1908

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.