Two Tlinglit Women of the Pacific Northwest Coast,
c.1900-1910
Winter & Pond of Juneau, Alaska

A silver print showing two Tlinglit women in fur cloaks and headscarves. A caption along the lower edge of the print reads only: ‘Native Woman, Juneau, Alaska.’  The Alaska State Library, however, has the same print and have identified the women’s tribe more fully in their online digital archive. 

There is also a third figure in the background, perhaps a boy, just below the upper right-hand corner. 

The Tlingit have maintained a traditional but complex hunter-gatherer culture based on semi-sedentary management of fisheries. The Coastal Tlingit were divided into three tribes: the Chilkat Tinglilt along the Chilkat River and on Chilkat Peninsula, the Taku Tlingit along the Taku River and the Chilkoot Tlingit. Inland, the Tlingit occupied areas along the major rivers that pierce the Coast Mountains and Saint Elias Mountains. 

Photographed by Winter & Pond of Juneau, Alaska. 

Established in 1893, the studio was a partnership between Lloyd Valentine Winter (1866-1945) and Edwin Percy Pond (1872-1943). Their work includes scenes of the Klondike Gold Rush, the Tlingit people and views of Alaskan glaciers. The studio was in business for more than fifty years. Pond died in 1943 and in 1945 Winter passed the business on to Francis Harrison, who closed it in 1956. 

Condition: the print is in excellent condition, with good tonal range. (The Internet is adding a pale pink hue which is not present in the original.) It is mounted on a very clean, stiff, firm album page with crisp edges and sharp corners. The reverse of the page is blank apart from the inked inscription in German which reads: ‘Amerika, US Alaska.’ (I have another page from the same album where it’s more obvious that the language is German).

Dimensions: the print measures 7.1” by 4.3” (17.9 cm by 10.8 cm); the page on which it’s mounted measures 12.7” by 8.9” (32.3 cm by 22.6 cm).