from a conversation between Guy and Roman...
"Do you come from Australia?
Oh, no, I'm from right here in New York.
I've been there, though. I've been everywhere.
You name a place and I've been there. Go ahead, name a place.
Fairbanks, Alaska!
I've been there, all over Alaska...
Fairbanks, Juneau, Anchorage,
Nome, Sitka, Seward.
- Went there in '38..."
Fairbanks in 1938.. oil was discovered on the North Slope in 1968, incidentally the year the film was made. Fairbanks would become a much different place soon after. a boom was imminent. but, in 1938 the town was on a precipice. Fort Wainwright was complete in '39 (increasing the Army population from 10 to over 2,000), and the AlCan was completed in '40 (the only road in, or out, of Alaska). i imagine 1938 was a fine time to be in Fairbanks.
we're all fortunate to have an archive of Alaskan images being continually maintained by the Digital Services department of the Rasmusan Library at UAF . from time to time i get lost on this site. they have thousands of images of a romantic time in the history of this great state - a time before statehood, Walmart, Don Young or Uncle Ted.
i love early 1900s photographs from the Interior. a few of my favorites from today can be seen below - the entire archive can be found here.
all images property of the Elmer E. Rasmusan Library
4 comments:
Love that image of the woman sleeping in the boat....very mysterious!
I printed an archive of my grandmother's negatives, 1920-1960. She was born and raised outside of Takotna. Great historical stuff. She was a good photographer, too.
(I've always wanted to get a job at the photo archives....)
that's my favorite as well. so many more questions than answers there.
you should post some of your grandmother's photos on your blog - i would love to see them.
I've been meaning to watch Rosemary's Baby for a while, but I was pregnant when I remembered it. I figured that was bad timing. I'll have to check it out now.
Thanks for sharing the old photos. I spend a big chunk of my life lately in the archives digging through one of the collections of letters and photos. These are beautiful.
also love the crop of the boat. what is the guy doing? thanks for these monsieur le huff
;0)
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