Lu Liston Collection, B1989.016

REFERENCE CODE: AkAMH REPOSITORY NAME: Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center Bob and Evangeline Atwood Alaska Resource Center 625 C Street Anchorage, AK 99501 Phone: 907-929-9235 Fax: 907-929-9233 Email: [email protected] Guide prepared by: Sara Piasecki, Archivist; Tim Remick, contractor; and Haley Jones, Museum volunteer TITLE: Lu Liston Collection COLLECTION NUMBER: B1989.016 OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION Dates: circa 1899-1967 Extent: 21 linear feet Language and Scripts: The collection is in English. Name of creator(s): The following list includes photographers identified on negatives or prints in the collection, but is probably not a complete list of all photographers whose work is included in the collection: Alaska Shop Bornholdt Robert Bragaw Nellie Brown E. Call Guy F. Cameron Basil Clemons Lee Considine Morris Cramer Don Cutter Joseph S. Dixon William R. Dahms Julius Fritschen George Dale Roy Gilley Glass H. W. Griffin Ted Hershey Denny C. Hewitt Eve Hamilton Sidney Hamilton E. A. Hegg George L. Johnson Johnson & Tyler R. C. L. Larss & Duclos Sydney Laurence George Lingo Lucien Liston William E. Logemann Lomen Bros. Steve McCutcheon George Nelson Rossman F. S. Andrew Simons H. W. Steward Thomas Kodagraph Shop Marcus V. Tyler H. A. W. Bradford Washburn Ward Wells Frank Wright Jr. Administrative/Biographical History: Lucien Liston was a longtime Alaskan businessman and artist, and has been described as the last of a long line of drug store photographers who provided images for sale to the traveling public. He was born in 1910 in Eugene, Oregon, and came to Alaska in 1929, living first in Juneau, where he met and married Edna Reindeau. He served with the Alaska Territorial Guard in 1942-1943. In 1944, he relocated to Anchorage and in 1948, he and Francis Bowden purchased Hewitt’s Drug Store on Fourth Avenue in downtown Anchorage. The Bevers & Pfeil building was damaged in the 1964 Good Friday earthquake and Hewitt’s relocated to Spenard. Liston sold the store in 1978; he died in 1993. Hewitt’s Drug Store was an old-school drug store and newsstand that also had a lunch counter. A purveyor of photographic supplies and services, the store provided passport and portrait photographs, did a brisk business in postcards, and sold copies of paintings by Alaskan artists such as Sydney Hamilton. The proprietors often purchased photographs from Anchorage residents and others, adding them to Hewitt’s stock image library. Some of the prints in the collection include notations on locations and events provided by the photographer for captioning purposes. Some of the stock images are copies of older work by well-known photographers such as the Lomen Brothers and E. A. Hegg. The collection also includes original work by photographers who had major careers of their own, including Sydney Laurence and Bradford Washburn. Evidence from the collection suggests that Hewitt’s had also purchased the library of Bragaw’s Studio, probably when Robert S. Bragaw, Jr., left Alaska in 1944. Scope and Content Description: The collection consists of the portrait and stock image libraries of Hewitt’s Drug Store through 1978. There are passport photographs of approximately 805 individuals, circa 1933-1942, and portrait photography of approximately 145 subjects, circa 1960s. The stock library includes 6,983 sheet, pack, and roll film negatives and transparencies in a variety of sizes, on nitrate, acetate, and polyester film bases. The images are primarily black- and-white, with some color negatives (1870.1a-5a, 2062, 2070, 2334) and transparencies (2308-2309, 2324, 2332-2333, 2047.3.11). There are also 42 35mm color slides, most circa 1960s. Some of the negatives have corresponding print photographs in various sizes. There are also several hundred prints without negatives, only one in color (.2664). The subjects, locations, and time periods documented in the collection are wide-ranging. Many of the photographs chronicle business and daily life in Anchorage, especially on Fourth Avenue. Of particular note are Matanuska Colony photographs taken for the first annual report on the colony, documenting agriculture and homesteading in the valley in the 1930s. Other major subjects include early aviation and mining, with several hundred photographs of the Gold Zone and Hatcher Pass area mines. Notably absent (or unidentified is much early work by Lu Liston; his World War II-era work in Juneau and Anchorage is represented by only a handful of prints (2777 et seq.) The collection also provides some evidence of Hewitt’s sales and services, including greeting card and postcard mats; cut negatives used in card mats; advertisements; and negatives and copy prints of paintings by artists such as Sydney Laurence, which would have been hand- colored and sold as reprodutions. Arrangement: Arranged in five series: 1. Passport photographs. 2. Portraits. 3. Stock negatives and transparencies. 4. Stock prints. 5. 35mm slides. Passport Photos and Portraits series arranged alphabetically. There is no apparent order to the remainder of the collection. CONDITIONS GOVERNING ACCESS AND USE Restrictions on Access: The collection is open for research use. Physical Access: Original items in good condition. Nitrate negatives scanned and removed to freezer. Digital surrogates available for research use. Technical Access: No special equipment is needed to access the materials. A light box may be used to view transparencies. Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use: The Anchorage Museum is the owner of the materials and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Anchorage Museum before any reproduction use. The Anchorage Museum does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners. Preferred Citation: Lu Liston Collection, Anchorage Museum, B1989.016 ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Acquisition and Appraisal Information Purchased from Lu Liston in 1989. Processing Note Stock negatives scanned in 2013. Many prints seem to have been removed from albums; some are torn. Some prints numbered prior to 2013 actually had negatives. These have been renumbered to reflect negative numbering. Numbering for prints without negatives (.2600- ) is unsequential as a result. Prints without negatives numbered after 2013 were given sequential numbers after the last previously assigned number. Separated Materials Nitrate and deteriorated acetate removed to freezer. Passport photograph negatives scanned 2014 and all removed to freezer. 35mm slides housed in first box of 8 x 10 prints. Note Unbracketed information found on image; parenthetical information found on original envelope; bracketed information supplied by archives staff. “Copy neg” indicates a copy negative created by Hewitt’s staff. Collection characteristics in 2013 suggest that many missing numbers may represent deteriorating negatives that were discarded prior to 2011. RELATED MATERIALS B1976.082 Sidney Hamilton Collection B1983.146 Pyatt-Laurence Collection SUBJECTS Dunkle, Wesley Earl Eielson, Carl Benjamin, 1897-1929 Hubbard, Bernard Rosecrans, 1888-1962 Hewitt’s Drug Store (Anchorage, Alaska) Hewitt’s Photo Shop Matanuska Valley Colony (Alaska) Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation Alaska Railroad Golden Zone Mine, Inc. Eklutna Industrial School International Business Machines Corporation American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers Lions Club (Anchorage, Alaska) Fur Rendezvous (Anchorage, Alaska) Fur Rendezvous World Championship Sled Dog Race, Anchorage, Alaska Agriculture—Alaska Agricultural exhibitions—Alaska Animal culture—Alaska Animals—Alaska Airplanes—Alaska Aircraft accidents—Alaska Mines and mineral resources—Alaska Business enterprises—Alaska Fur farming—Alaska Fisheries—Alaska Hunting—Alaska Reindeer herding—Alaska Glaciers—Alaska Banks and banking—Alaska—Anchorage Roadhouses—Alaska Roads—Alaska Dogsledding—Alaska Greeting cards—Alaska Computers—Alaska Churches—Alaska Schools—Alaska Log cabins—Alaska Fraternal organizations—Alaska Sports—Alaska Festivals—Alaska Anchorage (Alaska) Palmer (Alaska) Matanuska River Valley (Alaska) Kenai Peninsula (Alaska) Akutan (Alaska) Alyeska, Mount (Alaska) Bristol Bay (Alaska) Broad Pass (Alaska) Chevak (Alaska) Chitina (Alaska) Chugiak (Alaska) Copper Center (Alaska) Cordova (Alaska) Council (Alaska) Curry (Alaska) Denali National Park and Preserve (Alaska) Eek (Alaska) Eklutna (Alaska) Elim (Alaska) Eureka (Alaska) Fairbanks (Alaska) Gulkana (Alaska) Hatcher Pass (Alaska) Healy (Alaska) Holy Cross (Alaska) Homer (Alaska) Hope (Alaska) Juneau (Alaska) Kenai (Alaska) Ketchikan (Alaska) Kodiak (Alaska) Kotzebue (Alaska) Koyuk (Alaska) Koyukuk (Alaska) McKinley, Mount (Alaska) Mountain Village (Alaska) Naknek (Alaska) Nenana (Alaska) Ninilchik (Alaska) Noatak (Alaska) Nome (Alaska) Noorvik (Alaska) Nulato (Alaska) Nushagak (Alaska) Platinum (Alaska) Point Hope (Alaska) Port Althorp (Alaska) Ruby (Alaska) Seldovia (Alaska) Seward (Alaska) Shungnak (Alaska) Sitka (Alaska) Solomon (Alaska) Skagway (Alaska) Tunnel (Alaska) Valdez (Alaska) Wales (Alaska) White Mountain (Alaska) Whittier (Alaska) Wrangell (Alaska) Detailed Description of the Collection Passport photographs Abernathy, L., Mr. and Mrs. Actip, Dan Aims, Jiggs Albert Alexander, Betty Allen, Ed Allen, Walter Allington, W. R. Alsworth, L. R. Amundsen, Iver Andersen, C. F., Mr. and Mrs. Andersen, J. P. Andersen, Oscar Anderson,

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