Samuel J. Call was a physician who spent many years in Alaska, initially working for the Alaska Commercial Company in Unalaska, starting in 1880, and later for the U. S. Revenue Cutter Service. He also worked in private practice in Nome during the gold rush years between 1899 and 1903; in 1905, he received a Congressional Medal for his heroic service in the Arctic. One of his heroic deeds involved an overland winter journey to Point Barrow as part of a relief expedition to aid the Arctic whaling fleet, which was trapped in the ice. The Revenue Cutter BEAR, under the command of Captain Francis Tuttle, was enlisted in the rescue mission but had to stop short of Cape Nome, due to the heavy ice. Volunteers from among the crew, led by Lieut. David H. Jarvis, went overland from there, gathering a large herd of caribou as they traveled toward Point Barrow. When the relief expedition reached the eight whaling ships, Dr. Call attended to their medical needs.

Robert Pittenger, who printed these eight Samuel Call photographs from glass plates in Barrow, went to the North Slope in 1946 to work for a firm doing oil exploration. How he came upon the negatives is not known, but he had his girlfriend, Jody Williamson, send paper and other supplies to print the photographs, which were then loaned by a family member, Steve Johnson, to Historical Collections for digitizing.