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Frank H. Nowell Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition photographs, 1907-1909

Overview of the Collection

Photographer
Nowell, Frank H., 1864-1950
Title
Frank H. Nowell Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition photographs
Dates
1907-1909 (inclusive)
Quantity
Approximately 900 black and white photographs (6 boxes, 1 folder) ; various sizes
1 negative ; 8x10
Collection Number
PH0727
Summary
Photographs documenting the construction, buildings, exhibits, and activities of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909. Photographs taken by Frank H. Nowell.
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

The collection is open to the public.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant from the Friends of the UW Libraries
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Biographical Note

Frank Hamilton Nowell was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on February 19, 1864. He was from a prominent New England family whose ancestor, Peter Nowell, had come to American in the 1600s from the Isle of Jersey. Frank's great grandfather served in the Revolutionary War and his grandfather lived in the Longfellow House in Cambridge for many years. His father, Thomas Shepard Nowell, was the first child christened in the Thomas Shepard Congregational Church (after which he was named) and was held by Oliver Wendell Holmes as he was christened. In 1885, Thomas Nowell went out to Juneau, Alaska to join two of his brothers who were already out there. Thomas started a mining business and his son, Frank Nowell joined him there in 1886. Frank brought six cows and a bull and ran a dairy farm for a year. Eventually he started working for his father. Frank took up photography as a hobby some time before 1894. (One man remembered being photographed by Frank when he first arrived in Alaska and walked off the steamboat at Juneau.) Frank and his wife, Elizabeth Helen Davis, were married in 1894 in Helena, Montana at her brother's home and Frank made photographs while in Montana. They moved to San Francisco where their daughter Dorothy was born and Frank traveled between California and Juneau in his work as a purchasing agent for his father's mining company.

In 1900 there was a large stampede of gold seekers to Nome, Alaska. Because it was located on the Bering Sea and only open to travel part of the year, supplies were hard to get and expensive so the Ames Mercantile Company decided to open a branch of their store in Nome. Nowell went to Nome in about July 1900 to run the Ames Mercantile store then later that year moved to the new town of Teller, Alaska to open a new store for the company. When his wife and daughter joined him in Teller, they brought the camera that he had left behind. By 1902, he began taking photographs of the Eskimos and reindeer herds at Cape Prince of Wales along with scenes in the Teller and Nome area. His Eskimo photographs became very popular and were eventually used in books and magazines about Alaska. In late 1903 or in 1904, he decided to leave the Mercantile business and become a full-time photographer. He built a tiny studio building in Nome, between the Golden Gate Hotel and the Post Office buildings

At the same time he was opening his photography studio in Nome, he also moved his wife and daughter to Seattle to live. He spent about nine years going back and forth between Nome and Seattle running his photography business. In Seattle, he was a member of the Alaska Club which was a group formed to support Alaskan commercial interests in the city. It was probably through his connections with the Alaska Club and with the Arctic Brotherhood that he was chosen as the official photographer for the AYPE. J.E. Chilberg, a member of the Alaska Club (and the president of the Miners and Merchants Bank in Nome), was elected the president of the AYPE. Nowell had photographed Chilberg's bank and Nome so Chilberg would likely have been acquainted with him from Nome and from the Alaska Club. Nowell's Alaska photographs were also featured in a large beautiful book Artwork of Seattle and Alaska, published in 1907 which may have impressed the AYPE officials.

Nowell photographed the opening day ceremonies and other pre-exposition activities such as the visiting delegations selecting the sites for their buildings, and the construction work. While the fair was open, he photographed the buildings, events, people, and activities on the grounds. His photographs were used in newspapers and magazines for pre-fair publicity and sold as souvenirs, made into postcards, used in guidebooks, etc. during the fair. He also sold copies of his Eskimo and Alaska photographs at the fair and won several awards for his work. In 1908, he took an extended trip through the Yukon and Alaska both photographing and collecting photographs from other photographers for the AYPE.

Shortly before the fair, he opened a photography studio in Seattle and he ran both the Nome and Seattle studios until about 1912 when he closed the Nome studio. During 1911 and 1912 he partnered with Orville Rognon (who had worked for Webster and Stevens for several years and then photographed for Nowell during the AYPE). In later years, the producers of the 1925 Charlie Chaplin movie, The Gold Rush, came to Nowell for photographs of cabins and snowdrifts to help them build authentic sets for the film. He retired from his studio in the late 1940s and died on October 19, 1950.

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Historical Background

The 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE) held in Seattle, Washington was the result of nearly 10 million dollars and four years of effort. The AYPE was originally planned for 1907, to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush. However another fair, the Jamestown Exhibition in Norfolk, Virginia, was planned for the same year to mark the 300th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement so the AYPE planners decided to postpone the Seattle fair for two years. This delay proved to be quite fortuitous because 1907 was not a good year for the U. S. economy, and the Jamestown Exhibition was not financially successful. In the meanwhile, AYPE planners benefitted from two additional years of planning and preparation.

The Klondike Gold Rush had made Seattle the dominant city in the Pacific Northwest because it was the major source of supplies to Alaska. The goal of the AYPE was to show off the growth and development of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and to display the value of commercial trade with the Pacific Rim. When Japan agreed to participate, the AYPE became a truly international event. The city officials also hoped that the exposition would encourage people to relocate to the growing metropolis of Seattle.

The location for the fair was chosen to demonstrate the beauty of the region. University of Washington history professor and local historian, Edmond Meany proposed site which was on the mostly forested grounds of the University of Washington, situated on Lake Washington, with Mount Rainier visible in the distance. John and Frederick Olmsted, son and stepson of Frederick Law Olmsted, the prominent landscape architect, designed much of the AYPE grounds. The first $650,000 for the AYPE was raised in one day by proud Seattle citizens who bought “shares” of the exposition. Much of the rest was funded by the sale of public lands, by the Washington State legislature with the understanding that some of the buildings built for the exposition would become part of the University of Washington at the end of the AYPE, and by the U. S. Government which provided $600,000 in appropriated funds for buildings and exhibits.

Thanks to the extra two years of planning and the huge sums of money raised, the AYPE grounds and exposition were everything the planners had hoped for. It was a fascinating mix of highbrow and crass commercialism, but it clearly appealed to the visitors. Over 80,000 people attended the AYPE on opening day in June 1909, and by closing day (October 16, 1909) 3.7 million people had paid to visit Paystreak amusement attractions such as the Igorrote, Eskimo and Oriental Villages, marveled at the Baby Incubator, saw the House Upside Down and rode on the Fairly Gorge Tickler. On the formal grounds they visited the US. Government buildings, attended concerts and lectures, and enjoyed the exhibits in the various buildings. They had seen animals built out of fruits and nuts in the California Building, a post office dogsled team in the Government Building, photographs by Edward Curtis in the Fine Arts Building, and mounds of rocks in the Mines Building. They attended sports events and watched a hot air balloon and a dirigible soar over them. The AYPE was a huge success. Seattle officials were pleased to note that the AYPE had drawn 700,000 people more than the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition had attracted in the rival city of Portland, Oregon. The fair closed with a surplus of $63,000 which was donated to the Seaman' Institute and the Anti-Tuberculosis League.

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Content Description

The collection consists of photographs of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle, Washington. Images include events prior to the exposition (groundbreaking, Stockholder's Day, pre-fair visitors to the grounds, official artifacts, and the opening ceremony), construction, grounds and gardens, buildings and exhibits, the Paystreak with all of its attractions, the different areas of the South Grounds (including the stock exhibit, rustic bridge and railway exhibit), AYPE special events (such as the transcontinental auto race, Smith Day and the visit of President William Taft), and AYPE officials, visiting groups and delegations.

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Other Descriptive Information

Research for this finding aid was conducted over a period of several years, combining the efforts of different researchers. Methods used were reviewing microfilm, books, journals and pamphlets, internet/database searching, and interviewing people with special, in-depth knowledge of the AYPE. Photocopies from Seattle's Museum of History & Industry's collection of Frank Nowell AYPE photographs were included in the finding aid for reference purposes. (The photocopy for M85 has been removed and replaced with an original print found in the collection later.) There are some photographs in the Frank Nowell AYPE collection that may possibly be the work of members of his staff. In particular, photographs that have numbers beginning with "R" are most likely attributed to a collaboration between Nowell and photographer Orville Rognon. The aerial view of the exposition was probably taken by Robert T. Jones who marketed his photograph through Nowell. Whenever authorship is questionable, this is noted in the finding aid.

This finding aid uses the title Manufactures Building for the name of the building. Both Manufactures and Manufacturers Building were used as the name of the building in various places

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Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

View selections from the collection in digital format .

Restrictions on Use

Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.

Preferred Citation

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into 7 series:

  • Events prior to the Exposition
  • AYPE Opening Ceremony
  • Grounds and Gardens
  • Buildings (organized by construction, exterior, interior, and exhibits for each building)
  • Paystreak
  • South Grounds
  • AYPE Events
  • People

Acquisition Information

The photographs in this collection were donated to the collection by a number of different people over a long period of time. Some of the donors include: Mabel Chilberg, (wife of AYPE President J.E. Chilberg), the C. Bagley Estate, Mrs. Francis Behrle, Gilbert Petty, Professor Edmond Meany. Several photographs were obtained through purchase.

Processing Note

Processed by Solveig Ekenes and Laurel G. Evans, 2006; Katie Maynard and Amy Lavare, 2007; Roni Greenwood and Nicolette Bromberg, 2008. The photographs were transferred from the University of Washington Campus AYPE subject file in 2006, and the Portrait collection PH Coll 563 in 2007.

Bibliography

Alaska Yukon Magazine (Bound Volumes). Volumes 3 (1907), 4 (1907-1908), and 7 (1909) Seattle, Washington: Gateway Printing Company, 1909.

Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition and Seattle, the beautiful exposition city. Seattle, R.A. Reid, 1909.

Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition Daily Programs. Seattle, Washington, 1909.

Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition Scrapbooks, circa 1906-1909. This is a series of scrapbooks containing clippings about the AYPE from local area newspapers and journals, arranged in roughly chronological order. The compiler is unknown.

Secretary's Report of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition Held at Seattle, June to October 1909.

New York at the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition. Albany, New York. J. B. Lyon Company, 1910.

Seattle, Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition Catalogs and Lists, V. 1 & 2. Bound books comprising pamphlets and catalogs created by different publishers.

There are also two authoritative and comprehensive websites: AYPE.com covers AYPE history, photography, architecture and more, and AYPE.org, an official website created by the AYPE Exposition Community for the AYPE Centennial in 2009, covers both AYPE history and upcoming centennial events. HistoryLink.org also contains essays on various aspects of the AYPE.

Related Materials

Orville J. Rognon Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Photographs PH Coll 779. Nowell and Rognon collaborated on some AYPE photographs, and briefly operated a studio together in Seattle after the fair.

Frank H. Nowell Photographs PH Coll 316.

Frank H. Nowell Montana Mining Photographs

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 


2008 (Last modified: 3/11/2024)

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