Erling Olav Ellingsen was Scandinavian by birth. At the time of the Klondike gold rush, he was living with his wife (who was born in Norway aroud 1869) and son in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Ellingsen and his family joined the rush to the Klondike in 1897, and spent the winter in Seattle waiting to get a ship to the north. They went on to take the Stikine or Teslin Trail route which was an alternative route to the White Pass and the Chilkoot Pass routes. They spent a year in the Teslin district while Ellingsen prospected. He left prospecting to take over the Thistle roadhouse and store where Thistle Creek entered the Yukon River. In 1903, Ellingsen closed the roadhouse and moved to Dawson where he became the proprietor of the Chicago Hotel.
In 1906, the photographer, J.N.E. Duclos, left Dawson for an extended trip of eight months. While he was gone, his studio was run by Ellingsen who had become Duclos' assistant. (Ellingsen most likely learned his photography from Duclos.) Ellingsen then opened his own photographic studio in Dawson in 1907 across from the Chicago Hotel. The studio was located in a pair of one-story structures at 311 Third Avenue. In 1909, he took over the proprietorship of the Third Avenue Hotel next to his studio. When the photographer J.N.E. Duclos accepted a position in the post office in 1912, he sold all his equipment to Ellingsen. Later when the photographer, E.C. Adams moved to Juneau in 1915, he also sold his equipment to Ellingsen. In 1914, Ellingsen purchased the Third Avenue Hotel and continued to run it until 1920. As the population of Dawson dwindled, Ellingsen decided to get out of the photography business so around 1933, Ellingsen converted his photography studio to a hardware store--Klondike Hardware. In 1944, the Ellingsen family moved out of the Yukon to settle in Vancouver, B.C. Ellingsen died on January 30, 1950, followed by his wife, Ida, in 1951.
Dawson, Yukon Territory, is situated at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers. The area was originallly an important hunting and fishing camp for a nomadic First Nation tribe known as Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in. The town was settled in 1896, upon the discovery of gold in its creeks, and it became the center of the Klondike Goldrush that brought 100,000 prospectors to the area that year. Most of the activity in the Klondike Gold Rush happened there and in the vicinity since the gold fields were situated near Dawson The population of the town and vicinity grew to be around 30,000 people at one time. After 1898, people began to leave to go to the gold rush in Nome, Alaska. By 1930, the population had dropped to around eight hundred people. Today it has around 1,300 residents.
Dawson, Yukon Territory street scenes, daily life and mining activities in the vicinity.
Most of the photographs are modern prints from glass plate negatives many of which have significant deterioration. There are two vintage prints.
When the Ellingsen collection came in (possibly in the 1970s?) it contained around 320 glass plate negatives. Those negatives were divided out from the Ellingsen photographs and put into the Adams, Duclos, and other photographer collections so what is left in this collection is work done by Ellingsen.
Entire collection avaible on digital site.
Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.
Written on photo: Str “Casca” ready to sail
Written on photo: N.N. Co. Str. “Hannah” leaving Dawson Sep. 20-09. with a cargo of 800 tons
Written on photo: N.N. Co. Str. “Hannah” leaving Dawson
Written on photo: Str. “Whitehorse” ready to sail
Written on photo: Capt & Officers of Str “Susie.”
Written on photo: Ready for the Celebration May 24, 1908
Ellingsen also used the number 248 for item 77, a photo of a group of men standing on the Yukon Gold Company dredge.
Ellingsen numbered both photos of the hotel 347 but the images are slightly different.
The Dawson Amateur Athletic Association (DAAA) opened in 1902. The DAAA complex included a theater, boxing ring, a gymnasium, and next door, a hockey rink with a one of the Yukon’s few swimming pools in the middle of it. In order to convert the rink to ice, boards were laid on top of the pool and then iced over. But because of the discrepancy in temperature, the ice would never freeze evenly and the games suffered from the uneven surface in the middle of the rink. The DAAA began showing movies in 1903. Because Dawson was the end of the film distribution chain that sent many film prints and newsreels to the Yukon, the films were seldom, if ever, returned. Instead, they accumulated in Dawson. where they were deposited in the care of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, and stored in the basement of the Carnegie Library. By the late 1920s, 500,000 feet of film had accumulated in the Carnegie library basement. Clifford Thomson, an employee of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, also served as treasurer of the hockey association. In 1929, Thomson solved two nagging civic problems when he removed the 500 films from the library basement, stacked them in the pool, covered them with boards, and then a layer of earth on top of that to provide a level surface for the hockey rink.
Films continued to be shipped to Dawson City, and in 1951, a fire fueled by new nitrate films that were being stored at the DAAA, burned the entire complex to the ground. The now famous Dawson City movie collection was uncovered in 1978 when a new recreation center was being built and a bulldozer working its way through a parking lot dug up film cans.The films are now housed in the Canadian Archives in Ottawa and at the US Library of Congress, which jointly restored all the titles to 35mm preservation masters. Because they were stored in cold conditions the films survived in better shape than almost any of the other prints of their time. These prints became some of the last surviving records of titles from studios such as Essanay, Rex, Thanhouser, and Selig.
A local women's group, the International Order of Daughters of the Empire (IODE), took on the cabin in 1917. Members preserved and cared for the cabin in which poet Robert Service had lived while a bank clerk in the Dawson Branch, Canadian Bank of Commerce. Members continued to care for the cabin, declared of national and historic significance in 1967, until Klondike National and Historic Sites took it over in 1970.
Written on photo: A Winters Catch up White River Finest Collection of Black Fox ever seen in Dawson
Written on photo: Hauling wood for the Dawson market. 13 3/4 cord. Apr. 7-09.
Ellingsen numbered both photos 369 but the images are slightly different.
The Yukon Order of Pioneers is a fraternal order founded on December 1, 1894 at Forty Mile, Yukon for the purposes of establishing a police force and a fraternal group whose primary concern would be the welfare, security and well-being of its members. Some of the members identified on the photo are G. Brinston, R. Henderson, T. W. O'Brien, H.E. Peter, A.D. Ross, J. Beck, Barnes, and J. Bourke.
This photograph is not identified by Ellingsen however there is a similar photo identified as an Ellingsen photo (item 78) and this image is typical of Ellingsen's work and the original glass plate came in with the collection of Ellingsen's negatives.
Written on photo: Dawson City Chapter I.O.D.E. Reception for Mrs. Geo. Black, July 29, 1922.
From accompanying material: Shrine excursion to King Solomon's Dome
The Klondike Mines Railway was a narrow gauge railway operating between Dawson City and Sulpher Springs, Yukon Territory. Construction on the railway began in 1905. The railway carried passengers and freight but eventually cut back on passenger service. By 1908, the railway was reduced mainly to the hauling of cord-wood to the steam-generating plants that steam-thawed the permafrost ahead of the gold dredges. With the major reduction in gold production by 1912, the railway shut down operations in 1913.
Written on photo: Freight train on Klondike Mines Railway
Written on photo: Ice going out and Klondike River overflowing, May 8, 1910.
Written on photo: Ice going out and Klondike River overflowing, May 8, 1910.
Vintage print.
Written on photo: The Close of Day Looking up the Yukon Vale from Hillside Cemetery, Dawson
Written on photo: Freighting from Dawson to Glacier Creek.
This map is later than the previous map.
Written on photo: 18 bel. Sulphur Creek.
Vintage print.
Modern print from glass plate negative which shows deterioration.
Written on photo: Yukon Gold Co. building dredge on 37 below Bonanza Creek
Written on photo: Construction crew built the largest dredge in the world [rest is illegible]
Ellingsen also used the number 248 for item 15, a photo of a Dawson street scene.
The town is unidentified. Ellingsen did the majority of his work in Dawson. Item 48b shows the Pioneer Hall for the Dawson chapter which is a different building. The group is holding a banner that says it is the Circle City, Alaska chapter of the organization. It is unlikely that Ellingsen was in Circle City, Alaska, since it is very far away from Dawson in the western part of Alaska. It is possible that the Circle City group was visiting one of the chapters in the Yukon.