George A. Parks photograph collection, ca. 1911-1933.
Title:
George A. Parks photograph collection, ca. 1911-1933.
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
625 photoprints : black and white.
General Note:
Papers form a separate collection, MS 91.
In the Alaska State Library, Historical Collections, P.O. Box 110571, Juneau, AK 99811-0571.
Abstract:
The collection includes images of a 2,500 mile inspection trip to northern and interior Alaska which Governor Parks, Malcolm Elliott (President of the Alaska Road Commission) and R.J. Sommers (Territorial highway engineer) took in 1928. Other images were taken by Parks when he worked for the U.S. Land Office and include Alaskan villages, mining operations, and vessels on the Yukon. The collection also contains aerial photographs of southeast Alaska from the U.S. Navy Alaska Aerial Survey Expedition in 1926.
Personal Subject:
Geographic Term:
Added Corporate Author:
Ownership:
Betty Valentine (Mrs. Carl) of Piedmont, California, niece of George Parks, donated the photographs over a period of years beginning in 1984.
Biographical/Historical Data:
George Alexander Parks was born in Denver, Colorado May 29, 1883. He graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1906 and came to Alaska in 1907 to work as a mineral examiner for the U.S. Land Office. Following his W.W.I. military service, Parks returned to Alaska as chief of the field division of the General Land Office. In 1924, he became Assistant Superintendent of Surveys and Public Lands. He was appointed governor of Alaska (the 11th governor) in 1925 by President Calvin Coolidge then reappointed for a second term. When his second term expired in 1933, he rejoined the U.S. Dept. of Interior as a district engineer for Alaska. During World War II, he worked on military projects in Alaska as a partner in the R.J. Sommers Construction Co. He was awarded a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Colorado School of Mines in 1950. Gov. Parks died on May 11, 1984, just a few weeks short of his 101st birthday.
Restrictions on Access:
Collection is open to research.
Contents:
Alaska Central Railway -- Copper River and Northwestern Railroad -- Martha Angeline (ship) -- Anvik -- Holy Cross -- Fairbanks -- Fort Yukon -- Fort Selkirk, Y.T. -- Chicago Creek Coal Mine -- Candle -- International Boundary Line (aerial photograph) -- Nulato -- Nulato graveyard -- Cape Prince of Wales -- "Malamute Kid with his MacKenzie River huskies" -- Cape Fairweather -- Turbow's Fox Farm -- 18 Mile Roadhouse -- Erskine Railroad Speeder -- A.A. Bennett (pilot) -- Malcolm Elliott -- The U.S. Navy Alaska Aerial Survey Detachment -- Peter Moores (Morris) -- Mavdehiah Rasmuson.