This collection contains 142 photographs and commercial postcards (Lowman Bros., Nome, Alaska) of interior Alaska and the Nome area taken and collected by Walter S. Smith. These black and white photographs depict life in this remote section of Alaska. There are pictures of prospectors, Native Alaskan people, dog sled teams, dogs, and mining or trapping camps.

There is a photograph that shows the graves of Derabin [Deraibin] (Russian) and Barnard (English Naval Officer) killed in the Nulato Massacre February 16, 1851. Mrs. James Bean is buried between them. She was the first white woman killed in Alaska, on the Tanana River, in October, 1878.

Many of the photographs were printed on postcard stock.