The papers include one book Foul Play with annotated end pages, one three-ring binder of typescript, one folder of photographs and clippings, one logbook of the steamer James J. Healy on the Yukon River, 1898-1899, and one ledger containing the diary of Arthur George Adams, 1942-1946, an hourly-wage worker in Yakima.

The typescript biography of Captain James W. Keen is a series of short accounts of Keen’s seafaring years plus typed copies of letters and notes pertaining to his other contracts and activities in piloting in Alaska waters. Among the many accounts is his service on the Labouchere with Hudson’s Bay Company (1859-1863) and includes one encounter with Hoonah Indians of Cross Sound in 1862. It also notes that this experience led to his testimony concerning the boundary dispute between the United States and Canada forty years later. In 1869 he served temporarily as interpretor and pilot for the steamer Active with William H. Seward aboard for the visit to the Chilcat Indians at the time of the solar eclipse on August 7, 1869. He served as pilot on the U.S. Revenue Cutter Reliance in 1874 with H. W. Elliott aboard on its expedition to St. Matthew, St. Lawrenc, St. George and St. Paul. He includes a list of “names of vessels and dates commanded, owned, piloted and employed on.,” notes on service with the Revenue Cutter Service. In 1886 a log relates his trip as master of the Schooner Leo chartered to Sheldon Jackson to deliver missionary teachers to various places in Alaska. The accompnaying photographs and clippings inclde several obitutaties, photographs from the 1900s, with a few from his earlier days.

The logbook of the steamer James J. Healy, kept by Keen’s son-in-law, A.E. LeBallister, reveals the trials and tribulations of navigation on the Yukon River during the Gold Rush.