Product Description

Just over 140 years ago, the United States made one of the greatest land deals of all time, purchasing from Russia a massive piece of property near the Arctic Circle. Since then, the land known as Alaska has been the site of a gold rush and an oil boom, but even those great events comprise only a small portion of what makes America s largest and most northern state a place that continues to capture the imagination and the hearts of residents and visitors alike.
Historic Photos of Alaska portrays the majesty, the history, and the awe-inspiring beauty of this unique section of America through rarely seen, stunning, black-and-white photographs selected from local, state, and national collections.
Climb the snow-filled Chilkoot Pass with gold-seekers. Hunt with Native tribesmen. See cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks grow from a cluster of tents and wooden shacks. Stand with American soldiers as they repel the only invasion of North America during World War II. Observe the engineering feat of constructing the trans-Alaska oil pipeline through frozen wilderness. Marvel at pristine natural beauty, celebrate the long-awaited statehood, and witness the incredible destruction wrought by the 1964 earthquake, in this unique collection of historic photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154795 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 216 pages

Review
This Photo collection of Alaska's scenic cities, unique wildlife, diverse people and breathtaking landscapes presents nearly a century in the land that became the 49th state. The black-and-white images include photos of ice skaters gliding on frozen Valdez harbor; the trans-state oil pipeline, which crosses three mountain ranges and 34 rivers; and the Klondike Gold Rush years of the 1890s, when thousands of prospectors came to Alaska. --Heidi Lally, Alaska Airlines Magazine

This Photo collection of Alaska's scenic cities, unique wildlife, diverse people and breathtaking landscapes presents nearly a century in the land that became the 49th state. The black-and-white images include photos of ice skaters gliding on frozen Valdez harbor; the trans-state oil pipeline, which crosses three mountain ranges and 34 rivers; and the Klondike Gold Rush years of the 1890s, when thousands of prospectors came to Alaska. --Heidi Lally, Alaska Airlines Magazine

Turner Publishing asked if I would consider reviewing a new book. I'm glad I agreed. Historic Photos of Alaska has just been published, a large format book of black and white photographs from the period 1867 to 1979. Dermot Cole, long-time columnist for the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer, provides the text and captions. The perspective of Historic Photos of Alaska, is for those readers outside Alaska. That is, this is a pictorial history of Alaska as part of America. The photos are arranged by time periods, from purchase to statehood 1867-1905, 1906-1919, 1920-1940, and 1941-1979. These periods represent significant periods of US and Alaska relations. The orientation is a deliberate effort to stand apart from the usual Alaskana picture books. Another significant difference in this book is the choice of rarely seen photos and not the ubiquitous ones. The photos are reproduced with sufficient quality to review again and again and see something new each time. --The Elderies, Wordpress.com

Very few books about Alaska could be deemed as a literary work of art; one whose very images lend to wondrous learning s of Alaska s very beginnings. From its rich Gold Rush heritage to the beginning of the now world famous Alaska Pipeline. Yet recently when I found myself paging through the images in Historic Photos of Alaska by Fairbanks author Dermot Cole, I was literally swept away in a path back to Alaska's very beginnings in which I learned local history and culture and gained true insight into the historic nature of this beloved state. Historic Photos of Alaska portrays the history and awe-inspiring beauty Alaska through rarely seen black and white photographs...Quite simply (this) is a book that belongs in any one's library or on their coffee table, whether you are an Alaskan or simply a lover of Alaska. You certainly won t be disappointed. --northerngirl.net

Turner Publishing asked if I would consider reviewing a new book. I'm glad I agreed. Historic Photos of Alaska has just been published, a large format book of black and white photographs from the period 1867 to 1979. Dermot Cole, long-time columnist for the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer, provides the text and captions. The perspective of Historic Photos of Alaska, is for those readers outside Alaska. That is, this is a pictorial history of Alaska as part of America. The photos are arranged by time periods, from purchase to statehood 1867-1905, 1906-1919, 1920-1940, and 1941-1979. These periods represent significant periods of US and Alaska relations. The orientation is a deliberate effort to stand apart from the usual Alaskana picture books. Another significant difference in this book is the choice of rarely seen photos and not the ubiquitous ones. The photos are reproduced with sufficient quality to review again and again and see something new each time. --The Elderies, Wordpress.com

About the Author
Dermot Cole has been researching and writing about Alaska s history and its people for more than 30 years and has written a daily newspaper column about life in Alaska for 15 of those years. Originally from Pennsylvania, he traveled to Fairbanks in 1974 at age 21 to visit his identical twin brother Terrence, his older brother Patrick, and his sister Maureen, who had converged in Fairbanks to study at the University of Alaska. Deciding to stay, he enrolled at the university, earned a degree in journalism, and developed a fascination for Alaska politics, history, and journalism. He began work at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in 1976 as a sports writer and has held almost every editing and reporting position at the newspaper. A Michigan Journalism Fellow, he worked for the Associated Press in Seattle for a year, but he and his wife Debbie, also a writer, decided to move back to Fairbanks to raise their family, Connor, Aileen and Anne. Cole wrote his first book, a biography of Alaska bush pilot Frank Barr, more than 25 years ago. He has also written two histories of Fairbanks, a social history of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and a book about the great 1908 auto race from New York to Paris. Other favorite projects included writing a portion of an Alaska history course for high school students.

Customer Reviews

Take a tour of Alaska from its purchase through building the oil pipeline
Alaska has always had a hold on the imagination and dreams for us in the "Lower 48". The immense size, breathtaking vistas, the immense remaining wilderness, and our belief that we can go there and test ourselves against its ruggedness draw us to it. Just attempting it would teach you something about yourself, about nature, and about life even if you didn't actually score so well in the test. Some go half-way by taking comfortable tours.

Most of us satisfy our longing for Alaska with pictures. This is a fine collection of a couple hundred photos that take us from the time Alaska was purchased and had only 30,000 native inhabitants, through the gold rushes, the role of government in developing the land and economy of Alaska, and into the oil boom that ends with the pipeline built in the 1970s. We see the key cities grow, the kinds of buildings that they had and added over time. The importance of the seaports, and sea life becomes quite clear to us. There are even a few pictures of the terrible earthquake of 1964. I remember reading about that and seeing the news footage on TV as a child.

Dermot Cole, a journalist and author specializing in Alaska, supplies the section introductions and the captions for the pictures. His words help us see the pictures with more informed eyes and help us see them as part of a larger story.

The four sections are:

The Alaska Purchase (1867-1905)
The Territory of Alaska (1906-1919)
Dredging Through The Depression (1920-1940)
The Long Road To Statehood (1941-1979)

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI