[Native group, wearing sashes, in front of St. Michael's Cathedral.]

Item — Box: PCA 57

Identifier: PCA0057-45

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

Photographs include Sitka, Tlingit Indian culture, Russian Orthodox Church and schools, ca. 1897-1929.

E. W. Merrill photographs are found in many Northwest collections, but original glass plates are located at the U.S. National Park Service and Sheldon Jackson College at Sitka. There are approximately 200 glass plates at the Park Service and about 900 at Sheldon Jackson.

In 1978, the National Park Service's Merrill collection was copied in a cooperative project with the Alaska State Library and Sheldon Jackson College. Prints and copy negatives from the glass plates are available at the Alaska State Library (PCA 57-1 to 157); reproductions can be obtained for educational purposes. NOTE: There are restrictions on use of some Tlingit Indian images (see list of sensitive views, Pages 3-5). Permission from the U.S. National Park Service in Sitka is required to reproduce these. Contact:

Sitka National Historical Park, U.S.N.P.S. Box 738 Sitka, Alaska 99835

or call (907) 747-6281

A list of subject groups used by Merrill for arranging his glass plates is included in the guide to this collection (see Pages 6-7).

Views from #158 on are from various sources; negatives for these were made from the prints. Views #227-247 were copied from the originals owned by Joe Ashby of Sitka in 1988. Views 255-259 were acquired through a purchase via the Alaska State Museum, (Accession 2000-041) and have no provenance.

The photographs were originally organized by subject based upon Merrill's filing arrangement for the glass plates at the National Park Service. Specific details on Tlingit images were provided by Peter Corey (PC), curator, Sheldon Jackson Museum, in May 1993.

In 2007 the campus of the Sheldon Jackson College closed temporarily. At that time the original glass plates held by the college were moved for safe storage at the Sitka National Historical Park. A finding guide, with reference images from those plates, was put on file with the Alaska State Library. The guide is shelved with PCA 57 and may be viewed by the public.