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, Photo Archivist TITLE: Dora Keen Collection COLLECTION NUMBER: B2015.008 OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION Dates: 1880-1958 (bulk 1911-1932) Extent: 7 boxes, 5.4 linear feet Language and Scripts: The collection is in English. Name of creator(s): Dora Keen, George W. Handy, H.L. Tucker, Alfred H. Brooks, Thomas Riggs Jr., Ralph S. Tarr, D. W. Eaton, Rob. Sewell, Lawrence Martin, Merl LaVoy, E. F. Foley, T. H. Lindsey, Leonora Brooks Borden Trafford Administrative/Biographical History: Dora Keen was born June 24, 1871, in Philadelphia, a daughter of the surgeon William Williams Keen. She was educated at Bryn Mawr College, graduating in 1896. Her interest in mountaineering began during a trip to the Alps in 1909-1910. She traveled to Alaska in 1911 “merely to see the wonderful scenery of the southwest coast,”1 but shortly after arriving developed her plan to summit Mount Blackburn. Her first attempt failed; she returned and successfully reached the top on May 19, 1912. Keen’s 1911 expedition to Mt. Blackburn was the first expedition to use dogs on a mountain, the first to succeed without Swiss guides, the first to camp in snow caves, and the first to make a prolonged night ascent.2 1 Keen, Dora. “The first expedition to Mt. Blackburn.” Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia, 10 (1912): 172-176. 2 “Guide to the Dora Keen Photograph Collection, 1911.” University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. Available at: http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv42700. Accessed February 19, 2015. Subsequent to summiting Mt. Blackburn, she traveled across the interior to the Yukon River, becoming the first woman to cross the Skolai Pass. In 1914, she was part of a scientific expedition to Harriman Fjord and College Fjord, in Prince William Sound, and made the first explorations of the Harvard Glacier. Keen wrote numerous articles for journals and popular magazines and lectured on her experiences. She became a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London, in 1914. Keen married German-born George William Handy on July 8, 1916, in McCarthy. They settled in West Hartford, Vermont, and operated a farm. The couple divorced after 16 years of marriage. Dora later served as librarian at the West Hartford Library and sold insurance. She died while traveling, in Hong Kong on January 31, 1963.3 Scope and Content Description: The collection consists of 1350 photographic prints (including one cyanotype, proof prints, panoramas, enlargements, and micrographs), 54 nitrate negatives, news clippings and other ephemera created or collected by Dora Keen, circa 1895-1940. Included are photographs taken by Dora, as well as those taken by other members of her Alaska expeditions, other explorers and geologists working in Alaska, and professional photographers in America and overseas. The collection includes Dora’s scattered notes on camera types and exposure times, as well as several images showing Dora holding her cameras. There are approximately 750 images of Alaska, primarily of the two attempts at Mount Blackburn, 1911-12; the return via the Nizina-White River Route, 1912; the expedition to College Fjord, Harriman Fjord, and Columbia Glacier, September 1914; the Keen-Handy wedding, 1916 (.726-734); the Kanatak area, 1923-1925, including two images of Frederick Martin’s Douglas World Cruise biplane after its crash landing in 1924; and a trip to Port Wells and Harriman Fjord, 1925. Photos collected by Dora include some early Alaska-Canada Boundary Survey images. The remaining photographs are of non-Alaskan locations. The vast majority of these are of the Beulah Farm in West Hartford, Vermont, which Dora and George ran circa 1917-1932. There are also images from Road’s End Farm in East Dover, Vermont, 1934-1935. There are approximately 200 photographs from Dora’s travels in the United States and abroad, most dating from 1890-1910. Arrangement: The collection was received in other than original order. Arranged by format into four series: 1. Albums. 2. Loose prints. 3. Negatives. 4. Ephemera. Loose prints and negatives are arranged by Keen’s own numeric system when indicated. Photos without Keen’s numbering are arranged by location and year, when known. 3 Wikipedia contributors. “Dora Keen.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. April 14, 2014, 16:00 UTC. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dora_Keen&oldid=604174482. Accessed February 19, 2015. CONDITIONS GOVERNING ACCESS AND USE Restrictions on Access: The collection is open for research use. Access to original nitrate negatives is limited. Physical Access: Original items in fair to good condition: silvering, fading, and/or curling of some prints. Technical Access: No special equipment is needed to access the materials. 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: Dora Keen Collection, Anchorage Museum, B2015.008 ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Acquisition and Appraisal Information Purchased from Skinner Auctions in 2014. Skinner indicated that the unnamed seller had found the collection with material from his father’s photo studio; his father had received them from an unnamed individual in the 1970s. Processing Notes The collection was received in other than original order. Previous owners disbound albums and cut photos out of several pages. Attempts were made to reorder the pages by date as much as possible. Many loose prints show evidence of having been removed from albums prior to accessioning; single photos cut out of albums housed with loose prints. Original photo and negative sleeves bearing manuscript notes are housed with collection ephemera. Negatives scanned at time of processing. Separated Materials Nitrate negatives removed to freezer. Oversize materials removed to oversize shelving. Note Images published by Keen prior to 1923 are in the public domain. When known, publication dates are included with individual item descriptions. RELATED MATERIALS Dora Keen Photograph Collection, 1911. Collection 453, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections William O. Field Papers, 1890-1994. Collection USUAFV5-26, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Polar Regions Collections & Archives [Catalogue of Alaska slides and negatives in the collection of Dora Keen Handy]. [S.l., n.p., 1979]. 1979.0023 VF, Alaska State Library Historical Collections SUBJECTS Keen, Dora, 1871- Alaska Railroad Copper River and Northwestern Railway Mountaineering expeditions – Alaska Glaciers – Alaska Mountaineering – Alaska Mountains – Alaska Snow and ice climbing – Alaska Women mountaineers Floods – Alaska – Kanatak Farms—Vermont—West Hartford Agriculture—Vermont Athapascan Indians – Alaska Pacific Gulf Yupik Eskimos – Alaska Blackburn, Mount (Alaska) Wrangell Mountains (Alaska) Chugach National Forest (Alaska) Prince William Sound (Alaska) Port Wells (Alaska) Columbia Glacier (Alaska) Ten Thousand Smokes, Valley of (Alaska) Katmai National Park and Preserve (Alaska) Kanatak (Alaska) Anchorage (Alaska) Cordova (Alaska) Valdez (Alaska) Copper River (Alaska) Chisana (Alaska) Nizina River (Alaska) Juneau (Alaska) Kenai Lake (Alaska) Hartford (Vt.) East Dover (Vt.) Rainier, Mount (Wash.) Dawson (Yukon) Alhambra (Granada, Spain) Detailed Description of the Collection B1 [Photo Albums] [Alaska Album, 1914 and 1923-1925] .1 – 100.3. Swede, Romanian, German, Americans, back to help us “pack out” [five men standing in brush next to small tent in wooded area] .2 – 100.4. The Swedish prospector and his 6 weeks’ outfit [man wearing suspenders and brimmed hat and holding rifle standing in low brush with pile of supplies at feet, pine trees and mountains in background] .3 – F[ritz] and his cub bear [bear cub on chain sitting with dog, person standing just out of frame to right] .4 – At prayer. Bismarck and the cub [bear cub on chain sitting on wooden kennel] .5 – Starting for Stetson Creek [person in small rowboat near bank, holding oar, pine trees and mountains in background] .6 – 100.7. Looking back on camp [view across water to mountains, small white “x” marked on shoreline] .7 – 101.1 [scenic of small islands in water] .8 – 104.3. Mile 18 [dog walking on railroad tracks through wooded area] .9 – 93.7. Lake Kenai, mile 20 [homestead or work camp in wooded area, with cabins and tent, pile of fuel wood or railroad ties in clearing, probably Alaska Northern Railway] .10 – Going prospecting, Lake Kenai, in homemade boats [six people loading two wooden boats along shore, corner of cabin at right] .11 – 104.5 [two men and two dogs in rowboat, one man in second rowboat half out of frame at left, Kenai Lake] .12 – 234.10. An ice raft. Water 40°, air 50°. 9.16.14, 11:30 A.M. [Dora and George Handy on iceberg. Cf. .697] .13 – 234.11. A cold proposition. 9.16.14, 11:30 A.M. [Dora and George Handy swimming back from iceberg] .14 – 234.13. Just a stunt. 9.16.14, Noon [shirtless man hoisting himself onto iceberg] .15 – 223.2. Harvard Glacier from Station K. 9.17.14, 8:20 A.M. [bird’s eye view of College Fjord and glacier, person in rowboat near shore, pine tree in foreground] .16 – 223.5. 223.4. 223.3. Wellesley, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, and Smith Glaciers, College Fjord, from Station K. 9.17.14, 8:20 A.M. [panorama with three images, bird’s eye view of fjord, three small rowboats in water, gnarled pine tree at left. Cf. .669] .17 – 223.11. Bryn Mawr Glacier from Q.