Earl Rossman inscribed these views to Karl Thiele, a friend and Alaska pioneer who served as Secretary of Alaska from 1925-1933. Several views were taken in Southeast Alaska but most were taken in the Arctic.

Earl Rossman recorded his Alaska experiences in the book Black Sunlight; a Log of the Arctic (New York, Oxford University Press, 1926). In 1923, after photographing Southeast Alaska natives and losing the motion picture footage in a sinking boat, Rossman decided to see more of Alaska and photograph Eskimo life. Assisted by Governor Scott C. Bone and Karl Thiele, Rossman traveled to Nome and Barrow with William T. Lopp on the vessel, Boxer. The plan to produce a motion picture film of Eskimo life had problems with the participants. However, the contacts made by Rossman in the North led to photography work on the Detroit Arctic Expedition of 1926 headed by Captain Sir Hubert Wilkins, but only one photo of this work is included in the Collection.