The five Lomen brothers, Carl Joys, Alfred Julian, Harry, George, and Ralph lived an active life in Nome in the early 20th century. They helped create a reindeer industry, outfitted the Norwegian explorer Raold Amundsen, and participated in the birth of bush aviation in Alaska.

Carl and his father, Judge G.J. Lomen of St. Paul, Minnesota, moved to Nome after vacationing there in the early 1900's. In 1903, the rest of the Lomen family joined them. The entire Lomen family, including his wife, Julie Joys Lomen, the five sons and one daughter, Helen, took part in civic affairs, followed prospecting and placer gold mining, and became interested in various commercial ventures. In 1908, the Lomen brothers bought a photograph studio and though they were equal partners, Alfred took most of the pictures. In 1935, he was hired to photograph the wreckage of Wiley Post and Will Rogers. The brothers purchased a drugstore in 1909.

In 1913, when Siberian reindeer were introduced to provide food and jobs for the Eskimos, the Lomens purchased rights to a reindeer herd and formed a corporation, Lomen and Co. By 1916, they were shipping meat to the states. They organized the Lomen Transportation Company to meet the problem of insufficient ocean refrigeration. The reindeer venture ended soon after the Great Depression, however, and in 1934, Congress took over the industry and outlawed ownership of reindeer by non-native peoples.

The Lomen brothers had purchased some of the studios and glass plate negatives of earlier Nome photographers, including B.B. Dobbs, Charles H. Milot, A.B. Kinne and F.H. Nowell. In September of 1934, a fire destroyed their business along with 25-30,000 negatives and 50,000 commercial prints. Approximately 3,000 negatives were salvaged. The Lomens never reopened their photography business. [From: Alaska History, Vol. 5, Spring, 1990, and The Lomen Brothers' Photographic Collection, Glenbow Archives, Calgary, Canada.]