William R. Norton collected these images while a resident in Juneau. He passed the images on to Bea Shepard who subsequently donated the collection to the Alaska Historical Collections and contributed the following biography of Mr. Norton:

William R. Norton lived almost his entire life in Juneau, having come here with his parents, Roy and Louise Norton, in 1912 when he was two years old. Bill's father worked as a power plant operator at Thane, Salmon Creek, and the Mendenhall Glacier during the years that Bill was in school in Juneau. Bill could tell many tales about just getting to school - coming down the flume from the dam at Salmon Creek, using a rowboat to cross the Mendenhall River. (There was no bridge across the river in those days, and the school was on the other side of the river from where he lived.) He graduated from Juneau High School and started working immediately for AEL and P, as a meter reader. He claimed that the best way to get acquainted with the people in a town was to be a meter reader. He discovered an interest in and talent for electricity, and learned the business from the ground up by working for the power company and Parsons Electric. Ultimately he worked for the Rural Electrification Association Coop in Auke Bay, doing most of the installation and acting as manager, maintenance, business manager, etc. for twelve years. He worked for AJ Industries and Alaska Electric again before retiring in 1974.

One of Bill's interests and hobbies was photography. He was particularly interested in the work of W. H. Case. Case's daughter Madge suggested that he go through the glass plates that she had and take the ones he wanted. He picked out approximately 800 of the plates, with the hope that he could work with them during the time of his retirement. Unfortunately, his health was not good enough for him to do this. He died after a long illness in May 1980.

Case and Draper

The work of photographers William H. Case and Herbert Horace Draper offers a glimpse of early twentieth- century Alaska. Fueled by the excitement of the Klondike Gold Rush, they opened a studio in Skagway in 1898 and later another in Juneau. Their clientele included businesses, newspapers, local residents, and tourists. The partnership dissolved in 1907, but both men continued to operate their own photography and curio shops as until their deaths.

The backbone of Case and Draper’s work was steamship tourism, which had flourished in Alaska since the 1880s. They sold postcards and prints of Alaskan archetypes by the thousands: Natives and their arts, rustic towns and industries, fisherman and miners. Some images, reprinted in books and articles for almost a century, have become familiar icons of the North.



William H. Case

Born in Marshalltown, Iowa, April 19, 1868, William H. Case spent his boyhood there and in South Dakota. He later moved to Astoria, Oregon, where he possibly met his future business partner, Herbert Horace Draper. Case arrived in the boomtown of Skagway, Alaska in the spring of 1898, presumably to cash in on the Klondike Gold Rush by offering photography services to the crowds of miners. He and his partner, H. H. Draper, operated a photography studio in Skagway for the next ten years.

Case traveled more extensively than Draper, to other towns, mines and canneries around Southeast Alaska and Prince William Sound. Case also collected Native arts, called curios at that time, which were a staple in Case and Draper’s store.

In 1908 the partnership dissolved and William Case moved to Juneau to operate his own shop specializing in photography and curios. He remained active in the community until he died from heart failure on July 16, 1920, at the age of 52. As a Thirty-second Degree Mason, Case’s funeral was conducted by the Masonic Lodge. His immediate survivors included his wife and three children: Madge, Alice, and Howard.

Herbert Horace Draper

Herbert Horace Draper was born in Rockford, Illinois on July 5, 1855. At nineteen, he accompanied his parents to the Pacific Coast and settled in Salem, Oregon. When he was 22, Draper moved to Michigan but subsequently returned to Oregon and eventually settled in Bellingham, Washington, where he worked as a commercial agent.

In the spring of 1898, at age 43, Draper arrived in Skagway at the height of the stampede to the Klondike. There he opened a photography business with William H. Case. There is no indication that Draper was a practicing photographer prior to meeting Case.

Draper and his wife Harriet, a local teacher, were active in the Skagway community. He served on the city council and as city treasurer. He also held high positions in the Elks Lodge and the Arctic Brotherhood.

Skagway’s economy declined after the Gold Rush and Case and Draper dissolved their partnership in 1908. Draper continued operating a business in Skagway under the name of Draper and Company and Case moved his business interests to Juneau.

In June of 1913 Draper contracted severe pneumonia. He passed away at his home on the morning of August 4, 1913, at age 58.