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Clark and Clarence Kinsey photograph collection, approximately 1896-2010

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Kinsey, Clark
Title
Clark and Clarence Kinsey photograph collection
Dates
approximately 1896-2010 (inclusive)
1897-1920 (bulk)
Quantity
10.13 cubic feet (15 boxes and 1 oversize folder including 2 flash drives containing digital scans)
Collection Number
6445 (Accession No. 6445-001)
Summary
Photographic prints, negatives, photograph album, clippings, correspondence, and ephemera from early Washington State photographers and their family, especially during their time living in the Yukon Territories during and after the gold rush
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

No restrictions on access. Negatives are fragile and may require consultation with curator before handling. No user access copy is currently available for flash drives. Users may obtain a reproduction of the photographs by contacting Special Collections.

All original negatives are in fragile condition: some glass negatives are broken, and nitrate negatives are warped and emulsion is peeling off. Negatives are housed separately from prints.

Request at UW

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Clark and Clarence Kinsey were brothers born to Edmund and Louisa Elizabeth Kinsey in Maryville, Missouri. In the 1890s the Kinsey family, which included siblings Albert, Edmund Jr., Emeline (“Emily”) and Darius, became one of the first settler families to move to Snoqualmie, Washington, where they operated a hotel. Clark, Clarence and Darius allegedly learned photography from a hotel resident, a hobby that would develop into careers for the brothers.

In 1898, Clark and Clarence moved their families to Grand Forks, Alaska at the peak of the Yukon Gold Rush. The Kinsey brothers filed a claim for a mine in Gold Hill and founded the Kinsey & Kinsey photography studio in Grand Forks, which documented life in and around the gold mining industry in the Yukon Territory. While the Kinsey brothers never became rich through mining, they made enough money to manage a small crew of miners and pay for photography equipment.

In 1906 Clark, his wife Mary, and their two children Leonard and Ronald, left the Klondike and moved to Seattle. Clark initially ran a contracting business but returned to photography after World War I and spent the rest of his career documenting the logging and milling camps and other forest-related activities in Washington, Oregon, California and British Columbia. He was said to be the official photographer for the West Coast Lumberman's Association, and it is believed that he made approximately 50,000 negatives until his retirement in 1945. He died at his Seattle home on November 29, 1956.

Clarence, his wife Agnes, and daughter Olive continued to mine and run the Kinsey & Kinsey photography studio until 1919. Upon returning to Washington State, Clarence gave up photography and worked in a veterans’ home in Retsil for the next thirty years. He died in Tacoma in 1956 at the age of 84.

Sources: Klondike Lost by Norm Bolotin, Kinsey Brothers Photographs of the Lumber Industry and the Pacific Northwest libguide on UW Libraries website

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Historical Background

In 1896, the Klondike Gold Rush started in the Yukon Territory, Canada, with the discovery of gold in Bonanza Creek on the Klondike River. In the summer of 1897, miners arrived in San Francisco and Seattle from Alaska via two steamers, collectively carrying five thousand pounds of gold from the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory of Canada. Over the next two years thousands of prospectors rushed to reach the gold fields.

Most of the would-be miners arrived in the Yukon via either the Chilkoot Trail out of Dyea or the White Pass Trail out of Skagway and were required to carry one ton of supplies per person over the pass in order to gain entrance to Canada from the Northwest Mounted Police. Once they arrived at Lake Bennett, the stampeders built or bought boats to float down the Yukon River to Dawson. As the first big wave of prospectors reached Dawson after the thaw in May 1898, most were disappointed as nearly all of the promising claims had been claimed by locals the year before. Many sold their outfits and left, but others stayed to work for other prospectors or in Dawson.

The gold rush transformed Dawson, which was originally a native summer fishing camp, into the "Paris of the North." The town was staked out by Joe Ladue and named after George M. Dawson, Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, who explored the region in 1887. By 1898, Dawson was the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg with 40,000 residents. Elaborate hotels, theaters and dance halls were erected. It also included such amenities as telephone service, running water and steam heat.

With the news of gold in Nome, Alaska, people started to leave in large numbers; 8,000 people left Dawson in the summer of 1899 alone. By 1902, the population was less than 5,000. Eventually, major mining operations took over most of the Klondike gold fields in the years following the gold rush.

Source: H.J. Goetzman Klondike Gold Rush photographs, University of Washington

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Content Description

296 glass and nitrate negatives, 1 photograph album, approximately 400 original photographic prints and copy prints, clippings, correspondence, and ephemera related to the Kinsey family and their experiences living in the Yukon Territories during and after the gold rush from 1898-1912. Also contains photographs of sketches by Asa Thurston Heydon, an artist and friend of the Kinsey brothers who lived in Alaska during the Gold Rush whose work was published in Dawson newspapers.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Creator's copyrights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in 5 series.

  • Series 1, Kinsey Family photos and papers, approximately 1897-2010
    • Subseries A, Kinsey family papers
    • Subseries B, Photo Album
    • Subseries C, Studio Portraits
    • Subseries D, Kinsey family in Yukon Territory
    • Subseries E, Post-Yukon Territory Years
    • Subseries F, Olive and Ronald Kinsey, Sr.
  • Series 2, Yukon photographs, 1897-1912
    • Subseries A, Daily Life
    • Subseries B, Mining
    • Subseries C, Sled dogs
    • Subseries D, Asa Thurston Heydon drawings photographs
  • Series 3, Miscellaneous photographs, 1897-1940s
  • Series 4, Negatives, approximately 1890s-1950
    • Subseries A, Nitrate negatives
    • Subseries B, Glass negatives
  • Series 5, Digital scans

Preservation Note

All original negatives are in fragile condition: some glass negatives are broken, and nitrate negatives are warped and emulsion is peeling off. Negatives are housed separately from prints.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Ronald Kinsey, Jr., May 23, 2023.

Processing Note

Processed by Tracy Nishimoto, 2023

Related Materials

Clark Kinsey photographs (coll. PH0516)

Some photographs of the Yukon Territory are duplicated in the William E. Meed collection (coll. PH0246)

View Kinsey Brothers Photographs of the Lumber Industry and the Pacific Northwest, ca. 1890-1945 , on University of Washington Libraries digital site

View photographs by Clark Kinsey on University of Washington Libraries digital site

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

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Subject Terms

  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)


2023 (Last modified: 10/27/2023)

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