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Ralph E. Wahl Photographs and Papers, 1917-1993

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Wahl, Ralph E.
Title
Ralph E. Wahl Photographs and Papers
Dates
1917-1993 (inclusive)
1920-1992 (bulk)
Quantity
26 Linear Ft., (34 Boxes)
Collection Number
XOE_CPNWS0024wahl
Summary
The Ralph E. Wahl Photographs and Papers comprise photographic materials and textual records reflecting Wahl’s activities and interests as a photographer and fisherman in the Pacific Northwest. The collection contains a substantial number of prints, slides, negatives and proof sheets documenting the sport of Fly fishing, as well as regional landscapes, rivers and wildlife. The collection also includes diaries, correspondence, clippings, notes and written materials relating to Wahl’s fishing activities and publications.
Repository
Western Washington University, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies
Goltz-Murray Archives Building
808 25th St.
Bellingham, WA
98225
Telephone: (360) 650-7534
cpnws@wwu.edu
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to the public.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for preparing this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Funding for encoding the finding aid was awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

The Ralph E. Wahl Photographs and Papers chronicle several decades of fishing excursions taken by Wahl and his fishing compatriots throughout the Pacific Northwest in the early and mid twentieth century. These excursions are beautifully documented and reflected through the eye of Wahl’s camera.

Ralph Wahl, born in 1906, was the son of Joseph and Anna Wahl. The Wahl family owned and operated J.B. Wahl department store and the Grand Theatre in Bellingham, Washington. When his father died in 1937, Ralph assumed management of the department store and pursued this career until his retirement in 1971. However, his real passion was for fishing and photography, activities that had interested him since his youth. He had, in fact, always considered himself a fisherman/photographer with a business, as opposed to a businessman with hobbies.

Ralph Wahl’s early photographs (1920-35) focus on the town of Bellingham, as well as local rural scenes throughout Whatcom and Skagit counties, including Squalicum and Friday Creeks, the Samish River, and the surrounding foothills. In addition, he documented several hiking, camping and touring excursions in lowland Puget Sound and SW British Columbia. It was also during this period that Wahl discovered his fabled Shangri-La Pool below the estuary of the Skagit River near Lyman, Washington. It was at this site that he developed his great passion for angling after giant Steelhead. The “secret pool” yielded 45 years worth of fishing pleasure and culminated in Wahl’s memoir One Man’s Steelhead Shangri-La (1989).

Wahl traveled throughout the Western United States, British Columbia and Alaska and documented these excursions through photography. He was accompanied by groups of avid fly fishermen including Enos Bradner, Howard Gray, Gordon Frear, and his life-long fishing partner Les Townley. These group trips included the 1952 Alaska excursion which centered around the Arolic River and the Brooks River and Falls, the 1953 Ketchikan, Alaska trip with highlights at Orchard Falls and Orchard River, the beloved September 1955 and 1956 trips to the Kispiox River, British Columbia, as well as numerous journeys to the lakes and rivers of Montana and Eastern Washington. Fish sought after, caught, and typically released were the Steelhead, Sea-run Cutthroat, Salmon, Shee Fish, and Kamloops, among others.

Many of Ralph Wahl’s images were published in magazines such as Field and Stream, Argosy Magazine, The Flyfisher, and the Fourth Corner Fly Fisher’s journal, Random Casts. There is also documentation suggesting that he was published in Sports Illustrated in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In 1971 many of Mr. Wahl’s images were published alongside the writings of his friend Roderick Haig-Brown for the book Come Wade the River. For this achievement he was recognized at the 1972 Governor’s Writers Day by then Governor Daniel Evans.

Ralph Wahl also enjoyed a long association with a number of groups including the Federation of Fly Fishers, the Fly Fisher Foundation (of which he was a Director), the Washington Fly Fishers Club, the Fly Fishers Club of Oregon, the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association and the Outdoor Writers Association of America. He was also a strong supporter of the burgeoning American Museum of Fly Fishing in Vermont and the Fly Fishing Museum in Florence, Oregon.

Ralph Wahl was as devoted to photography as he was to fly fishing and he spent a good deal of time experimenting with a variety of development processes as well as exploring different film and camera types. A portion of this collection also reflects his love of the outdoors and is devoted to landscape shots as well as nature studies. Ralph Wahl died in June 1996 at the age of 90.

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Content Description

The Ralph E. Wahl Photographs and Papers contain textual materials and images that document over sixty years of fishing and photography, two great passions of Ralph Wahl. The Textual materials consist of correspondence and subject files, published and unpublished writings, yearly fishing diaries and handwritten fish data that tracked fish catches by kind, size and numbers taken or released. This could be useful in charting the rise and fall in fish populations over a period of decades. There is also careful note taken of fisherman impacts to various areas as well as changes due to damming and other hydrological projects. Subject and correspondence files are arranged alphabetically and include correspondence between Mr. Wahl and a variety of individuals as well as materials regarding groups and projects with which he was associated. His unpublished works consist of short fishing accounts and original text and photo books. Included are copies of Mr. Wahl’s two published books, Come Wade The River (1971) and One Man’s Steelhead Shangri-La (1989). The diaries and fish data span approximately 52 years of fishing and associations with fishing organizations. They document all of the Wahl fishing excursions and are an invaluable resource (in conjunction with the slides) to place images in a geographical and temporal context. The diaries and the images are not explicitly linked in the inventory.

The Photographic materials consist of prints of varying size (though most are 8x10”), slides, proof sheets and negatives. The images are divided into subject categories entitled: Animals, Cars, Fish and Fishing, Landscapes/Nature, People, and Ships and Boats. These materials are also organized chronologically within the subject categories. Ralph Wahl provided captions for the slides including dates and geographic names. Proof sheets and negatives are arranged by date where known, as per their original order. The bulk of the images detail fishing excursions in the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, Alaska, Eastern Washington and Montana. Many of today’s most-fished sites are historically represented in the collection as well as some of the most well-known fly fisherman.

Audio materials comprise reel to reel tapes and cassettes collected by Ralph Wahl, and include copies of presentations, interviews and programs relating to fly fishing. The Film and Artifacts consist of fourteen 8mm film reels of fishing forays. Ten of the films are unidentified and undated. The Artifacts consist of one ‘salmon’ leather wallet which had been manufactured for Wahl’s Department Store in the 1950s.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Users of the Ralph Wahl collection must receive written permission from Donor or an individual authorized by Donor before reproducing photographs, slides and other images which are part of the collection for any profit-generating use or as part of any profit-generating activity. The termination date for this publication restriction is January 1, 2025. Also, please contact the CPNWS in advance to arrange for use of reel to reel tapes.

Preferred Citation

Ralph E. Wahl Photographs and Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Archives & Special Collections, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA 98225-9123.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The Ralph E. Wahl Photographs and Papers are organized in accordance with the following series and subseries arrangement:

  • Series I. Textual Materials
    • Subseries 1. Personal and Family Files
    • Subseries 2. Subject/Correspondence Files
    • Subseries 3. Unpublished and Published Works
    • Subseries 4. Fishing Diaries and Handwritten Fish Data
  • Series II. Photographic Materials
  • Series III. Audio Materials
  • Series IV. Film and Artifacts

Acquisition Information

Terence, Richard and Edward Wahl, the sons of Ralph Wahl, donated the collection to the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies in December 2001. The Wahls donated additional audio materials in April 2004.

Processing Note

Prior to donating the records, the Wahl family organized the materials based on photographic format. This preliminary arrangement scheme for the photographs was generally maintained during archival processing. Jason Viers, an intern from the Graduate Archives and Records Management Program at Western Washington University, processed the collection in Summer 2002. In April 2004, Center staff merged a later donation of audio material into the collection.

Processing Note

About Harmful Language and Content

To learn more about problematic content in our collections, collection description and teaching tools (including how to provide feedback or request dialogue on this topic), see the following Statement About Potentially Harmful Language and Content

Related Materials

Western Washington University Library Special Collections houses the Paul and Mary Ann Ford Fly Fishing collection. This collection includes works by Ralph Wahl and other authors regarding American Fly Fishing.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Fly fishing -- Alaska -- Ketchikan Region -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Fly fishing -- Kispiox River (B.C.) -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Fly fishing -- Montana -- Madison County -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Fly fishing -- Montana -- Silver Bow County -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Fly fishing -- Northwest, Pacific -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Fly fishing -- Skagit River (B.C. and Wash.) -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Fly fishing -- Stillaguamish River -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Steelhead fishing -- Alaska -- Ketchikan Region -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Steelhead fishing -- Kispiox River (B.C.) -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Steelhead fishing -- Montana -- Madison County -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Steelhead fishing -- Montana -- Silver Bow County -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Steelhead fishing -- Northwest, Pacific -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Steelhead fishing -- Skagit River (B.C. and Wash.) -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Steelhead fishing -- Stillaguamish River -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.

Personal Names

  • Wahl, Ralph--Archives.

Geographical Names

  • Ketchikan Region (Alaska) -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Kispiox River (B.C.) -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Skagit River (B.C. and Wash.) -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.
  • Stillaguamish River -- History -- Sources -- Photographs.

Titles within the Collection

  • Come Wade The River
  • One Man’s Steelhead Shangri-La

Finding aid created by Jason Viers.
2002

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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